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
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