Just what exactly is an S4's family based on? I was under the impression that it was a factory<br>modded A4. But I saw a car marked S4 in a San Mateo parking lot on Saturday, and it looked<br>like a Pearl painted 100 to me. Were older S4's based on 100's (instead of 90's), or was<br>this just a sticker-modified car?<p>Brian<br>97 1.8T AT Q Sport<p><p><p>

The next gen S4, coming to North America next year and available in Europe already, is based on the A4 platform.<p>Rob O

I believe that it was only called an S4 in '94 and it was based on the Audi 100. Then when the european models were renamed 90=A4, 100=A6, the S4 was renamed the S6, pretty stupid and confusing if you ask me. Didn't they know they where changing the names the year before? <p>Anyway, the new S4 is based on the A4, the new S6 is based on the A6, etc.<p>Hope this helps.<p>Matt

The S4 was introduced in late '91. I don't think they knew about the new naming scheme back then.<br>

S1 was alternate name for Sport Quattro in mid '80s, and S2 was the Europe-only turbocharged version of the early '90s Coupe Quattro. With the redesign of the 100, the high-performance version (200 Quattro) adopted the "S" nomenclature, and became S4. When the 100 was rebadged A6, the S4 became the S6.