Fairfax 4.0T

This weekend, I took my S3 to Summit Point raceway, located in West Virginia. Drove the main circuit which is 2.0 miles long and has 10 turns.

I have been driving on road circuits for 13 years, and have on the order of 150 to 200 track days worth of experience. I have a race prepared Porsche 944 turbo that I normally take to the track.

The S3 is an all wheel drive car, and I drove it with the 19" Audi Wheels and magnetic suspension. My S3 is bone stock. I had the car in Sport Mode and Dynamic Mode.

On the racetrack, the S3 had more understeer than I had hoped. I previously drove my 2002 Audi C5 A6 on the track, and of course that car had a lot of understeer.

The S3 has 2 levels of stability control. With stability control on, the car was not a lot of fun on the track, and the traction control system was very active trying to keep the car staight. With the ESP Off button pressed once, the ESP was less intrusive, but the car was pretty strict on not applying power as the car was doing a little sliding around corners.

With the ESP button pressed and held for 3 second, I could apply power through any of the corners I wanted, except of turn 1 which was at the end of the main straight. With my trail braking/sharp turn in, even with the stability control set to its least intrusive position, I had at least 2 second from when I pressed the throttle until the engine responded. This was the only corner on the track which had this issue with ESP not permitting power to be applied.

I was also unhappy with the DSG transmission. I've driven a Cayman S and a 911 with a PDK (Porsche's dual clutch transmission), and those Porsche transmissions were so much better than the Audi DSG on track. The DSG was often not in the right gear when exiting a corner, and it would have to downshift, after the power was applied.

The stock brake pads did develop deposits on the rotors, so I couldn't push the braking too hard. However, this will happen with any street use brake pad.

Bottom line: the car will be OK on the track for a beginner and early intermediate drivers. However, more advanced intermediate students and above will be unhappy with (1) the transmission; (2) understeer; and (3) the lack of ability to completely defeat the stability control program.

However, the S3 is a great car for street driving and I'm very happy with that. It is not a great car on the racetrack, but most all wheel drive cars aren't. For real track fun, I have the 944 Turbo.

arU4ic

Thanks for the write-up. Good points.

Am I right that you drove the track in Auto (S) mode? If so, I have to ask why you didn't manually shift.

Fairfax 4.0T

Yeah, I did not manually shift the DSG transmission. I should have tried it, but since I never paddle shift on the street and when I had my 2013 S6 on the track I did not do as well with the paddle shifters than the computer did in sport mode, I figured I'd leave it in auto mode. I wasn't trying to set any records, and was more interested in pushing/sliding the car through corners than worrying about being in the right gear.

Don't get me wrong, I love a manual transmission on a car that's on track, and prefer it over an automatic. It's just a lot harder for me to be in the right gear using paddles than with a clutch and shift ***.

STL Okie

Nice write up and great photos. Thanks for sharing.

DennisMitchell

Nice write-up. Sounds like fun. Do I see snow on the grass and you were running summer tires? Was it a warm day? I guess you need to work on your paddle shifters.

Kevin70

Very nice write-up.

m3brad

Agree on a nice write-up. I can't imagine driving a sequential manual in auto mode . . . ANYWHERE!!! Way back in the day, when first taking my 2003 M3 SMG to the track, I must have shifted 50 times on a two mile roadcourse, lap after lap!!!

Fixeroh

Excellent write up and the insight is much appreciated! I raced karts and VW Golfs many moons ago when I was stationed in Germany in the late 80s/early 90s. Not much track time since however. Pushing the S3 around some lonely back roads here in Ohio sort of pointed me toward what you wrote about. Audis notoriously understeer. Although I do leave the DSG in auto mode most days, I like using the flappy paddles from time to time. Something that has helped me in that regard is that I'm a huge racing fan (F1 primarily) and have an ambitious PC racing simulator at home. Been using paddles for years with my sims. And left footed braking as well. I do miss proper heel toe downshifts with a good manual but I've adapted and enjoy some of the advantages of the modern tech. Thanks again for the good write up!

jsausley

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks the Audi/VW DSG is dimwitted and slow on the track.

I've driven: VW CC, A3 Cabriolet, S4 and S6 on the track and all of them exhibit the same issues. Upshifting automatically at redline, upshifting during off-throttle or maintenance throttle, not downshifting enough (one downshift when two would have been more appropriate), and just simply slow in manual mode.

This is why my next "fun" car MUST be a manual...

Fairfax 4.0T

Exactly! As I wrote, the Porsche PDK transmission has totally different shift programming. The S3 is my daily driver, and my Porsche 944 turbo track car is a manual transmission, with no stability program. It's clear that the S3 was not designed for the race track, I knew that when I purchased it, and I have not problems with it on the street.