Corey S

The odo now reads 340 miles, and I'm getting used to the clutch and gearbox. I still have some work to do on getting rev matching and such down. The gearbox is totally different from my A4. The throws are considerably longer, and it's still fairly tight. Hopefully it'll loosen up as much as my A4 did. It was so easy to fling between gears on that car.

After getting more used to the power delivery, I still think there is more turbo lag than I was expecting. Buy hey, you can't have everything. It is reasonable, and when that thing gets going, it GOES!! I haven't done any launches off the line yet, but once you get that thing above 30mph, 3rd and 4th gear pull like crazy. And on the highway, 6th gear definitely pulls stronger than 5th in my tweaked A4. 100mph came fairly quickly, with the tach reading a mere 3900. That would translate to about 5000rpm on the A4.

I can't wait to put S-02's on the thing, those RE040's are ok, but nothing like the S-02's. I got on the brakes hard once, to see what they could do, and the ABS kicked in much earlier than I expected. The tires gave out. Those front calipers sure are strong, though. Didn't require much effort from my end to lock 'em up. The car rides incredibly nice, but I need something more aggressive for cornering, so the stock springs and shocks have got to go. Still researching the best solution.

To sum it up in one word: AWESOME! Very nice as is, and has a tremendous amount of potential. Soon I will be tapping into some of it. :-)

Corey S
'00 S4 N w/O/B (Nogaro with/Onyx and Blue alcantara)
99 ZX-9R

Tommy T

Having test driven an S4 last week coming from my A4 w/o sport suspension, I found the ride to be a little stiff/harsh. The salesman said he thought the shipping levelers might still be in the springs. Others who have posted here on the board seem to indicate that the suspension, while good, is still soft. Any thoughts?

Conker

mine feels softer, but handles about the same as my 98 1.8TS

S4 in PA

...I feel the same way about learning to shift smoothly and figuring out the power delivery of the S4 engine, compared to my 12V A4. And I'll bet thing need to loosen up, too, like you said. It already is a pleasant learning experience...get things right and it's magic, compared to the old car. And the old car was quite nice itself.