Alister

Just wondering who here has the APR Stage 3 kit (supercharger) fitted to their RS4?

I've driven a car with the kit and was very impressed with both the absolute power and the way it is delivered and am contemplating the purchase of this kit for my B7 RS4.

If you've got it, what are your thoughts after living with the car for a while and what other supporting mods have you got (clutch, exhaust etc)?

Reggie

You might try AZ forums - I think most of the people who did this mod are there

sakimano

really?

I think there are officially zero (0) APR RS4 kit owners on AZ. Active posters anyway. Maybe a couple of lurkers.

Fact is almost all of the kits were bought by people who don't go on forums. A good bit of that is because forums scrutinize the heck out of products like this, and the initial performance 'proof' from APR was non-existent. It implied that they were concealing a performance problem (for a whole year) and as a friend of a friend found out when his car got the APR kit, they were. He said it really didn't feel all that much faster than stock, and when he took it to the local dragstrip, with good launches he was running 12.7 @ 107-108 mph.

Once JHM stepped in and tune the kit on that guy's car, it ran 12.0 @ 116 a bunch of times, and APR asked if they could use that tune as the building blocks for their own '2.0' version of their kit tune...as well as the S5 SC tune. They got permission from JHM's tuner, and the rest is (happily) history, with their car being the second B6/7 in the 11s (the JHM B6 S4 with the JHM SC was first).

Reggie

You may be right - I only go there once or twice a year but it always seemed to have the more extreme mods on that forum and I do go to QW a lot and do not remember any postings there

sakimano

it was funny, nobody bought the kit..not on AZ or QW. They'd sold a couple of dozen when I spoke to Keith (long time ago)...and none of them were AZ/QW/AW folks. With that JHM tune and them running 11.8 @ 116 I figured more forum guys would step up. Guess we'll see.

bluesbrodas

I attended an event a couple of weeks ago in Blackhawk Farms and there were 3 RS4 attending to it. One was supercharged. I had a chance to talk to the driver and pick on his brains about the kit. He liked it a lot, specially in the street. As far as track usage, I really question the benefits from it in a short track like Blackhawk. My RS4 is stock but I do have some smart and simple weight savings worth around 200 lbs along with very good brakes. Unfortunately we did not run together in the same sessions but my daughter and I were timing both of our RS4 laps and I was 1.5 seconds faster per lap and also was carrying about 5 mph more than the Supercharged RS4 in the straightaway. I suspect this is because I was carrying a lot more speed in the last turn going into the straightaway. Also the fact that he adds 120 lbs with this kit in the wrong place plus the short track... My conclusion was to save the $ for the kit and put it on my piggy back for a real track car

ELEVENS

Can't really argue the physics but my bet is on the difference behind the wheel. Please tell us how you dropped 200 pounds! That's the better path to performance.

sakimano

If it was 'supercharged' that might mean it has a PES or VF Engineering RS4 kit...which is basically adding 20-30 whp a.k.a almost nothing. The quartermile RS4 database that I administer on Audirevolution will reveal all you need to know about how **** those PES and VF kits were. Here's some perspective:

My car, bone stock and never carbon cleaned, ran 12.75 @ 108 mph.

Kryptonik (a good driver) + PES supercharger (Eaton M90) kit + meth + full Milltek exhaust + LW wheels, ran 12.65 @ 110 mph. $20,000 in mods for 1 tenth/2mph.

ELEVENS RS4 that has only a GIAC tune and an h-pipe went 12.56 @ 110 mph...a full tenth faster than the supercharged car with only about $1,000 in mods...same MPH.

Before you say it's the driver etc, not the case. Kryptonik, elevens and I are all decent drivers and all 3 of us cut near identical 60 foot times (1.84, 1.83, 1.83 respectively). I believe all 3 runs are on youtube in case you think kryptonik mis-shifted.

If you are saying you were handily faster than an APR supercharged RS4, I would say the driver in the APR car was not so sharp. I've driven APR RS4s on multiple occasions and they are very strong provided they've had the updated tune APR bought from JHM. Not a worldbeater, but good for 11.8-12.1 @ 116-118. That will crush a stock -200 lbs RS4 on any track or straight with similar drivers, unless the driver in the SC car is trying to lose. 5% weight loss vs. 20% power gain is lopsided...especially when the weight loss is not off the front, but the middle/rear.

Here's an APR RS4 with the JHM tune and JHM exhaust vs. a stage III B5 S4 VAST frankenturbo with full bolt ons (awe fullback, ER SMICs, VAST meth kit etc).
Ten pulls were done with the RS4 walking the B5 every time. This pull is 1st through 5th gear.

Watch "JHM Tuned B7 RS4 with TVS1320 SC vs. VAST Tuned Stage III B5 S4 with" on AudiRevolution.net