Where do I begin with this car, Its really hard to know where to start to be completely honest. I remember reading for hours and hours, about this new car Audi was releasing, the successor to the Original B5 RS4, and the even more world renowned RS2 which was built with some Porsche engineering, these are the cars that really put Audi on the map in terms of the Race cars for the road.
My next fondest memory has to be the 2005/06 “Top Gear” Series 7, Episode 2, Where Clarkson competed against the climber Leo Houlding to see who could make it to the top of the Verdon Gorge in France. Fast Forward the video to 25:40
Top Gear 2006 RS4 review
That was it… that review, the way that Clarkson squeals like a little girl when he’s saying “four hundred and fourteen break horse power… 414!!! that’s a hundred more then you got from the old beemer… a hundred!!” another great quote from that episode was " I’ve got a sneaking suspicion, that I’m sitting about four feet, from one of the greatest engines… ever made." This was the car for me, i just knew it from the moment i started reading about it, the way it portrayed G.W. Bush by walking around with his hands out to his sides and hands backwards…lol, the way the engine growled, the way it revv’ed out to an astonishing 8250rpm… from a V8, the fenders, the wheels, everything about it screamed luxury and power! And this is where my problems lied, in 2005 when the car was first coming out in europe and making the first appearances I was 17, in 2006/07 when the car was actually available for sale in Canada I was only 18 turning 19, and when the the car above sold at the dealership, full load price was over 100k(a far cry from the 70-80k you could pay in the states) alittle out of my range, and would be for a while! I spent the next few years reading, and daydreaming, i kept myself busy at the time with the MKV GTI project, but this was always in the back of my head, and i know that everyone has that one car that does that to them.
This was mine: B7 RS4 Sprint Blue Avant, Carbon accents, with all the Euro goodies steering wheel, seats, etc…
Early 2012 was the year I was finally able to make legitimate attempts to purchase my dream car, I made 3 attempts at an RS, One Misano Red, One Suzuka Grey and for unseen reasons out my control, mostly distance, transportation costs and importation fees (esp for the SG car as it was in New York) the first two deals fell through. The third was a Black car from Calgary, it was only summer driven, had KW V3’s, GMG exhaust, Dynamax carbon fiber wheels, a recent carbon clean, 5k oil changes, and only had 61,xxx km’s, the wheels weren’t my style, but the price and km’s where a good match, I had my cash in hand, emailed the Seller and we hashed out the final price, I told him that I would send him $500 as a deposit, and a photo of my plane ticket, if I didn’t show he could keep the $500 for wasting his time, at this point he informed me he would need a $5g deposit, I took this as a sign left the deal and reported the ad, I later found the exact ad in the Audizine Archives, exact car and everything. my hunch of it being a scam was correct.
I was pretty bummed out and gave up hope, I started looking at getting a newer S4 at this point, but a couple of test drives confirmed it just lacked something for me. One monday after work I decided out of the blue to search craigslist, There was only 3 ad’s out of the 15 or so a4’s with RS badges and or “special edition” s4’s. first 2 were way over priced for the km’s, the third was just a written ad with no pictures or anything, I wish i would have copied that ad but was very very brief and to the point, listed the KM’s a phone number, email, and price. I decided that it was only located in North Van (30 mins away) I would take a chance and take a look. Met the owner that Thursday, had the car checked that weekend while the owner was away on a business vacation, everything was A ok, besides obvious wear and tear(ie: brakes, upper control arms, etc… )the following week he was still away on business, so i spent this time going through my phone drooling over pictures… I found myself feeling as i did when the car was released in 06/07, that giddy little 18yr old boy, I really couldnt contain myself at this point, so I blabbed and told a few close friends at this point that i was legitimately close to buying one of my dream cars… which in retrospec made it even harder, because then they got excited for me… this was the LONGEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!! finally Monday rolled around and the owner was back in town and we met again to discuss final details, I was ready at this point to buy the car, everything checked out, Canadian spec car(1of100ish) I’m the 3rd owner with the 1st and 2nd being close family friends, Sprint Blue with carbon accents, 1 accident (clipped a bicyclist and got a new hood and windshield) which i wouldnt consider and accident but ICBC does, records of everything done to the car, had all recalls performed, it was literally the perfect car! seriously the only way this car could have been better was if I could have gotten an avant. Although as our discussion began everything changed quite dramatically, this is when i found out that he wanted to trade the vehicle in…(immediately in my head I started thinking ok how can I get this car? whats the dealerships name? how much did he want again? how much should I offer the dealer? crap they are gonna jack the price through the roof) my heart sunk… he continued on that he had to many cars, but his wife’s daily could use a refresh, and what with the HST, it made more sense to trade it in and save the money, rather then sell the car outright… I was dumbfounded a week of dreaming of my dream car and then this…I think he noticed the look of disappointed on my face and quickly added to the conversation that he was close friends with the dealership they wanted to get the new car from, and that the price we had agreed upon would be the final sale price to me, not only that but he was willing to drop the price another $2500 to make up for the inconvenience… well alittle poop came out, and Needless to say the papers were signed by the end of the week.
A local car show spring unsprung 2012 was her first adventure into the public you could say, at this point the ideas had very much of keeping the car stock, or as close to stock as possible with a few OEM+ upgrades, of course that changed quickly, over the past year and a bit of ownership I’ve kind of come to the idea of how I want this car to break down, I don’t ever plan on selling the car, a car like this is something that I can very well pass down to my son, or another family member, and I’m keeping that in mind when it does come down to my purchases. No expense’s will be spared, but that doesn’t mean I will be throwing money at the car all willy nilly, Some upgrades will cost more then others thats just known, but just because you pay more doesn’t mean its the best, every purchase I’m going to make or plan on making I’ll break down and share with you, I’ll be looking for longevity and compatibility between parts, and with sharing this with you I hope in return to get some information and other points of view, a new set of eyes on a problem can sometimes be exactly what you need to be able to figure things out.
2 heads are always better then one!
Introducing Projekt: Pandora
Current:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7425/11487680696_b90f5941db_b.jpg
I hope you enjoy following along, I do have some fairly big plans ahead, the new interior has arrived and is about 95% installed, the motor should be getting even more goodies this coming winter, and should be addressing the suspension and more maintenance pieces as well. With that being said I’m a young guy, and in the middle of searching for my first house, so with some big boy things on my plate, I might have to push Pandora to the back burner for a bit but i wanted to start something here so that i can come back and keep adding to this thread as time goes on. who knows maybe my kid might read this in 40 years…Probably not but who know’s.
I do ask for one thing, I welcome all comments whether they be bad or good, criticism is always a good thing, but please keep the comments respectable and on course! 8)
Cheers Ozcarmeyer