[A.K]

Originally Posted by insideman

The DBS and the 458 are spectacular cars. The DBS when you want to cruise around in comfort and luxury with the perfect blend of sportiness and the 458 for that crisp natural Ferrari V8, brilliant gearbox, cleaver diff, dont get me started on the handling... nothing but perfection there.

Well, tell us more about your 430 Scuderia

[samyakmodi]

So has the f12 landed??

[A.K]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

So has the f12 landed??

He never got a F12 AFAIK

[samyakmodi]

I wonder what's happening in this garage these days

[ecksreturns]

Originally Posted by samyakmodi

I wonder what's happening in this garage these days

Nothing too much Samyak. We sold the M3 a few months ago. Still have the R8, Bentley , Range Rover and other sedans. I don't want to give too much away but something new(to me) is perhaps going to make its way to our garage sometime soon. Still working on it but will share once I have updates.

[samyakmodi]

I thought you will never let the M go - but i guess it's making way for something better.

[ecksreturns]

Hello Hello Hello everyone! Whew. What a time it has been. Feels like an eternity since we last connected here. As you all know , we had the opportunity (and good graces) to pick up a 2016 Audi RS7. I wanted to take some time out today and share this whole process. I will split this into Part 1 and Part 2. P1 will focus on the background process of identifying this car and the challenges I faced in that. P2 will be more specific to the RS7.

Background:

So I have been searching for a fast, comfortable, 4 seater which can give me the thrill I need but also accommodate by family and friends on short and long trips. Something fast but stealthy(I lol'd at this part once we got the car in red). I narrowed down the options in this segment to the Big Three , i e , BMW/Audi/Mercedes and for giggles also added Jaguar to the race.

In BMW the options were the M3,M5 and the M6 GranCoupe. Audi had the RS7 going for it and Merc had the C63 (the older 6.2 and the newer 4.0 as well) and the E63(older 5.5 TT). I was searching for a newer gen XF-R but Jaguar does not sell them in India anymore. The last one they sold in India was the facelift 2013 model and even that did not sell well at all.


The Selection Process:

Let me tell you right away how difficult it is to find a clean(by my standards) pre-owned car in India. It took me nearly 2 years to find something I liked. I'll start with the Mercedes options.

I had the opportunity to look at a friend's white C63 AMG(6.2 V8). It made a lovely sound(which I knew already off since it shared the engine with our beloved SLS) but there was not much else that was likable about the car. It was pretty much your standard C class from the inside and it just did not feel special enough to me. 9/10 C63's I saw or test drove or was offered, were AMG Academy cars at some point in time. I stayed far away from those cars as they have been mercilessly thrashed at the track and their component longevity was unknown. This white one was the only non academy car that was available this side on India(can't comment about the South).

Then I was looking up E63's. Now this was more in the range I was looking for. Fast,comfortable,plush,luxurious and stealthy to the common eye. But alas, there was not one E63 that was not an ex-Academy car. This broke my heart the most as I really wanted to get one of these.

Next up was Audi. For the longest time I did not consider any Audi as it just wasn't appealing to me. I had limited exposure to the Audi range as the only good Audi I had driven was my brother's B7 RS4 in the US and that was indeed a freaking gem. Somehow, without diving deep into it, I was not sold on the design language and philosophy of the RS line. Will get back into this later as we discuss about the RS7.

Then we come to my beloved BMW. I can not tell you how smitten I am with the M cars. As you all know, I had 2x E92 M3's. What some of you may not know, I also have extensive experience with my brother's F10 M5 in the States. I have driven it for about 35k kms so far. Needless to say I am deeply in love with M cars. So while searching for the right M car, I came across the F80 M3 and just one M6 GranCoupe. The GranCoupe had too many kms on it and the F80's were not available for a decent price. I had the opportunity to drive an F80 M3 and contrary to what people may say about the F80 M car vs the naturally aspirated V8 M3 of yore, I really liked the F80!


After spending a lot of time in finalizing what I wanted, I narrowed it down to the F80 M3(a 2015 model). While I was finalizing this, an interesting prospect came up for me to check a friend's RS7 which was for sale. At that time(December 2017), it was priced above what I was wanting to spend, but it was a good clean car nonetheless. I saw it in person and drove it in Feb of this year and instantly I knew this was the right car. After a lot of hard negotiations, I got the price of this car within range of what I was about to spend on the M3! Now this got me thinking whether I wanted to spend "X" on the M3 or "X+10" and the RS7. It was a no brainer to get the Audi and we finalized it immediately.


This concludes Part 1 for now. Please let me know what more I can share here about P1. Part 2 I will write within a few days and share my experience with the RS7 and also do some comparisons with the cars that I have driven over the years. I hope you enjoyed this wall of text from your old friend, Ecks!

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by ecksreturns

This concludes Part 1 for now. Please let me know what more I can share here about P1. Part 2 I will write within a few days and share my experience with the RS7 and also do some comparisons with the cars that I have driven over the years. I hope you enjoyed this wall of text from your old friend, Ecks!

Please add few pictures of the car in Part 2.

Comparison is what I am looking forward to, as you have good exposure with, well, a lot of exclusive cars.

[anup.bronco]

Originally Posted by ecksreturns

I hope you enjoyed this wall of text from your old friend, Ecks!

Loved it Ecks, really like the way you choose your cars, it presents a whole new appealing perspective for performance cars for a SUV guy like me. Looking forward to the Part 2.

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Please add few pictures of the car in Part 2.

Hey Mate! The pics. are already posted here by Ecks! Cheers

[Slick!]

Originally Posted by ecksreturns

Something fast but stealthy(I lol'd at this part once we got the car in red).

Lolz
Any plans to stealth it up with a carbon black look/wrap or something?
The red looks good too though.

[A.K]

Great write-up Ecks! As enjoyable as ever. Now to wait and see what the mods on this one are like!

Originally Posted by ecksreturns

Then we come to my beloved BMW. I can not tell you how smitten I am with the M cars. As you all know, I had 2x E92 M3's. What some of you may not know, I also have extensive experience with my brother's F10 M5 in the States. I have driven it for about 35k kms so far. Needless to say I am deeply in love with M cars. So while searching for the right M car, I came across the F80 M3 and just one M6 GranCoupe. The GranCoupe had too many kms on it and the F80's were not available for a decent price. I had the opportunity to drive an F80 M3 and contrary to what people may say about the F80 M car vs the naturally aspirated V8 M3 of yore, I really liked the F80!

Ah well, so much so that you've bought yourself one going by the posts on Instagram Congratulations!

[ecksreturns]

Time for Part 2 of the write-up! I know it has been a few months since I last updated this post and the reason for that would be clear in Part 3 of this series.

Experiencing the RS7 :

Oh gosh, how do I even begin to describe what this feels like? To draw some parallels to what I have owned and driven, I'd say this car comes close to feeling like a 4 door GT-R. The way the turbo's spool, the ferocity of it! The way the exhaust bellows and grunts after 4000 RPM is just subliminal. This is one car where I wouldn't want to even think of an exhaust. It just sounds perfect from the factory! Under WOT, the rear tires sometimes struggle to put the power down , which is insane because this thing really knows how to put the power down. The 8 speed ZF is okay-ish. I believe there is a technical limitation for the DCT to work with a AWD setup , as the same ZF setup is now present on the newer M5's. Will have to look more into this but this is what I can recall now.

The steering feel is ... very Audi-esque, in that the steering is very light and easy to chuck around. This works really well for in-city driving and parking but I will have to see how this works out on the track. The seats are the quilted leather ones, the kind you find in Lamborghini's and Bentley's. No surprises here as the parent company for all of these cars is the same and for once I am happy with the part sharing that they did here.

The infotainment system is classic Audi, which is to say that I don't like it all that much. As compared to newer BMW iDrive and Mercedes systems, this feels a bit dated now. It is perfectly usable but just does not feel up to date anymore. Newer Audi's have a much better system I am told.

The rear seats have a lot of legroom and are very comfortable. I often use this car for my drive to office(as the driver of course) and it always puts a huge smile on my face. I'd say this is really the kind of everyday supercar that I was looking for. It can carry 4 full sized adults plus a lot of luggage any time , anywhere.

The fuel economy(for those of you who had that question in mind) is atrociously low. It goes from full tank to empty in about 360 kms. I had higher expectations from this engine because Audi know how to make a good twin turbo engine but I guess this spec runs a higher boost and is tuned more for performance. For comparisons sake, my M5 goes from full to empty in about 500 kms of range under the same driving conditions!

On a side note, this car even has the nose lift feature that raises the front end of the car for clearing speed bumps or steep ramps, though I really am not sure if this was needed.

Comparisons with different cars :

2012 Jaguar XF-R vs 2016 RS7 - I'd say this is a very interesting comparison. The Jaguar is a very engine dominated car , akin to the RS7 philosophy. Whereas the Jaguar has grunt across the range and it just feels like an American muscle car in British clothing, the Audi has a very distinct German take on engine building. The exhaust note is more visceral in the Jag vs a more brutish note for the Audi. The Jag feels lighter on its feet because of the lesser weight and it being RWD.

2013 M5 vs 2016 RS7 - These are very distinct cars with a very different take on engine building and tuning. The F10 M5 really feels like a V10 with two fewer cylinders and a pair of turbo's strapped on in a hot V config(for those of us who are technically inclined).
The M5 has a broad and linear power band which tries to mask the whole feel of the twin turbo's. The Audi on the other hand makes no fuss of it and makes you feel the slight turbo lag till about 3k rpm and then unleashes a wall of torque. The steering in the M5 is more direct but still not very tight or responsive as smaller , more nimbler M cars. The exhaust note is more like a caged V10 in bass and treble but this could be because I have the Eisenmann Sport exhausts on my car.

2014 E63 vs 2016 RS7 - I have had relatively lesser seat time in the E63 as compared to other cars on this list but I can still share some keen insights. The engine race currently is being dominated by AMG and the 2014 5.5 litre V8 is a marvel. This engine is so so ferocious in the way it delivers power that I'd say it combines the turbo spool kick of the Audi with the brute strength of the XFR engine all the way to the redline. I'd be really hard-pressed to choose between this and the RS7 if I had to choose between the two. As an overall package the Audi is indeed better but that E63 is all engine!

Conclusion :

Phew! This wraps up Part 2 of this exhaustive write up. Please feel free to ask me any questions you guys may have about any more comparisons you'd like for me to share. For Part 3, I will share pictures of another "Mystery" car and how it syncs beautifully with the RS7.

[Anand123]

Nice write up, ecks. Liked the comparisons. Didn't know you had an F10 M5. I guess the M5 is the mystery car. Can't wait for the Part 3

[Shrayus_shirali]

Hey ecks, any 2019 update? How is the RS7 driving? Do you still have the Phantom? Never seen any pictures of it. If you still have it can you please post some? And plans for a new car in the future? Don't know if you're aware of this but BBT recently sold your old LP640 for a little over a crore. I believe it's on its fourth owner now.

[D33-PAC]

Ecks, can you write a bit about the feel of driving a supercar in India in terms of ride quality and the discomfort levels ?

I recently had a session with a Huracan, a 458 Italia, a Gallardo and a Corvette ( in the US that is). On track and on the road. I found the road part most uncomfortable. What I noticed right away was due to the large rim profile and thin tire/rubber compound - just about every bump on the road is translated into the seat.

I was disgusted by the fact that every little bump on the road translated into a reaction in the spine. I found it also a big time pain in the a$$ that you have to literally buy a transparent film layer for your side skirts so low slung cars don't get the dirt grime and rocks damaging the side skirts.

I also found it serious pain to get out of the vehicle as well, and I'm 5 10 which is not even really tallish.

1. Can you tell me what was your most uncomfortable car on Indian roads ?
2. Which car's side skirts did you think was most prone to being raped by Indian roads ?
3. Did you ever get transparent film layers plastered over your side skirts for protection ? THere's a word for these things in the US I forgot but it protects against paint chipping.

After my session with these cars I was astounded people would actually want to put up with owning exotic cars on Indian roads from a practical angle. You had/have quite a garage, so I'd like to hear your thoughts.

P.S. I'm not talking about run of the mill vehicles here, I want to hear your perspective about the biggest guns you've had in your stable. I'm particularly interested about hearing your thoughts on what the Indian roads did to the side skirts on your Murci, Gallardo and R8.

I thought the Lambo Huracan even in a country like the US was a white elephant to own and maintain. You've seen things even greater in the Indian context. Lastly, I'm amazed that you managed to merge lanes in a country like India in the Lambo. I thought the rear view visibility int the 911 sucked, the Lambo showed another world to me LOL.