Audi S4 vs. Evo VIII

I originally came here last night to post this story, but it was late and I was getting tired, so better late then never.

Driving home from a buddy's house last night on the freeway I noticed a new Audi S4 that was driving in a somewhat spirited fashion. My sister-in-law has the same car and, although I've never driven it, it's definately not cheap or slow. What I know about the new S4 is that it has a 4.2L V8 that revs for days and pulls hard down low too. The BBC's Top Gear (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5251473325583589590&q=S4+m3+top+gear) even called it a "masterpiece" after it beat an E46 M3 around their track. Needless to say that, as I caught up to him and tried to get his attention, I was fully prepared to get my ass handed to me.

I pulled up next to him on the driver's side and I think at first he thought I was a cop or something because he almost jumped in his seat and let off the gas when he looked over at me pacing him. LOL. Looked like a guy in his late 30's. It was dark but I could see he had a bluetooth on his left ear that was lit up. He was talking to somebody on it too and started smiling right away when he looked over at me. He flicked his dome light on twice and then just took off. That thing was fucking quick and sounded bad ass and all...I dunno...technically advanced I guess you could say.

We were doing about 80mph when he took off. I did the same and by about 110mph he had lifted so I did too. It didn't seem like I made up any of the ground. I was probably a good 50 feet back. When I got up next to him again he sorta raised his eyebrows and I could see him talking again to whoever was on the other end that cell phone call. This time I flashed the dome light twice (no easy feat in an RS) and took off in 5th gear at about 85mph. I let off at about 115mph and he was about the same...50 feet...behind me. He pulls up next to me once more (the light on the bluetooth earpiece is off now) and he gives me a thumbs up...I think...it was dark. I wasn't done yet so I paced him in 4th gear, side by side, at about 65mph lurching every now and then to see if he'll bite. Finally he took the bait!

I couldn't hear his car this time because at 65mph in 4th gear my car is at about 3.8k RPM's and my exhaust is loud. But needless to say turbo lag is not an issue at that RPM. His quick jump had put about a car length in between us but my the time I ran 4th gear out at about 115mph I had pulled even. When I shifted to 5th I lost a few feet and then when I started pulling again he let off. That was probably a good idea as we were doing almost 125mph. :22yikes:

I have no idea what, if anything, had been done to the Audi. My guess is nothing. My '05 Evo VIII RS has a full TBE (70mm Tanabe DP, 3" HFC, 3" RSR ExMag exhaust), JDM MR BOV, K&N drop-in and an EcuTek flash and dyno tune from Gruppe-S (http://www.gruppe-s.com/evo.htm) in Hayward, CA. Oh yeah...it's been unusually cold around here lately (29 degrees last night) and it feels like the intercooler loves it on the open road - atleast when it comes to the initial throttle response. :thumbsup:

wow you barely beat a car that only traps 103mph? hmmm that doesn't seem right. plus the car that jermey clarkson drove was a RS4 not a S4, the RS4 has over 400hp. thats why he said its better then the M3.

plus why were you in 4th at 64mph when you raced him? isn't that 1 gear too high?

I was in the correct gear. That S4 moved pretty good too. Trapping 103mph is not bad at all, plus that's just one magazine's numbers. It pulled more like an E46 M3, which I believe traps higher than that. Did you clink on the Top Gear hyperlink I posted? That WAS NOT an RS4. They featured an S4. Here's a Best Motoring bit where they compared the M3, S4, STi Spec C and AMG55...

http://www.mysubprofile.com/mbworld/Best%20Motoring%20Internacional/STI%20vs%20S4%20vs%20c55%20vs%20M3.wmv

oh that was the older video. i thought you were talkin about the video where he raced the speed climber up a cliff with a RS4.

well the S4 still lost to the M3 but i've seen repeated magazine mph in the 100-103mph range. i've never seen it trap any higher.

with the mods that you got you should be trapping close to 112-115mph. it shouldn't even be close.

...with the mods that you got you should be trapping close to 112-115mph. it shouldn't even be close...
Not quite that fast. Some of the newer Evo IX models have trapped over 110mph with a flash and full TBE. They have a bigger turbo, better fuel pump, stronger factory BOV and variable valve timing (MIVEC) though. An '05 VIII with my mods, a Walbro 255, some 272/272 cams and a fresh tune should get close to that 112-115mph trap range though...even with our crappy 91 octane swill out here in CA.

yeah which is what i said, you should be killing the crap out of that S4. btw i saw that BMI and its great, very surprised at the result.

Good kill, but not unexpected, especially since your car is modified. The S4 is a bit on the heavy side, so the 344hp V8 is moving alot more weight around then your turbo 4.

A stock evo should be doing a 1/4 in the mid 13s, the S4 does mid to high 13s. The car makes for a great luxury sport sedan, but its 1/4 mile times generally arn't as good as the M3 or the C55 (its real competition).

Any idea how much power your car is putting down?

Regarding the BMI video, did he really call SMG an automatic and Audi's automatic a sequential? :banghead: Hopefully that was just a translation issue, because there is a huge difference between the two transmissions.

I enjoy the BMI videos, but is it just me, or do the Japanese cars always win? They seem to be even more biased towards Japanese cars then Top Gear is towards British cars, just an observation. I wish they would have used manuals on the S4 and the M3 just to keep the cars as similar as possible. I'm not sure how old that video is, but the ZCP/CS M3 would have been a smarter choice for the comparison because it is to the regular M3 what the Spec-C is to the regular STI. But then again I might just be bitter that the M3 lost. :dunno:

I can't wait for the E90/E92 M3 to come out.

TatII...I'm still on stock cams so I'm not in that 112-115mph range yet.

DinanM3_S2...on most dynos I'd be around 290whp/310wtq. On the stingy Mustang dyno over at Gruppe-S that translates to about 250whp/270wtq. It's a real ball buster. They've only had one VIII go over 300whp on the stock turbo. Stock Evos dyno between 210-220whp over there. Their dyno is very consistent though and makes for a reliable baseline so you can really mark the good/bad improvements in your mod path. It's just not that great for people in love with telling people what kind of numbers they put down.

so even if you trap at like 108-110mph your still blowing that S4 out of the water.

but damn those EVO's are putting down almost no power with those mods. but i haven't been on evolutionm.net in a long time but with all that you still can't break 300whp? hmmmm it has to be the gas you guys have around here.

i know its not good to magazine race but i remember a few years back when SCC had a evo challenge and vishnu's customer's EVO had just a exede reflash, fuel pump, full turbo back and he made 350whp and trapped 112mph.

you have more stuff then he does and you have a 04 which has a slightly bigger turbine then the 03's which that car was. but i guess he was running race gas at the moment and was running a high octane map.

so even if you trap at like 108-110mph your still blowing that S4 out of the water.

but damn those EVO's are putting down almost no power with those mods. but i haven't been on evolutionm.net in a long time but with all that you still can't break 300whp? hmmmm it has to be the gas you guys have around here.

i know its not good to magazine race but i remember a few years back when SCC had a evo challenge and vishnu's customer's EVO had just a exede reflash, fuel pump, full turbo back and he made 350whp and trapped 112mph.

you have more stuff then he does and you have a 04 which has a slightly bigger turbine then the 03's which that car was. but i guess he was running race gas at the moment and was running a high octane map. Well he did get the jump at freeway speeds and I caught up. That S4 was fast and it pulled hard. Weight differences are not nearly as pronounced at freeway speeds. That car was built to cruise the autobahn and mine was built to go from 0-100mph. He was in his element and I was not.

You're putting me in the awkward situation of talking down my car. LOL. I'm very familair with the Vishnu ringer Evo that put down 350whp on their "moon" dyno. IIRC, it did those numbers with a race tune, C16, and a test pipe.

With some race gas, a race tune, and a test pipe I would put down better numbers than that because my car (an '05, not an '04) has the bigger 10.5cm^2 hotside. Anyways looking at peak numbers is only half the equation. Power under the curve is what makes a car fun. I'll gladly trade 5-10 peak whp for another 20whp/30wtq between 3.5k and 7.2k RPM's. My car is also tuned to last with a safe AFR and boost levels appropriate for 91 octane pee-pee. This is a mid 12 second car on pump. With cams it'll be a low 12 second car.

:iagree:

Both of their runs were high speed +100mph pulls. Which would defiantly play more to the S4s advantage so its not that surprising.

it's been unusually cold around here lately (29 degrees last night)

wow, i wish it was 29 right now....yesterday was -9 and today was like 10 degrees, and no.....its not a typo before the 9, its a NEGATIVE

wow, i wish it was 29 right now....yesterday was -9 and today was like 10 degrees, and no.....its not a typo before the 9, its a NEGATIVE
Hehe. Yeah we're spoiled out here. I remember negative temperature readings when I lived in Iowa. No way Jose! I'm done with that. BTW...last week it got up to 75 during the day. That's about 12 degrees higher than the normal temps this time of year. Then it got cold all of a sudden. 29 degrees is way unusual around here. It's especially bad for all the fruit and veggie crops in the central valley.

so even if you trap at like 108-110mph your still blowing that S4 out of the water.

but damn those EVO's are putting down almost no power with those mods. but i haven't been on evolutionm.net in a long time but with all that you still can't break 300whp? hmmmm it has to be the gas you guys have around here.

i know its not good to magazine race but i remember a few years back when SCC had a evo challenge and vishnu's customer's EVO had just a exede reflash, fuel pump, full turbo back and he made 350whp and trapped 112mph.

you have more stuff then he does and you have a 04 which has a slightly bigger turbine then the 03's which that car was. but i guess he was running race gas at the moment and was running a high octane map.

My former 03 Evo was tuned by Shiv himself. It had a catback exh., K&N drop in, and the XEDE piggyback in it. It only dynoed 228whp. Dunno how he saw 300whp. I saw a guy at his shop with a cam, cam gears, turboback exh., CAI, BOV of some sort, and the ecu flash. He only saw 280whp. Shiv's dyno reads really low numbers though.

Steiner you should have Shiv look at your car. He is very knowledgeable about cars. Whatever you do, avoid the dynoflash.

Gosh, I still miss my Evo. Oh well :(

My former 03 Evo was tuned by Shiv himself. It had a catback exh., K&N drop in, and the XEDE piggyback in it. It only dynoed 228whp. Dunno how he saw 300whp. I saw a guy at his shop with a cam, cam gears, turboback exh., CAI, BOV of some sort, and the ecu flash. He only saw 280whp. Shiv's dyno reads really low numbers though.

Steiner you should have Shiv look at your car. He is very knowledgeable about cars. Whatever you do, avoid the dynoflash.

Gosh, I still miss my Evo. Oh well :(
Sup dude. Around here Shiv is not well liked. The NorCal Evo boards banned him after he insisted on getting personal with other tuners and site sponsors. I've never had any first hand experience with him or his Vishnu shop, but they're about 2 miles from my house in Danville. I live in San Ramon. On the other hand Gruppe-S is across the street from my work and Mike is the most knowledgeable and communicative tuner I've ever met. He makes you feel like the customer and not the other way around like Shiv has been known to do. After Gruppe-S there's WORKS in San Francisco. Nice shop. Nice guys. Great parts. Obscene prices. There's also San Rafael Mitsubishi just across the Golden Gate from SF. They have a state of the art performance shop, $100k AWD dyno, a giant flat screen in the waiting room looping WRC footage, and a direct pipeline into some of the cleanest Ralliart stuff I've ever seen. It takes me two bridges, $6 in tolls, $10 in gas and 1:30 of bumper-to-bumper traffic to get there though.

uber cool

good race man, though you should work on getting stuff to pull more carlengths on him ;)

uber cool

good race man, though you should work on getting stuff to pull more carlengths on him ;)
Definately! Next on the list are HKS 272/272 cams, Walbro 255 fuel pump, and some Greddy 720cc injectors. In the next 3 or 4 months the Evo will no longer be my daily driver. When that happens I'm planning to replace the stock 16G with a 20G IX.

nice runs. I would have expected you to pull a bit more, but anything can happen on the freeway. Again, nice runs.

hey bro you from the bay.......Im from the valley......we should get a meet going sometime......

Sup dude. Around here Shiv is not well liked. The NorCal Evo boards banned him after he insisted on getting personal with other tuners and site sponsors. I've never had any first hand experience with him or his Vishnu shop, but they're about 2 miles from my house in Danville. I live in San Ramon. On the other hand Gruppe-S is across the street from my work and Mike is the most knowledgeable and communicative tuner I've ever met. He makes you feel like the customer and not the other way around like Shiv has been known to do. After Gruppe-S there's WORKS in San Francisco. Nice shop. Nice guys. Great parts. Obscene prices. There's also San Rafael Mitsubishi just across the Golden Gate from SF. They have a state of the art performance shop, $100k AWD dyno, a giant flat screen in the waiting room looping WRC footage, and a direct pipeline into some of the cleanest Ralliart stuff I've ever seen. It takes me two bridges, $6 in tolls, $10 in gas and 1:30 of bumper-to-bumper traffic to get there though.

Yeah, I can see Shiv coming across as an ass. He is VERY intelligent, but tends to look down on other tuners (I once brought up the departed John Lingenfelter, and Shiv didn't think that much of his twin turbo vette). He knows his stuff, but he is cocky.

Hope you get some 1/4 mile times with that car. I may or may not be going up around the Sacramento area to get some track times (Sea level).

By the way where did you guys find dub'd best motoring? I have been looking for ones with either subs or dubs and cant find them.

By the way where did you guys find dub'd best motoring? I have been looking for ones with either subs or dubs and cant find them.


http://www.247motoring.com/shop/index.php?channel=main_video&client=livesockets#bestmotoring



lazy n00b.

:grinyes:

http://www.247motoring.com/shop/index.php?channel=main_video&client=livesockets#bestmotoring



lazy n00b.

:grinyes:


:lol: oh you have no idea how lazy I am

A little update. I saw my sister-in-law this morning. She has an '05 convertible S4. Not surprisingly, she has no idea WTF it traps at or does in the 1/4 mile. The guy currently boinking her did though. He posts on Audizine.com and was apparently a big reason why she got the car last year. She wanted an M3 vert initially. I told him about my little run and he wasn't surprised by the outcome. He said the current S4 sedan consisently traps at 106mph. Some higher, some lower. The convertible usually traps at about 104mph.

And no...they didn't come in the S4 today, and racing their BMW X3 wouldn't have been worth the gas.

A little update. I saw my sister-in-law this morning. She has an '05 convertible S4. Not surprisingly, she has no idea WTF it traps at or does in the 1/4 mile. The guy currently boinking her did though.

As in your bro?

As in your bro?

Huh??? I believe it's his wife's sister.

I hope you post some times for the Evo soon Steiner. I'm really curious what it'll run. Do you have the 10.5 hotside turbo on it?

Huh??? I believe it's his wife's sister.

Woops. I was way too tired when I posted that to do some genealogy

Huh??? I believe it's his wife's sister.

I hope you post some times for the Evo soon Steiner. I'm really curious what it'll run. Do you have the 10.5 hotside turbo on it?
Yeah it's my wife's sister. Hahaha. Yeah it's an '05 so the 10.5 hotside came standard. As far as car bowling...err I mean drag racing :p, one of these days. I'm really more interested in building it up for track days. Most of the NorCal guys are more into that than drag racing and it's sorta rubbed off on me. That's why I'm going with the 20G IX turbo rather than something like a GT3076 or GT35. Rather than a 500whp straightline monster, I want a 400whp track demon with globs of torque all over the place. Those big turbos are a blast after 4,500 RPM's but I would probably grow tired of the lag when just trying to take a spirited drive through the foothills. Check this out...

http://d31.yousendit.com/D/1PZXU9N6U4X9K15X9J1B6PLAHW/GT35R.mpg

Incorrect. Anything less than a GT42R is to small.

^^^^ what the cheese....

Sorry, I'm like Jeremy Clarkson in that way. I mean, I see the AMS Evo with the GT42R Turbo, and I'm like, why waste your money on anything less. POWER!