RS3 Found at the roadside dead

[Zelandeth]

One of the big issues is that cars with that amount of power and that many electronic assists is that they are absolutely perfectly fine right up to the point the computer can't keep up.  At which point they very, very abruptly cease to be fine at all, and suddenly you're sailing backwards off the road into the nearest hedge.

There's very little, if any, warning that you're approaching the limits - though equally there's absolutely no way in hell that you should *be* approaching the limits of a car like that on a public road unless it's the Ring or a derestricted autobahn.  

[dome]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

One of the big issues is that cars with that amount of power and that many electronic assists is that they are absolutely perfectly fine right up to the point the computer can't keep up.  At which point they very, very abruptly cease to be fine at all, and suddenly you're sailing backwards off the road into the nearest hedge.

There's very little, if any, warning that you're approaching the limits - though equally there's absolutely no way in hell that you should *be* approaching the limits of a car like that on a public road unless it's the Ring or a derestricted autobahn.  

In 2000 I was looking to buy a (proper) Audi quattro and phoned the owners club for buying advice. 

I was told not to worry too much about accident damage as "they don't tend to have small accidents"👀

[barrett]

On 2/7/2023 at 7:57 AM, cobblers said:

That will 100% be back on the road, they won't scrap that, not a chance in hell. It's a 30 grand motor that needs a set of airbags, a bit of bodywork and a load of bits of plastic.

I know nothing about 21st century cars, but is that really right? That looks like a £1500 shitter to me, but then I have no idea if it's 6 months old or 16 years old because modern cars literally all look the same. Who is paying £30k for for a crappy little hatchback thing, though?? /crawls back under rock, gazes smugly at £135 Peugeot 205

[Pieman]

16 hours ago, Wibble said:

Passed my test in 1987, one accident since and not my fault (rear ended). Anyway, back then I had a mate who’s dad had a brand new E reg Capri 280 Brooklands. Said mate was insured for it but cover was reduced to TP only when he was driving. He was allowed to take the Capri to drop his mum off at the hairdressers on the strict instructions to come straight home afterwards. You can guess what’s coming, yep, took it for a hoon and rounded a bend on wrong side head on into some poor bastard coming the other way. Hospital required but both ok. Capri was a total loss though. Was a long time before his dad would talk to him 😬

If that had been me, I think my dad would have been happy to be sent down for strangling me.

[cobblers]

29 minutes ago, barrett said:

I know nothing about 21st century cars, but is that really right? That looks like a £1500 shitter to me, but then I have no idea if it's 6 months old or 16 years old because modern cars literally all look the same. Who is paying £30k for for a crappy little hatchback thing, though?? /crawls back under rock, gazes smugly at £135 Peugeot 205

The price of fast VAG stuff like this is bonkers lately and the rs3 is the Cosworth to the golf r being the rs turbo. 

A friend of mine bought a golf r 2nd hand in 2018 and traded it in a couple of months ago for about six grand more than he paid. 

Especially now when the lease deals are fucked because of the interest rates and supply issues - you used to be able to lease a top spec 300 bhps 4wd golf r for roughly the same price as a base spec Astra

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, barrett said:

I know nothing about 21st century cars, but is that really right? That looks like a £1500 shitter to me, but then I have no idea if it's 6 months old or 16 years old because modern cars literally all look the same. Who is paying £30k for for a crappy little hatchback thing, though?? /crawls back under rock, gazes smugly at £135 Peugeot 205

Yep.  The price of even vaguely recent VAG stuff with the fast badges on is absolutely and completely insane.  The supply issues over the last couple of years have magnified that even more, so the used market is if anything even more mental than the new market.

All for cars which are so fscking uncomfortable and impossible to see out of I'd not drive one if you paid me to!

[LoftyvRS]

There's probably a "donor" car being sized up in the West Midlands to repair that already. 

[DSdriver]

20 hours ago, Hawkeyethenoo said:

Only car I've ever actually written orf.  1984 Audi 80 Quattro back in around 1996. I was on a backroad, came up to a narrowing stretch of road on the brow of a hill with my lights on mainbeam, yes it was pitch dark, so didn't see the old dear approaching in her Clio, until it was too late! Said old dear, who was so far over to the right, on my side of the road, I had to dive into the NS ditch to try and avoid her, but the Quattro's OFS wing collided with her's, as I bounced up and down in the ditch, probably doing about 25mph by that time, next thing I know, the car is full on its offside, side, and there's sparks flying everywhere! As I think, I'm glad I'm wearing my seat belt - as we then bounce back onto four wheels again and the car spins round and mounts the right hand verge as I bring things to a hault, with all the idiot lights on wondering if the old dear is okay? 

I run back and she is, the damage to her car is minimal, it's still driveable, dent in the wing and broken indicator etc. The Quattro is fucked, every single panel is bashed in, except the boot. I end up with a total loss as I was third party and she was stopped, I couldn't in the distance available. I'd just put a new manifold on it the week before and ended up getting £250, as scrap.

I'll never put a lifejacket on again, chief.

Driving tip: As you approach a blind bend or brow dip your lights for a couple of seconds so you will see the light beam of any vehicle approaching from the other direction

[Pieman]

3 hours ago, LoftyvRS said:

There's probably a "donor" car being sized up in the West Midlands to repair that already. 

Probably in Bordesley Green - I used to work just round the corner from where most of the chop shops where many stolen cars (allegedly) ended up were!

[Wibble]

4 hours ago, Pieman said:

If that had been me, I think my dad would have been happy to be sent down for strangling me.

😆yep, same here. The local Ford dealer felt sorry for him though. There were no 280s left anywhere but they’d kept a new 2.8i Special for themselves and sold that to him which, about 3 years later, he let me take for a drive😁

[GrumpiusMaximus]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Yep.  The price of even vaguely recent VAG stuff with the fast badges on is absolutely and completely insane.  The supply issues over the last couple of years have magnified that even more, so the used market is if anything even more mental than the new market.

All for cars which are so fscking uncomfortable and impossible to see out of I'd not drive one if you paid me to!

Chap at work has a Golf R.  Not as uncomfortable as a passenger as you might think!

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Chap at work has a Golf R.  Not as uncomfortable as a passenger as you might think!

We have a current VAG motor here as one of my housemates had a company car through them.  The fundamental problems I have with them comfort wise are twofold.  1 - There is bugger all padding on the seats, which if you happen to be substantially differently shaped to the Industry Standard Human they have moulded the seat for, makes for pain.  2 - The fscking ride quality.  We had a Golf R Estate about three years back, and travelling in the back of that was honestly terrifying - it was like being in a rickety wood rollercoaster to the extent that your arse spent a significant amount of time not actually in contact with the seat.  It always brought to mind being in the back of a Series Land Rover being driven down a rough road at speed.

Fact that because company car rules and OMG the residual values meaning these always have the top level trim options so the biggest wheels and sports suspension really probably don't help.

My back is pretty well buggered so I find anything with a jarring ride really quite uncomfortable - especially if paired with paper thin seat padding.  Of the cars in the last ten years which have come through I think the only ones I've found tolerable for more than an hour or so have been the Skoda Superbs and the Transporter.  The Golf R Estate and TTRS probably the worst.  To the extent I'd rather take the bus thanks.

[grogee]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

We have a current VAG motor here as one of my housemates had a company car through them.  The fundamental problems I have with them comfort wise are twofold.  1 - There is bugger all padding on the seats, which if you happen to be substantially differently shaped to the Industry Standard Human they have moulded the seat for, makes for pain.  2 - The fscking ride quality.  We had a Golf R Estate about three years back, and travelling in the back of that was honestly terrifying - it was like being in a rickety wood rollercoaster to the extent that your arse spent a significant amount of time not actually in contact with the seat.  It always brought to mind being in the back of a Series Land Rover being driven down a rough road at speed.

Fact that because company car rules and OMG the residual values meaning these always have the top level trim options so the biggest wheels and sports suspension really probably don't help.

My back is pretty well buggered so I find anything with a jarring ride really quite uncomfortable - especially if paired with paper thin seat padding.  Of the cars in the last ten years which have come through I think the only ones I've found tolerable for more than an hour or so have been the Skoda Superbs and the Transporter.  The Golf R Estate and TTRS probably the worst.  To the extent I'd rather take the bus thanks.

+1 on TTRS, ridiculous. Had one for a weekend and didn't drive it anywhere as it was too bloody hard. I'll throw in spaceship Civic Type R for unbearable ride quality, too.

Neither car gains anything in the Real World for being this incompliant. Has anyone from Ingolstadt seen a UK road recently? To make rapid progress you need plenty of suspension travel. 

Maybe they have and it's a ruse to sell more RIMZ through spares channels. 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I think the worst I've been in is our 2009 Mini Cooper Clubman D.  Decent handling, truly dreadful ride to the point where you're so worried about the bouncing around that you don't actually take advantage of the nice handling on anything but a perfect surface.  Driving my old (MK IV) Golf over the same roads is absolutely night and day.

[cobblers]

14 minutes ago, grogee said:

+1 on TTRS, ridiculous. Had one for a weekend and didn't drive it anywhere as it was too bloody hard. I'll throw in spaceship Civic Type R for unbearable ride quality, too.

Neither car gains anything in the Real World for being this incompliant. Has anyone from Ingolstadt seen a UK road recently? To make rapid progress you need plenty of suspension travel. 

Maybe they have and it's a ruse to sell more RIMZ through spares channels. 

I had an Ibiza Cupra, it was lowered on springs, but rode horribly so I got myself into a tizzy and spent £1800 on the best quality bilstein coilovers on the market. Proper top drawer stuff, not "driftu" cheap shit

It was unimaginably awful, to the point where my phone would log "steps" while driving and it genuinely gave me a bad back. The suspension was purposefully designed with less than 40mm of travel. utter misery.

 

[Wibble]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

We have a current VAG motor here as one of my housemates had a company car through them.  The fundamental problems I have with them comfort wise are twofold.  1 - There is bugger all padding on the seats, which if you happen to be substantially differently shaped to the Industry Standard Human they have moulded the seat for, makes for pain.  2 - The fscking ride quality.  We had a Golf R Estate about three years back, and travelling in the back of that was honestly terrifying - it was like being in a rickety wood rollercoaster to the extent that your arse spent a significant amount of time not actually in contact with the seat.  It always brought to mind being in the back of a Series Land Rover being driven down a rough road at speed.

Fact that because company car rules and OMG the residual values meaning these always have the top level trim options so the biggest wheels and sports suspension really probably don't help.

My back is pretty well buggered so I find anything with a jarring ride really quite uncomfortable - especially if paired with paper thin seat padding.  Of the cars in the last ten years which have come through I think the only ones I've found tolerable for more than an hour or so have been the Skoda Superbs and the Transporter.  The Golf R Estate and TTRS probably the worst.  To the extent I'd rather take the bus thanks.

All the recent comments pretty much sum up what I mentioned in my thread recently after a day out in the Senator. Older cars deal with our shit roads so much better!

My Skoda Superb is very good but still has low profile tyres on 17” rims and I can’t help screaming FUCKS SAKE when hitting an unavoidable crater.

The Senny deals with them far better and give a far smoother ride. Another win for the shite!!

[Zelandeth]

It was absolutely hilarious watching them in my rear view mirror when we were in convoy one day on a bumpy country road when I was in the Xantia.  Was an A6 Avant R-Line I think we had back then.  It was like watching a pregnant hippo on a pogo stick.  

I really can't understand why modern car makers all seem to have universally decided that two millimetres of suspension travel is the way to go.  It achieves absolutely nothing useful.

With you on the Civic too.  That was a car I really wanted to like, and had considered buying at some point, right up to the point I drove one.  The ride put me right off within seconds.

[Asimo]

7 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I really can't understand why modern car makers all seem to have universally decided that two millimetres of suspension travel is the way to go.  It achieves absolutely nothing useful.

I know how to fix this for all of us.

Have the Nurburgring re-surfaced to contemporary British standards, then get fibre-broadband cowboys in to dig it all up, then install “traffic calming”.

Now show us your lap-times, BMVAGDES!

[Split_Pin]

Not sure on some of the comments about new cars. My mums 22 plate Corsa has proper sidewalls on its tyres and rides very smoothly indeed.

[sierraman]

16 hours ago, LoftyvRS said:

There's probably a "donor" car being sized up in the West Midlands to repair that already. 

But the owner won’t be aware until someone arrives at 3am wielding a knife. 

[sierraman]

27 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Not sure on some of the comments about new cars. My mums 22 plate Corsa has proper sidewalls on its tyres and rides very smoothly indeed.

I agree, I don’t think anything could possibly crash over the bumps like the old Fiestas used to. What I will say is that modern cars don’t really require any skill to drive fast, right up until the point the limits of adhesion is met and there’s a big off that’s completely uncontrollable. 

Conscious of displaying any anti German car sentiment, whenever there’s some sort of big smash on a dual carriageway at 3am it’s almost always an Audi RS whatever or some souped up bodykitted A-Class. 

[PhilA]

All modern cars should be retrofit with Peugeot 205 suspension.

Compliant yet still well mannered. 

 

I can't jack the front of my Chieftain up with my small trolley jack, it simply doesn't have enough lift. The wheels are still on the ground with a gap in the arches I can fit my head inside. Say what you like but old American cars were designed for old American roads which were utterly crap (oft unpaved, gravel roads) 

 

Nurburgring be damned. I want to see the lap times around the city center of Norfolk. Cobbled streets, potholes, traffic lights, roadworks, buses.

 

Phil

[Hawkeyethenoo]

RS3 has gone, John. Presumably now at some fly-by-night geezers paintshop, where there's lots of sucking of teeth, chin rubbing going on and botching, being planned. Inshallah.

Every car has a story and some could write a book!

[Asimo]

Wombled down the road to the local S3 crash, filled a bin bag with bits of Audi plastic. Recovered a handful of those useful plastic trim self-tappers. And this one little undamaged piece datecoded November ‘21.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Momento.

[balford]

Back in the mid 90's, a 19 year old me got insured on the family Renault 19 Chamade. Still on a provisional, 6 weeks later (as driving on such a license wasn't really policed in Ireland back then), I was bombing down an unfamilar road with a mate, and came round a sharp left hander to find a humpback bridge in the way. I was doing about 60mph with 20 yards to go.

Having a heavy diesel lump in the front, I thought to myself that if I hit the bridge braking it'd probably nosedive. So, I kept my foot in and reckoned I hit the hump still at or around 60.

I think I got about 2-3 feet of air, and came down relatively level but with the predictable massive thump. Convinced I'd fucked the car, I sat with my face in my hands and asked my mate to get out and take a look. He came back with, 'you won't believe this, it's fine', and I gingerly drove home and dropped the car back to my folks where they took it off for a planned weekend away.

When they got back, my dad said to me, 'something's funny with that car, the indicators aren't cancelling anymore, you're fairly handy, go and take a look'. It turned out that the landing impact had pushed the steering column about 1/4 of an inch towards the driver, meaning that the little collar on the back of the steering wheel wasn't contacting the metal armature in the indicator stalk to cancel the indicators.

I glued a piece of metal to the arm, and told my dad that something had slipped out of place, all fixed, no big deal. Everything was grand till the car was sold off a few years later.

Ten years after the event (and after a good few whiskeys) I owned up to him about what had happened. He laughed and told me a story about how when he was going out with my ma, how he'd taken her over that exact same bridge at speed to try and scare her, and ending up shitting himself once he'd gained a similar amount of altitude...

[artdjones]

I bought a 14 Megane Estate to replace the one that got written off in July. The main difference is that the new one is a GT Line with sports suspension. What a way to spoil a car, especially on Irish country roads.

I have a set of non sports genuine front shocks that never got fitted to the previous car. My plan is to get standard springs all round and a set of standard rear shocks as well. Then I can go back to being comfortable. And maybe people will stop flashing me for dazzling them when I go over a big bump at night.

[2flags]

I love this. I am a driving instructor. Luckily I have a Ford Puma. These have decent suspension travel, normal sized wheels, and, until yesterday, no problems with the pupil gently catching a few kerbs. However, hitting a bollard kerb at 30mph will destroy any tyre. We did, at one time run Fiestas with low profile tyres. I was on Kwik-Fit's Christmas card list with all the tyres I got through! My Jaguar X Type and Rover 75 Tourer both have decent tyres, reasonably soft suspension and are both very comfortable.