TheJay

It was indeed that wonderful cold snap we had. I couldn't believe it when the fritter truck arrived ten minutes later... law of the bloody sod. I should have given up on the drive, but being ten minutes from my destination after driving 400 miles, I kept rolling. Stupid decision on my part.

Luckily I went off to the right, if I'd have gone left I would have rolled down a 30ft drop with many trees. That would have hurt a lot... it's still one of my favourite roads, and in the summer it's a great road to drive (10 miles of winding bends, through forest and open marsh, mountains on either side and a couple of stunning loch views. Yea the Audi will be getting her winters next week. The Ranger will be serving two purposes, it'll still be practical when the snow really comes down (the R not so much), but I'm also retraining to be a deer stalker, so it'll be a much better vehicle for that, don't think the R would appreciate a 200kg red deer being folded into the back I'll more than likely have two or three sets of wheels to interchange the tyre options.

Completely agree, but alas I wasn't expecting it to go from fair to icy within four hours, so couldn't predict it. She was about ready to go into storage for the winter, but she won't get a chance to now

Evening All Been a while since I've visited or posted, been a bit busy planning a move from Hampshire to Argyll. We came up on January 28th... which just so happened to be the same day that the weather decided to dump a whole lot of snow on us. The drive was going well, car load of stuff, handled absolutely fine, skipped over on the ferry from Gourock to Dunoon, went to fill up while the wife went on ahead in the Q5. Then this happened on the B836... Right/left dogleg with a switching camber and downward tilt sent the ABS had a seizure and I couldn't save it. My experience and skill as a driver were worthless that day. Luckily it was barely 15mph, so didn't hurt me too much (small smack to the head, felt fine but apparently I was missing information for a couple of days). Never crashed in my life... the one day that we do the long drive north, I'm 12 miles from the conclusion of a 440 mile journey. The weather that night shifted from +2 to -5 within less than ten minutes, the gritter truck turned out to be about 10 minutes behind me (sods law). They were much less cordial (i.e. friendly) than the fantastic bus driver that emptied my passenger seat so I could get out. The result; One hell of a clean up job. I'm ok though, concussion at the time, but the VW Tank did it's job. This brings me to the sad point of topic... A modified R is not suitably for the west highlands. It is an obvious thing, quite the obtuse one might say. So, my baby will be rebuilt, sent back south and have the stock parts put back on. I'll be swapping my little beastie, my 11.9s 1/4mi - 3.6s 0-60mph baby... she'll go back to VW as a boring stock 7.5R. I hate it, but I cannot justify the cost for a car I'll drive once to three times a year or when a track event comes up. For now I'll swap her with a Ford Ranger Wildtrak and tune the frak out of that motor, new susspension, TC drive train and other weight loss, snorkle, bigger intake, twin-charge, etc, I'll get her to 400bhp. So, this is a fairwell for not. I won't be an R owner, but I must say that the thought of me giving my Freya (yea, she's named) back brings actual tears to my eyes. She's a special beast, and you're an incredible bunch. If I were staying with the friendly roads of the south then I'd keep her until my testicles fell off... I'll keep you posted with her parts once she's reverted to stock. Until then, know that you lot are a great bunch. Thanks for being awesome. J

Retrofit a couple of airbags to explode silver and gold slips once they start the car... add to the effect.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-46043388 Pretty horrendous experience for the family.

Hopefully in November... I move to Scotland on 1st December 😐

I may have a little scoot over to The Meadow this evening, need fuel and a fun drive.

I see three others around my way, a dark blue Mk6 Cab, and two lapiz Mk7s... but haven't seen the owners yet, wondering if they're on here? Mine is the Pure White 7.5 that you'll hear going out late at night...

You animal... I won't even let my wife eat a cereal bar in my R...

Lovely idle note, but as has already been said, it's too loud for a Golf R. These are the understated sleepers remember, not wide mouthed Evo's Car's looking awesome though. Give us a review in a month or so after you've been driving it for a while and let us know whether your views are the same?

Blimey mate. The auto-Gods were on your side... sorry to hear the R is no more, but glad you and the family are ok. Gutting that you didn't have GAP... Hope you find your way back to the R family at some point. Mind if I ask the state of the other driver and van?

My wife and I are moving up to Argyll from Hampshire in a couple of months Once you do Stage 1 you'll get a new addiction and be looking at the 500bhp mark, I guarantee it

I don't do a huge amount of motorway driving, my office is in the middle of nowhere, so it's the ideal set up. I find long motorway driving can be a little rough on the spine, but on the whole the ARB's and spring combo is very comfy still. You can feel more of the road, but that is part of the reason I did it. With the next steps I'll be looking at a chassis brace too, but not 100% on whether it'll be worth it. I don't have DCC no, figured there wasn't much point as I would be modifying. Revo I think gets a bad wrap when compared to the other ECU remap software, but their Stage 1 has been nothing short of impressive in my opinion.

Ok Mod Masters, I've started putting together my "plan" for turning my lady into a 95% track beastie (moving to Scotland, so she'll become an infrequent driver). I will be looking at new spark plugs and rods for the block, but following the chat I had with Greig @ Total Vag, the internals are solid, so I should be ok running this without adjusting everything. Any input would be appreciated. J

Why does this make me really want a blue steak?

TTRS ~£60k My Stage 1 7.5R ~ £34k (Discounted buy price £32k, £2k on remap and suspension overhaul) The TTRS was left in the dirt at Santa Pod (if I remember correctly I beat it by 1.1s on the 1/4mi). The driver came out with every excuse under the sun, but it was convincing enough to even negate reaction time. So it lacks practicality and for very little money you can have a proper B Road Hero that stomps it in driving performance. As far as your review goes, pretty much nail on the head in all points. I was looking at an RS3 when I was chopping in my 'Rocco GT and wanting something faster. I've driven many Audi's, TT TDI, TTS, TTRS, A4, A4 SE, A4 TDI, and currently own a Q5 3L TDI as well as my 7.5R, and yes, you can't fault the lovely interior of the Audi's, but the exterior is bland at best and the steering... oh the steering. I do not understand why Audi insist on electronic steering, it ruins what could be an awesome car. The 'Electro-mechanical' setup that VW have stuck to is perfect. It gets stick from Lotus drivers for lacking 'feel' but it gives enough feedback to make you feel like you know what the road is doing without feeling like a computer game from 2001. I love my R, it's without doubt my favourite car I've ever owned (followed by some margin the 'Rocco GT), and as an all rounder probably the best I'll drive for some time. All of that, and she has the VW badge, which as we all know is much better than any other badge P.S. Welcome to the VWROC family

Mine turned into a very comfortable place... i.e. what is it with the missus and scatter cushions?!

Can tell the schools have gone back... my 12 minute commute normally averages 40-45mph, even tweaking 70 on one stretch of dual carriageway... today, I don't think I broke 40 at all. Sad times... roll on half term!

Clean, and smells of lemon!

Softer than wire wool, and great for picking up the crap

Personally I use a green scouring pad and oven cleaner to get the initial layer of grime off, followed by a chrome polish and lots of repetitive motion... they buff up quite nicely.

While most of you have good stories, I alas do not. First tag just over three years ago in the wife's old A4, 95mph on the M25 at 7.30am on a Saturday... Fine and points. Second tag last May in my Rocco GT, doing 44 in what I thought was a 40 in Reading, missed the sign saying it dropped to a 30. The officers were extremely friendly, even acknowledged it was a shame because I made a genuine mistake and not just driving like a tit. Third and final in my 7.5R in May this year, southbound M6 about 50 miles on the English side of the Scottish border. I was being an idiot, tagged at 139 Still waiting for the paperwork to come through, but will no doubt be a ban for a period of time. Silly thing is, I don't drive like that on the road, since being tagged the first time I learnt my lesson and don't push it. Lapse of judgement that day, a few minutes of 'fun' and my R will be a very expensive paperweight for a while. Again, the officers were friendly and reasonable, gave me the disaster talk going over what could go wrong at that speed. I imagine there are many police that would take the opportunity to give a person a thorough telling off. I'll be using the off road time to finish up the tuning works and keeping my nose out of trouble. Moral of the story - keep the speed on the track guys. It's simply not worth it on public roads.

I'm with you on that... I have a 66 plate Q5 3L TDI, blue with black trims, and black rims, looks great. White on chrome with silver wheels... Uhh... no, don't like. Bloody nice work though @jrw

Definitely doesn't sound right mate. Mine is straight as a die, and mine has been used vigorously let's say. Everything Evans has said should be checked, if it's that new take it back to VW. It doesn't matter the speed you're braking from, it should be balanced. If you ever NEED to brake hard for an emergency you don't want to have to wrestle to keep it going where you want it to.