First Impressions of the R36

[FJ Steve]

Sweet ride....congratulations

[Treza360]

Sweet as.
I love the .:R brakes. Anything that's pretty much as big as a pos Hyundai's rim has got to be awesome. Looks like they've put bigger disks on the back end of the R36 as well (longer wheelbase and heavier me thinks).
Good stuff.

[Cro]

Well I finally got mine last night. Unfortunately I have only driven 300km's as I'm waiting for my fuel cards to arrive first.
The engine run in is going well, with a mixture of low - high revs, low - high load and even launch control starts. All it needs now is a track day (in 1.5 weeks) and an oil change to a full synthetic oil.

To sum up my first impressions in one word, I'd say WOW!
This thing has some serious power, I have no doubt it would beat my old XR6 Turbo not only in a straight line but also destroy it through the corners.
The torque is on tap throughout most of the rev range, it even pulls well from low rpms in 6th gear. Overtaking is a breeze, with very little effort you could end up in jail for exessive speeding.
If I could pick three favourite features they would have to be the DSG, Xenon lights and the steering wheel. The shifts are smooth, fast both up and down the gears. I have no problems in having a smooth take off, or a sucked back in your seat launch. The steering wheel is a perfect size, contoured in all the right places with the perfect thickness for my hands and perfectly weighted. All the controls are in easy reach of my fingers, and the paddle shifts are soo much fun. The Xenons are brilliant lights, I am impressed by their startup sequence right to their cornering and spread of beam. I was considering adding some spot lights for the country drives I'll be going on but I think I'll hold off for now as the lights are really good.
The rest of the car just keeps impressing me, the Dynaudio system is truly amazing. Pumping out everything from Korn, Heavy Metal & Hard Rock to Trance and Opera with such clarity even at the highest of volumes. The RNS510 Sat Nav is cool, I've never had sat nav before so it's like having new toy. I need to loose a bit of weight to be a bit more comfortable in the seats, but I love the range of adjustment and the memory preset on the keys.

I've had a good chance to push the handling (ESP off), and as I mentioned previously the tyres (Dunlop SP01's) are completely useless for anything but cruising along with the ocassional corner thrown in. The amount of plough on understeer and understeer under load and also is terrible. That will be fixed soon though, when I fit some Michelin PS2's after the track day.
Apart from that, you can tell this car handles well. The ride is not too rough, and the suspension does a good job in keeping the tyres on the road even when it is very bumpy. This is my first AWD car, and it's a wierd feeling feeling the power being transmitted through both ends of the car. I am slowly testing my limits in pushing it further and further, and can not wait for the track day.

This car feels solid and safe, from the heavy closing doors to the hugging seats I would feel very comfortable about going on lots of long trips with my family. Anyway, I took some pics tonight but they didn't turn out very well.. I'll take some decent ones after I detail it for the first time

http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/cars/vw/My%20R36/first%20pics/

[OilBurna]

very nice cro looks tough in silver I concur re the Dunlops esp in the wet.

[Cro]

Thanks
I went to Katoomba today and took some more pics:

http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/cars/vw/My%20R36/katoomba/

I had a bit of fun on some more twisty roads but not too much fun as my daughter was sleeping in the back

[phaeton]

Very nice Cro.

Looks like a sheep in wolfs clothing in silver

[FJ Steve]

Looks like a sheep in wolfs clothing in silver

Yep...you have a "sleeper" there. You will catch many a rev-head unawares.

[R36 Dreamer]

Thanks
I went to Katoomba today and took some more pics:

http://doncro.dyndns.org/pics/cars/vw/My%20R36/katoomba/

I had a bit of fun on some more twisty roads but not too much fun as my daughter was sleeping in the back

Looks absolutely great. I wasn't a fan of the silver until I saw your photos. In a sedan the silver looks brilliant.

[Cro]

Thanks

I'm taking two weeks off work from next week to go cruising around NSW, so there will be a lot more pics and maybe some video if I can work out where to mount the video camera
Hopefully I can do that before the track on next Tuesday....

[Preen59]

Very nice Cro.

Looks like a sheep in wolfs clothing in silver

Erm.. Don't you mean a wolf in sheep's clothing?

[phaeton]

Erm.. Don't you mean a wolf in sheep's clothing?

I like my version

[limmy]

If you're getting the sunroof, you can get the car in white. I reckon that would look pretty hot.

hey steve, i was gonna ask if it comes in white. i am finding it very hard to find any pics on the net of the R36 in white. can anyone post if you find pics. cheers.

[phaeton]

hey steve, i was gonna ask if it comes in white. i am finding it very hard to find any pics on the net of the R36 in white. can anyone post if you find pics. cheers.

[Treza360]

White is so freaking hot at the moment (on euro cars anyway). There's a new 911 GT3 around my area in white and it is hot.

[phaeton]

White is so freaking hot at the moment (on euro cars anyway). There's a new 911 GT3 around my area in white and it is hot.

Agreed

White Phaeton