Running in

Well in September2011 I drove my Evoqueout of Dukes Road, London W3 straight onto the A40, M40, M42, M6, M74, M73, M8, M9 and A811 through the whole of England and 50% of the length of Scotland sat at 70 with bits faster and lots of people slowing me just to look at the first Evoque they had seen on the roads (it was after all the day after launch!) and the car has run beautifully smoothly since, consumes no oil between services and has lovely progressive brakes. 70mph in 6th gear in the SD4 Auto is 1800rpm and even new the car was happy to cruise at that for 8 hours with only a couple of 15 minute breaks.

I reckon thats far better than crawling and idling a lot initially Tim

Current thinking is: you have about one hundred or less miles to do it right or not. Of course, don't labor -- but DO kick its ass. Some lively runs to red line are best. Do a search, you'll see. When I bought my first E-Type Jag (a kid in college) an old Brit staggered out of the service department (reeking of unblended, of course), winked and said: "Kid, remember: fast break-in, fast car!" Today, the science has proved him right.

That's interesting as every car I have bought new the manual states don't use max revs or max load for the first 1000 miles or so and I suspect that every other new car states the same or similar

What I am sure of is that none of them say "take it out of the box and screw the backside off it for the first 1000 miles"

To be honest following the manual is no great problem as only using 75% for a few miles can still be fun, after all where can you drive at 100% on the public roads

(28-04-2013 07:00pm)scrannel Wrote:  Current thinking is: you have about one hundred or less miles to do it right or not. Of course, don't labor -- but DO kick its ass. Some lively runs to red line are best. Do a search, you'll see. When I bought my first E-Type Jag (a kid in college) an old Brit staggered out of the service department (reeking of unblended, of course), winked and said: "Kid, remember: fast break-in, fast car!" Today, the science has proved him right.

Same with sports motorbikes.

(28-04-2013 09:13pm)cjfp Wrote:  Same with sports motorbikes.

I agree with the principal that if you dont run it in you will potentially get a quicker car/bike.
I think the reason is that red lining a new engine will cause early accelerated wear which will give a looser engine which will rev more freely and therefore feel quicker. As a consequence more oil will get up the bores and inrease oil consumption but will keep the cylinder well lubricated.
This probably isnt too much of a problem in the short term but ultimately the engine will not last nearly as long as a run in engine and I would put money on the power being down if you dynoed it after say 20,000 miles or so
Maybe you guys dont keep your vehicles long enough to matter, but some of us do

(29-04-2013 08:31am)speary Wrote:  I agree with the principal that if you dont run it in you will potentially get a quicker car/bike.
I think the reason is that red lining a new engine will cause early accelerated wear which will give a looser engine which will rev more freely and therefore feel quicker. As a consequence more oil will get up the bores and inrease oil consumption but will keep the cylinder well lubricated.
This probably isnt too much of a problem in the short term but ultimately the engine will not last nearly as long as a run in engine and I would put money on the power being down if you dynoed it after say 20,000 miles or so
Maybe you guys dont keep your vehicles long enough to matter, but some of us do

Agreed, you rev the nuts of a race car/bike which you intend to rebuild in a short period anyway, but a road car take it easy, drive it sensibly through the normal rev ranges, it should last for many many years.

(28-04-2013 07:00pm)scrannel Wrote:  Current thinking is: you have about one hundred or less miles to do it right or not. Of course, don't labor -- but DO kick its ass.

That's why hire cars go so much faster

Question on 5th gear once, what's the fastest car?
Answer, a hire car.

I was always told the fastest car was white van man's Astramax van!

The Merc sprinter van has to take the top spot for me!