On a Sunday flight home from Maine back to Dallas I was reading the recent issue of Car & Driver, and I had a revelation. I could not think of a reason not to buy the new S4. Twin Turbo, AWD, 6-speed.....all I need

All wheel drive turbo cars are my steed of choice, and natural selection has left Audi as the only choice.

I currently campaign a Subaru WRX in the SCCA PRO Rally series, and long debated building a street car. 12-second timeslips are a cinch, and the handling can only be described as dreamy. I've dropped the clutch from redline more times than I can remember, and reliability is faultless.

But...I'm always looking for something new and German ambiance lured me.

The speed bug has given me a violent and permanent infection. My current daily driver has getting prepped for two big turbos before I sensibly plopped a $1000 deposit on a car that already came with two installed. Now I eagerly await my Nagono Blue S4 with Audio package and NO sunroof.

But...I need help.

This Audi thing is all new to me.

I'm looking for big power and prime handling. Where do I start?

What coil-over suspension systems are the best?

What is the rod to stroke length ratio of the 2.7?

Who makes head kits so I can beef the head up for another 1000rpm on the top end?

Whats up with the 6200rpm redline? You can only go so big on the turbos before you have have to spin it higher to use them.

Do AP or Alcon make brake kits for the S4?

What breaks?

Regards,
Bill Driegert

these cars are not about brute HP, that's what Mustangs and Camaros are for. They are about total, balanced performance. If you start tinkering with an S4, why bother getting one? The idea is that it's supposed to be optimal right out of the box, and that's what you're paying Audi for. Maybe you should get a 1.8 and go tweak-crazy.

The tuners haven't got their teeth in em yet, but when they do, it should be interesting. They're getting about 300 hp out of a 1.8t...so just imagine another .9 litre and extra turbo to play with. For the A4 there are some good coil over kits out there, and folks on the forum have them, I rode in Dave White's recently and it was really impressive. Alcon, among others make brake packages for the A4, check out Vortrag Motorsports (they advertise here), also Porsche 993 turbo brakes pretty much bolt on too. Try posting in the race forum, you should get some good info. But not much is S$ specific yet since they aren't here yet.

Regards,
Rodney

'99 A4 1.8tqms

lots of regulars will respond to your inquiries from time to time too =)

But I can remember a lot of people who posted about the S4. Steve S. had posted lots of info on the S4 including what kind of suspension it had, Corey had posted performance numbers a few months back including the debated weight of an S4. I remember seeing posts of tuners like TAP having a 310hp or more chip upgrade. Check out APR also at goAPR.com I hear all positives from them. They have an S4 chip under development.

H&R coil-over appear to be a favorite for A4er’s with coil over upgrades. I’m getting my Koni’s hopefully by the end of this month.

6200 rpm redline? You know some tuner out there will raise that figure up to 7000 or more. APR had done that to 1.8T. I’d keep an eye on them

Alcon makes 13” or 14” stuff for the A4. I can’t imagine why they won’t have it for an S4.

What breaks? Several concerns also posted in archives. The first and foremost one I hear is the exhaust manifold cracking on earlier S4 (European models – not old, old S4s but this year's body style)

I guess the best part about the S4 compared to the Subary WRX is the S4 will be here soon and you will drive on the right side of the road (I mean left side of car as normal). Is the Subaru WRXIII to be imported only by that company in LA that will import Skylines? They usually get them as is from Japan – left hand drivers.

Good luck in your quest for performance. To be honest, I see 500 to 600 well tuned horsepower from the 2.7T. Hope that a clutch will be around to take that.

Running the numbers on the C&D speeds in gears yields 6500. 6800 is what the pictures I've seen shows, and I believe that Steve S. and Corey S have seen an S4 at Ruznik in Pasadena that had a 7000 redline. The bad news is the little turbos will give out before 7000 (stock peak HP is at 5800 and I'd bet that most chipped S4's will peak their HP even lower, at between 5200 and 5600), so they'd have to be replaced to even think of having a more useful climb past 7000.