<ul><li><a href="http://wardsauto.com/ar/auto_audi_launches_newgeneration/index.htm">http://wardsauto.com/ar/auto_audi_launches_newgeneration/index.htm</a</li></ul>

This is not something to wait for. The system does not behave differently at all from a classic 50/50 quattro. The hallmark of quattro is the torsen/tourqe-sensing center differential. Whether it starts 50/50 or 60/40 it will still send the tourque to the axle with the most grip/tourque being as much as 75% with a stick and 67% with a tip.
The new ESP 8.0 is a keeper though much more sporting than the older version.

People keep quoting the Ward's article, saying the B7 S4 has the new quattro system, but I have yet to hear any other source confirm this.

The official Audi press release on the B7 S4 NEVER mentioned a rear bias quattro system. The window sticker makes no mention of assymetrical quattro. The Audi USA website doesn't indicate any change from the B6 version. Does anyone have real evidence that these 2005.5 S4's really have any change from the B6 50/50 version?

Seeing as though this is the ONLY car in production with the 60:40 split quattro..

Contrary to what you might have heard or been told, the B7 A4 does not have this system!!

Didn't say it was a production car for that matter!

so he must of been talking about an audi, if not then that post is useless. I call bs

I have driven the new S4 which does have the 60/40 split no matter what rumor you may hear. And I have spoken to a few people that have had a chance to drive it on a track. This is what I based my comments on not speculation.

believe it or not they actually test these new systems on cars before they put them on sale!!!!

Same way a lot of folks drove C6 A6's and B7 A4's several months before they were available.

. . .it does not instantly jump out that the change from an "at rest" 50 50 distribution to a 40 60 distribution will somehow decrease understeer or impart more of a RWD "feel" to the cars Audi brings out with the quattro badge.

Rather, it seems that a more likely way to reduce understeer would be to (this seems simple to say) put less weight on the front and more weight on the rear. What "rumors" I have heard/read indicate that Audi does intend to help their cars in this regard -- AND modify the drive bias from neutral to rear.

As I read this stuff, however, it almost seems like the power distribution change is to just "shut the naysayers up." There are some who will not accept any AWD unless it is RWD biased; this change, while as real as real can be, ought to have much less of an effect on an Audi than a weight distribution of (for instance) 52 48 rather than some of the published distributions like 60 40 F/R weight distribution.

Audi has a 2 1/2 day driving school in Seefeld, Austria -- at this school the instructors first then the students learn to drive Audi A4's (quattro stick shift production cars usually with the biggest V6 gasoline engine Audi offers) "with the throttle" just like a rear wheel drive car.

The car is made (ultimately by normal civilians like you and me) to perform a "figure eight" as if only the rear wheels were driven. I guess it would be easier with a rear wheel drive biased AWD set up, but like I said, easier still with a better balanced set up and 50 50 quattro as is.

According to what I have been able to read about torsen (not Audi marketing lit, per se) -- torsen's ability to shift torque from front to rear, and vice-versa is "instantaneous" -- not virtually instantaneous, instantaneous!

I'm not saying they shouldn't have spent their engineering muscle to make a new RWD biased quattro -- heck the market demands it, apparently.

I am just saying that the marketing impact is far more significant than the actual "in service" impact could ever be of this modification.

So many of the AWD systems out there are FWD that can add RWD assistance when needed (Acura and Volvo leap to mind.) Some of the other Japanese mfgrs use electronics to "divert" or trick the torque into appearing to be sent north or south, as it were.

The torsen system (equals "quattro" except for the TT, for example -- even though the TT's system is called quattro) as used by Audi is or was not a flawed system because it was nominally a 50 50 split. Once again it has been criticized not for what it is, but that it (now) is not in vogue.

For 25 years, the torsen system was used by Audi (mostly the torsen system, to be accurate) -- it made Audi cars, let's see, win races so often that it was called an unfair advantage; made the Pike's Peak run in first place so often it virtually dominated the climb; and, many other victories too numerous to mention.

Now, here comes (fill in the blank) Acura, Jaguar, BMW, Infiniti, Lexus, Volvo, Porsche, VW, Chrysler, Mercedes, Cadillac for Pete's sake -- and let's not forget the company that seems synonymous with AWD, Subaru (which always pisses me off, since Audi really let that bit of marketing genius escape them) -- Audi has been doing this AWD thing in Premium and Sporting or "sporty" cars for two and a half decades and all of a sudden Audi is criticized for NOT having RWD biased AWD.

I could just scream!

There, I feel better now -- and I am fine with Audi making this RWD biased AWD step. I just get so riled up when it seems the real reason for doing this has less to do with performance than with "bragging rights."

My dad can beat up your dad -- well he could before he died, I bet.

When Audi developed the original quattro there were a number of different approches that they could have taken. They chose the torsen diff because of its instantaneous action and its full-time/full spead capabilities since it is purely mechanical. The reason they chose the 50/50 split is because the ideal split in most situations is either 50/50 or quite close to it. The origanal quattros also took under consideration the possibility of a skilled driver and gave the option of locking the differential to cater to the SKILLED/performance type driver.

Now fast forward to today and everyone and their mother has an AWD system and The average person has no idea how they work. All they know is the Subaru sloagon "From the wheels that slip to the wheels that grip" is's a shame people can only learn things in nursery-rhyme fashion. Also AWD is also being marketed as being sporty, and to be sporty it must be biased to the rear, because everybody knows that rear wheel drive handles the best. So to appease the instant exerts on AWD like magazine editors, they made a slight change. Have the quattro default as 60/40 and everyone is happy. The system works just as they have engineered it to for the past 25 years and now its sporty like the other systems because it has a sporty rear bias.

It's like Coke vs. New coke but only in reverse.

Having driven the B7 S4, it definitely drives better than previous generations. Whether or not that has to do with the torque split, I don't know for certain. The car definitely understeers less.

To slightly correct markcincinnati, the majority of the racing Audis did not use a Torsen center diff- the UrQ rally cars usually used a locked center, as did the IMSA 200 and 90. I'm not sure what the later BTCC and other touring car classes used. I know the Speed GT cars used Torsen centers.