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On the 20th December I bought myself a lovely low mileage (72,000) 03 plate C5 RS6 Avant in Daytona Grey. It's engine is a monstrous 4.2L Twin-Turbo V8 with 450hp & 428ft/lbs ***There's some more pics at the bottom*** It was completely standard (except for being de-badged of the RS6 on the rear) and I'm the third owner, with the 1st one taking obvious care of it with a service book full of Audi stamps and receipts for nearly 9 years while the 2nd owner appeared "more relaxed" about the maintenance side of ownership for the year he owned it before part-exchanging. For a ten year old car it's in extremely good condition. The paint work only has 2 very minor scratches, the engine bay is spotless, the interior looks brand new and it's had the brakes & timing belt replaced 10K miles ago (see Bottom for more Timing Belt info). I've had a few performance and V8 RWD cars previously (450hp Nissan R34 - BMW 740i etc) and I'd originally test drove a C6 S6, E60 M5 and a Merc S65, all of which were "OK" but seemed to be missing something for my tastes, before finding an RS6 with a History I was happy with. Even after all the other test drives I knew within seconds of that 1st "booting it" moment that the RS6 was the one for me as I grinned like a loon almost none stop during the test and actually giggled after one particular overtake Current Issues - No 2nd hand car is perfect and this hold true here although the problems are minor. The Left Rear mid-bass speaker is blown (works but sound crackly/farty), the paint had bubbled on one of the rear parking sensors intermittently sending the system haywire (see's a object when there not) and the Carbon Fibre ash-tray trim piece is loose. Not bad really! So, my plans for the RS6 then - Performance - Due to the previous owners apparent lack of quality maintenance I've got a visit to MRC Tuning (Audi Specialists) booked for Friday for the RS to get a thorough going over - Gearbox service, 20K service inc MAF/DV/N75 replacement and Health check - and if everything gets the all clear a Stage 1 remap (500hp and 510ft/lbs). However if anything big needs replacing during the health check (leaking intercoolerss, exhaust, failing DRC suspension etc) then I'll hold off the remap, replace any parts with performance versions and go for a Stage 2 remap instead (530hp and 580ft/lbs). Audio - Removing the old Sat Nav stereo (Navi-Plus RNS-D) was my 1st mod while I waited for MRC to re-open after Xmas. In it's place is an Alpine INE-W925R head unit with more connectivity than you could shake a stick at and including DAB & Sat Nav, meaning the standard aerial has been replaced with a "sharks-fin" style one due to the different DAB/GPS aerials. Other - I'm an engineer by trade and think that more is better than less regarding maintenance so the Timing belt will need doing this year. While it was done earlier than it should have been at 65K miles, there's no receipt for the work (only the parts) and only a few other bits were replaced, not the water pump etc so as it hits the 80K mile mark I'll get it done again. After that it'll just be keeping it ticking over waiting for the inevitable DRC and Gearbox failures to raise their head! Cheers for reading.......................................Ian