TaylorMade R7 Quad Driver | Retro Review - video Dailymotion

Golf Monthly

The TaylorMade R7 Quad driver, launched in 2004, was ahead of its time as the first ever driver with moveable weight technology. Over 10 percent of its total mass was concentrated into four weights which could be moved around to alter spin, launch and shot shape characteristics... but is this technology still effective in today's game and how does it compare to a 2024 driver? Staff writer and PGA Pro Joe Ferguson hits the R7 Quad up against the new Qi10 LS driver to see how the performance compares.

Transcript

00:00Retro review time and I've got an absolute cracker for you today. I'm going to take you

00:03back to 2004. A young Mark Zuckerberg has just released a little website called Facebook.

00:09JLo and Ben Affleck split up for the first time and the TaylorMade R7 Quad Driver was

00:15released. We've teamed up with Golf Clubs for Cash, one of the leading retailers of pre-loved

00:20equipment and they've given us some absolute gems to test. So please check them out in

00:23the description below. Now to the best of our knowledge, this was the first ever driver

00:28with adjustable weights. These four weight ports have got two wide at the front here,

00:32two close together at the back and they housed a couple of two gram weights and a couple of

00:36ten gram weights and the idea was you could move these around in whatever area you wanted

00:40in the club to create different flight preferences through moving that CG. Now people used to

00:46do this with lead tape for years and years on tour and this driver negated the needs of

00:50that and you tend to see it in almost every modern day driver now. Now we picked this up

00:55for the bargain price of £31.99 so we better go and see how it performs. So I've come down

01:01to the fifth hole at the beautiful Stoke Park Golf Club because I wanted to get some baseline

01:05data. I brought them in my full swing kit launch monitor and I just want to get a flavour for

01:09what it's doing from a spin and launch perspective. Now down behind the ball it's actually a really

01:14interesting look. It looks really small but it's 410cc which isn't actually that small. Most modern day

01:21drivers maxed out at 460cc but because the face is so very very deep there wasn't enough spare

01:27mass to push it back and wide to give a larger footprint like some of the modern drivers so

01:32it's actually a deceptive look. So let's hit a couple of ways and see what data I can get.

01:36Okay it's a good hit. Turned over a bit. Decent club head speed. 165 on the ball speed. 2.8 of spin

01:51and 2.67 in total. Not too bad. Expect a little bit more yardage out of it maybe. Let's go again.

02:06Slightly better struck. A little bit more on line. Ball speed at 165. Spins popped up a bit there.

02:15Nearly three and a half thousand revs and 2.74 in carry distance. So quite pleased with that.

02:21For $31.99 that's not bad at all. So let's put it up against the modern day equivalent and see what

02:25we get. To see if that R7 quad can still perform I've put it up against one of the latest and greatest

02:31is from TaylorMade. The QI10 and I've got the LS model because it's the most adjustable of that

02:36family. So I'm going to do the same. I'm going to hit a couple away get some baseline numbers

02:40and let's see how it gets on.

02:46Right here a little bit left. Much higher on the ball speed so into the 170s there. Spins right down

02:53at 2.1 and that's carried at 2.83 so there's more yardage in it. Let's hit another one away.

03:02Yeah it's noticeably quicker off the face but launched a similar height but yeah ball speed up

03:07again in 170s. A little bit more spin that time near 3000, 290 on the carry so there's definitely

03:14more in this from a speed point of view and a raw ball data point of view but that's not what this

03:19is about. This is all about adjustability. So we're going to start moving some weights around and see

03:23how much we can manipulate that ball flight with each of these drivers. So I want to highlight the

03:29adjustability and how much you can maneuver the ball flight with these weights. These 2.10 grams

03:33and these 2.2 grams. I'm going to show you how to adjust the head to put them into a draw setting

03:37first but there is one rather big problem.

03:40As you can see that was very very slow and not that easy to do. Now it's not the end of the world,

03:56you're not going to be moving these weights around all the time and obviously you can't during the

04:00course of a round but it is something to note. It is quite a cumbersome process but we're in the

04:05draw setting now so let's hit one away and see if we can get it moving.

04:12Well that was a nice high draw. Started just at the bunker on the right turning over into the middle

04:16of the fairway and I felt I put a very very similar swing on that so the CG change really does seem to

04:21have done what it's supposed to do there. So you're going to have to bear with me a second when I change

04:25these over into the the fade setting. Let's see if it can do it on a left to right shot.

04:37Okay that's a beautiful little fade that started hugging the trees on the left hand side just

04:42drifting right centre of the cut. So that's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Let's see if

04:47the modern equivalent can do the same. So we've got the Qi10 LS now and I want you to pay close

04:54attention to how much easier it is to get this in the draw setting. I've got one screw, loosen that,

05:01push the weight all across, tighten it up, job done. We're in the draw setting let's see if it works.

05:14Okay that's doing what it's supposed to do started a bit straight just turning down the left hand side

05:18very similar level of curvature to the R7 quad there so that's really interesting it is doing what it's

05:24supposed to do. Now we've got 18 grams of adjustable weight on the Qi10 LS here as opposed to the 24

05:31grams of adjustability with the R7 quad so let's shift it all the way across the fade now and see

05:36if it does what it's supposed to do there. So we're in full fade setting now let's see if that does what

05:41it's supposed to do. Okay so it's doing its job started left side fading perfectly back into the middle

05:51and that's really interesting between those two drivers essentially they're both doing what

05:55they're supposed to do when I move them into the fade setting they're both fading and pretty similar

06:00amounts I'd say there was five or six yard curvature on both of the fades similar with the draw again

06:05when you're both in the draw setting five or six yards of curvature so not much to choose between the

06:10two heads there in terms of adjustability so from a driver that's 30 pounds essentially and 20 years old

06:18that's pretty impressive so if you're struggling with a certain shot shape and you want to influence

06:22it with the CG you can do that without having to spend 500 pounds by the looks of things. From a raw

06:27ball data point of view I think it's tough to argue that the Qi10 LS is a superior driver I was getting

06:34more ball speed I was getting a higher carry number everything I look for in a driver in this day and age

06:39was here with the Qi10 LS but from an adjustability point of view and that's kind of what I really wanted to

06:45see between these two drivers there really wasn't much in it in the draw settings they both drew and

06:50a very similar amount of curvature and in the fade setting they both did what they were supposed to do

06:55there arguably there's very very similar levels of adjustability I've got 24 grams I can shift around

07:01in the r7 quad versus 18 grams I can shift around here admittedly the r7 quad was in the pre-loft sleeve

07:08era so I've got a bit more adjustability in terms of face angle and base loft with the Qi10 LS again

07:15but in summary if you're someone who's looking for a cut price option and you've got a specific

07:20ball flight you want to dial in or even avoid and you're not going to move those weights around too

07:24much because that's another point you saw how slow and cumbersome it was to move these weights around

07:29if you're not someone who's going to shift those around a lot the r7 quad for 31.99 could be a really

07:35great option

07:36you

TaylorMade R7 Quad Driver | Retro Review

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