225Q 1 week 1200 km report........
12-28-1999, 07:21 PM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
225Q 1 week 1200 km report........
The 6 month wait has ended..Denim blue/denim blue picked up on Monday 20th December. Due to heavy workload (pre-Xmas craziness) I was unable to do the "dream drive" I had envisaged whilst enduring "The Wait". Only had about 300kms on the clock from little trips so on Xmas eve I got the kids to bed and "took off" at about 9:00 PM. Drove in the rain at night through deserted country roads returning home at 2AM on Xmas morning with 750kms now showing, 1/2 way through the "break in". Had to wait until Monday 27th, 4.30AM for the next decent run. Clocked up another 400ks on deserted roads "custom built" for the car; long flowing sweepers in 6th gear at 120-140km/h, following a river through canyons, switchbacks, hairpins, constant radius curves signposted at 25 and 35km/h, (actual road speed double), passing a couple of "badboy" V8s like they were standing still...
Some thoughts...
Denim blue, changes depending on the light, sparkly in the sun, deeper blue and "flatter" at night, looks great with the dark tint I had fitted "free" by the dealer.
Denim blue leather, why not!
Debadged; both quattro badges gone, "TT" gone, 4 rings at rear gone, and I now have a very smooth "bottom". I have a plan for the front rings...
I picked up my 3 yo's new bike on Xmas eve, straight into the hatch, later took my 14 yo's BMX in the back, carried the whole family on Xmas night to fireworks, 6'11" surfboard fits inside..this is a VERY practical "toy".
Xenon headlights, unreal.... the blue/white (when you first switch them on the light is very blue till the lamps warm up, about 2 seconds) light is awesome, lets you see fantastic resolution and detail at night.
Six speeds; on the freeway at 120km/h you can use 6th, 5th or 4th. During my running in period I had to use the freeway for a short while, so to vary the engine speed I changed between these three gears every 500-1000 metres. The car will pull sixth on the open road at any speed from about 90+ km/h it is very useable and not an over-overdrive. 2nd gear is very hard to select when car is cold, notchy change from 1st to 2nd even when warm, no grinding though.
It is very hard to be in the "wrong" gear, there is so much torque that as long as you have more than 2,000rpm the car will pull like a train. Sets of tight corners that would normally have you dropping down gears can be taken one gear higher, just let the amazing grunt haul you out.
1.8 liters!! They must be kidding, the car goes so well, has so much grunt, I just shake my head in disbelief that all this is coming from such a small capacity..less than a Nissan Pulsar? (Insert any 2 liter econobox here)
Fuel economy; for this much performance the fuel useage is unreal. Watch the display when you back off the throttle going downhill and the instantaneous useage goes to 0.00l/100km. During my last run with an "average" speed of 108km/h (this included city driving and the 25 and 35km/h canyon run) the average consumption was 9.4l/100km. One day when I'm really bored I'll do an "economy run", wouldn't surprise me if I could average 6l/100km.
Trip computer; 2 hour driving time reminder! This fits in exactly with the government's "Drive. Revive. Survive." campaign which recommends breaks every 2 hours.
No rattles from rear seats, privacy screen or elsewhere. This is a very tight and solid nugget of a car. With only driver's window down, the cabin resonates at 100 km/h, need to drop passenger window slightly to eliminate "booming".
There is a vibration/drone at just over 3,000 rpm.
How cool is the "slot" under the steering wheel for the handbooks. Frees up the glovebox. Another cool idea is the "cheat sheet" which lists all the controls and features on a fold out card instead of having to look it up in the manual.
"A" pillar is pretty thick and makes seeing "up and around the corner" tricky whilst driving, I need to pull my head back and look out the side window or crane forward and look through the screen. But then I've been used to the fantastic glasshouse of an early 911. (Have a look at a 911's "A" pillar, it's very slim, lets you see everything in front..)
Grip!! Most of my driving has been in the rain (it's been a wet Xmas!) and the quattro is obviously fantastic, I'm still wary of the lift off oversteer and will need more "track time" to find the limits. I'm glad I've been soaking up this forum, probably prevented me from being stupid and expecting quattro to be invincible! I've even taken the car on the beach! Seriously, (I've owned many four-wheel drives, Range Rovers, Suzuki's, currently have a Subaru Outback) so I was curious to see how the quattro would work on sand. My business partner has a new Discovery so with him following, I headed onto the beach. Soft sand was no problem until I stopped. I then stalled when trying to get moving again, so I gave it a bit more throttle, the front wheels dug in and I stalled again. Oh oh.....looking like I'll need to get the tow hook out!!. This time I gave it more, the quattro system now worked it out....front wheels slipping, hmmmm, let's give more to the rear... and presto 4 wheel drive! Outta here!..I then got on to the hard packed sand and got into some serious "fishtailing" and 4 wheel drifting!!! Ya -F@#ing-hoo! FFFFFUN.
There's more..I've had the car up on the hoist (my father has a vehicle repair workshop; 4 hoists, tyre changing machine, engine analysers etc) An intercooler lurks behind each of the lower vents (below the headlight clusters) and there are louvred vents into the wheel wells to release the heated air. The exhaust (all stainless) has two separate pipes coming from the engine which feed two cat converters, the twin pipes then converge into a large diameter pipe, into a small muffler and then the pipe runs under the Haldex mounting crossbrace. Here the pipe is very restricted, probably for ground clearance, it then goes back to large diameter and into the rear muffler. From 1st observations, power gains could be made by redoing the exhaust from the cats back using large diameter tubing and separate mufflers for each outlet. This will lead to a reduction in ground clearance under the "diff", but should also reduce a fair bit of weight as the rear muffler is very substantial..should give the car some "music" too...
There is a "sensor" located on the lower rear LHS suspension arm? Any ideas, brake proportioning sensor?
There appears to be an electric water pump, when you switch off the car you can hear a "whirring" small electric motor sound, plus bubbling and gurgling like boiling water.
Hope these initial impressions can help you Seppos (Americans) hang in a bit longer for your 225's, you won't be disappointed!!!!
Conversions: 1 km = 0.621 miles
1 litre = 0.264 US gallons
Regards,
Cameron
Some thoughts...
Denim blue, changes depending on the light, sparkly in the sun, deeper blue and "flatter" at night, looks great with the dark tint I had fitted "free" by the dealer.
Denim blue leather, why not!
Debadged; both quattro badges gone, "TT" gone, 4 rings at rear gone, and I now have a very smooth "bottom". I have a plan for the front rings...
I picked up my 3 yo's new bike on Xmas eve, straight into the hatch, later took my 14 yo's BMX in the back, carried the whole family on Xmas night to fireworks, 6'11" surfboard fits inside..this is a VERY practical "toy".
Xenon headlights, unreal.... the blue/white (when you first switch them on the light is very blue till the lamps warm up, about 2 seconds) light is awesome, lets you see fantastic resolution and detail at night.
Six speeds; on the freeway at 120km/h you can use 6th, 5th or 4th. During my running in period I had to use the freeway for a short while, so to vary the engine speed I changed between these three gears every 500-1000 metres. The car will pull sixth on the open road at any speed from about 90+ km/h it is very useable and not an over-overdrive. 2nd gear is very hard to select when car is cold, notchy change from 1st to 2nd even when warm, no grinding though.
It is very hard to be in the "wrong" gear, there is so much torque that as long as you have more than 2,000rpm the car will pull like a train. Sets of tight corners that would normally have you dropping down gears can be taken one gear higher, just let the amazing grunt haul you out.
1.8 liters!! They must be kidding, the car goes so well, has so much grunt, I just shake my head in disbelief that all this is coming from such a small capacity..less than a Nissan Pulsar? (Insert any 2 liter econobox here)
Fuel economy; for this much performance the fuel useage is unreal. Watch the display when you back off the throttle going downhill and the instantaneous useage goes to 0.00l/100km. During my last run with an "average" speed of 108km/h (this included city driving and the 25 and 35km/h canyon run) the average consumption was 9.4l/100km. One day when I'm really bored I'll do an "economy run", wouldn't surprise me if I could average 6l/100km.
Trip computer; 2 hour driving time reminder! This fits in exactly with the government's "Drive. Revive. Survive." campaign which recommends breaks every 2 hours.
No rattles from rear seats, privacy screen or elsewhere. This is a very tight and solid nugget of a car. With only driver's window down, the cabin resonates at 100 km/h, need to drop passenger window slightly to eliminate "booming".
There is a vibration/drone at just over 3,000 rpm.
How cool is the "slot" under the steering wheel for the handbooks. Frees up the glovebox. Another cool idea is the "cheat sheet" which lists all the controls and features on a fold out card instead of having to look it up in the manual.
"A" pillar is pretty thick and makes seeing "up and around the corner" tricky whilst driving, I need to pull my head back and look out the side window or crane forward and look through the screen. But then I've been used to the fantastic glasshouse of an early 911. (Have a look at a 911's "A" pillar, it's very slim, lets you see everything in front..)
Grip!! Most of my driving has been in the rain (it's been a wet Xmas!) and the quattro is obviously fantastic, I'm still wary of the lift off oversteer and will need more "track time" to find the limits. I'm glad I've been soaking up this forum, probably prevented me from being stupid and expecting quattro to be invincible! I've even taken the car on the beach! Seriously, (I've owned many four-wheel drives, Range Rovers, Suzuki's, currently have a Subaru Outback) so I was curious to see how the quattro would work on sand. My business partner has a new Discovery so with him following, I headed onto the beach. Soft sand was no problem until I stopped. I then stalled when trying to get moving again, so I gave it a bit more throttle, the front wheels dug in and I stalled again. Oh oh.....looking like I'll need to get the tow hook out!!. This time I gave it more, the quattro system now worked it out....front wheels slipping, hmmmm, let's give more to the rear... and presto 4 wheel drive! Outta here!..I then got on to the hard packed sand and got into some serious "fishtailing" and 4 wheel drifting!!! Ya -F@#ing-hoo! FFFFFUN.
There's more..I've had the car up on the hoist (my father has a vehicle repair workshop; 4 hoists, tyre changing machine, engine analysers etc) An intercooler lurks behind each of the lower vents (below the headlight clusters) and there are louvred vents into the wheel wells to release the heated air. The exhaust (all stainless) has two separate pipes coming from the engine which feed two cat converters, the twin pipes then converge into a large diameter pipe, into a small muffler and then the pipe runs under the Haldex mounting crossbrace. Here the pipe is very restricted, probably for ground clearance, it then goes back to large diameter and into the rear muffler. From 1st observations, power gains could be made by redoing the exhaust from the cats back using large diameter tubing and separate mufflers for each outlet. This will lead to a reduction in ground clearance under the "diff", but should also reduce a fair bit of weight as the rear muffler is very substantial..should give the car some "music" too...
There is a "sensor" located on the lower rear LHS suspension arm? Any ideas, brake proportioning sensor?
There appears to be an electric water pump, when you switch off the car you can hear a "whirring" small electric motor sound, plus bubbling and gurgling like boiling water.
Hope these initial impressions can help you Seppos (Americans) hang in a bit longer for your 225's, you won't be disappointed!!!!
Conversions: 1 km = 0.621 miles
1 litre = 0.264 US gallons
Regards,
Cameron
12-28-1999, 08:46 PM
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
As in Septic Tank = Yank, don't ask me who thought of it 1st (more)
More politically incorrect terms of endearment
Poms = English
Powerpoints = Asians (try to visualise...told to me by a Phillipino girlfriend)
Wogs = Italians and Greeks
Skips = name given by Wogs to white Australians (as in Skippy the kangaroo from an old TV series)
Coconuts = Pacific Islanders, Tongans, Samoans
Lebs = Lebanese
Sheepshaggers = New Zealanders
Like the US of A, Australia is made up of many "imports"...
Poms = English
Powerpoints = Asians (try to visualise...told to me by a Phillipino girlfriend)
Wogs = Italians and Greeks
Skips = name given by Wogs to white Australians (as in Skippy the kangaroo from an old TV series)
Coconuts = Pacific Islanders, Tongans, Samoans
Lebs = Lebanese
Sheepshaggers = New Zealanders
Like the US of A, Australia is made up of many "imports"...
12-28-1999, 09:30 PM
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: 225Q 1 week 1200 km report........
Fantastic bit of documentary, mate. I was wondering about where you took your little blue beast for the X'mas eve ripper run. If it's in Victoria, I'd like to try it out too in my A4 1.8T.
The I've got my eye on the TT now.
The I've got my eye on the TT now.
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12-28-1999, 09:37 PM
#9
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: I don't notice any slot under the steering wheel and cheat sheet. Do they exist only in 225?
The "Cheat Sheet" sounds like the 6 panel (foldup) laminated quick reference card that comes with the owners manual. As for the slot, I am at a complete loss... unless the wheel is tilted all the way up.
Black 180Q San Jose, CA
Black 180Q San Jose, CA