Thrash A4 Sline 143 test report ........

[jonathon555]

I have conducted one of my unique speed & handling thrash test of my car today & took a couple of in gear acceleration videos.

Do you want me to post my verdicts ? in comparison to the same test in my E90 320 D & a 170CR A3 sline

If there is any interest I will upload the videos to youtube & write a short report of my findings. Including finding the cars limits.

If no response i will keep quiet :p

[STEWY L]

start loading jonathon,will look forward to seeing it,
regards,
stewy.

[ScottyUK]

Of course we want to see .... even if it's only to say "you've been a very naughty boy!" ;)

[RickT]

I have conducted one of my unique speed & handling thrash test of my car today & took a couple of in gear acceleration videos with my phone.

Do you want me to post my verdicts ? in comparison to the same test in my E90 320 D & a 170CR A3 sline

If there is any interest I will upload the videos to youtube & write a short report of my findings. Including finding the cars limits.

If no response i will keep quiet :p

Come on.. get them uploaded! :approve:

Looking forward to it!

Rick

[jonathon555]

Struggling to get the videos transfered to my lappy, will get them done tomorrow.

But here is the text:

The car was delivered with 10 miles on the clock , so it is fairly tight at present. The car is fitted with 8 x 18 rims wrapped it bridgestone re050's & it is running the Sline -30mm suspension.

Steering is the servotronic power steering.

Using a secret abandoned runway , I ran some tests on the handling & acceleration.

Attacking an apex of a medium 35 degree corner at a a reasonable rate of high knots, the front end grips well with a hint of understeer, the car remains reasonably composed for a heavy car. The steering however is a touch light & seems to slightly become snatchy as you increse the speed. But the car can still be aimed at the apex with confidence.

The ESP does a reasonable job of keeping things in check mid bend when on the limit, but the car does not want to be adjusted using the throttle due to the small ammount of turbo lag that can occur. This is a very neutral car , i could not manage to acheive any lift off oversteer at all !:( under any conditions.

The more you push the more of the same it delivers, even with the ESP disengaged it still puts on a good show, compared to my last e90 3 series this car would be a lot closer over a windy road than any of the motoring press would have you beleive. My car is a MY 09 so I guess it does not have the new electronic LSD, but TBH it does not seem to need one.

I really think that the thing that sharpens up the whole show is the sline suspension, it is a suprisingly comfy composed ride.

I drove an A4 sline running 18's & std sports suspension with the non servo steering before choosing my car & it was dreadful IMO. The steering wheel seemed to be connected to the front wheels by a series of rubber tubes there was no feeling at all. It was exceptionally hard to place on the road at any speed.

The in gear shove is pretty good for supposidly 143 bhp, it is easily a match for a 163bhp 3 series. Lets just say from my experience of a 170 bhp CR A3 as well Audi use much larger horses than Bmw to produce there power.

I will not say much more about the power output of the Audi CR 143 engine other than they have a bit more than 143 BHP as standard. From the in gear films i took using 4th gear from 60 to 90 (overtaking power) my car does not hang about & will only get better with miles. The car pulls cleanly into the Red but not aggressivly as a 170 CR

It is alot faster in gear than my previous 3 series, my car pulls cleanly from 60mph in 6th gear . This is something i could only dream of in the 3 series.

The quality & specification of the A4 compared to the 3 series is beyond comparison. The Usablity of the A4 is superb, it a proper outside lane car, don't be put off by the low claimed power & poor reviews by car mags. I have had over 50 different cars in the last 17 years, including Evo's etc and I can quite honestly say Audi have a good package here that can be pushed hard on a cross country road & it will not leave you feeling dissapointed even if you do drive your cars a touch herder than most.

The brakes are superb & the car also behaves well mid air landing nose heavy but composed. Should a hump in the road catch you out.

If you disagree with my finding please post.

[bodger1961]

I have a 3.0tdi q A4 Advant can get nowhere the 0-60 time and the brakes smoke like a BBQ handles great thou. Needs better front and rear brakes and true 0-60 time is about 6.5. Has antone elase found a similar problem.

[jonathon555]

I have a 3.0tdi q A4 Advant can get nowhere the 0-60 time and the brakes smoke like a BBQ handles great thou. Needs better front and rear brakes and true 0-60 time is about 6.5. Has antone elase found a similar problem.

The brakes will normally only smoke if you have not heat put them through a full heat cycle, even after a lap of the ring your brake should be reasonable.

Unless its running a bigger brake set up than the STD sline, the extra 250+ kg's it carrying will hurt them big style, but not see them smoking.

As for 0-60 alot of it depends on road surface & driver even with 4wd. With my E90 BMW i could not get get within 1 second of the official 0-60 using Race technlogy timing equipment.

So you are doing real well to get within 0.2 secs of the claimed time, once again most test figures are carried out underoptimum conditions.
maybe you tests are not optimum.

Audi also quote 0-62 mph so 0-60 should be about 6.0 dead

[rich164h]

Glad to hear that the Servtronic steering makes a big difference. I don't have it and as a result (and it was the same with my old A3 3.2 S-Line) it makes the car almost completely devoid of steering feel. Understeer for example is often first noticed visually rather than from the sensation fed back from the steering wheel which makes driving to the limit of grip (but not beyond) more down to guesswork than anything else.

I'd also like to say that I can't make any comparison to BMW's cars in terms of power (as I've not driven any), but the 143PS, in my opinion, is only really adequate for normal day-to-day driving. There quite simply isn't enough to make spirited driving that exciting. This means that the technique for rapid progress is more down to trying to keep the momentum up, rather than relying on powering out of corners, which itself is difficult due to the vague steering (as mentioned above). Adding Quattro or opting for the 120PS engine instead would make this even worse.

It seems to me that for handling, a very good combination would the to go for the 170PS with s-line suspension, 18" wheels (not 19s), quattro and servtronic. That would make an excellent package.

Regarding the 0-60 times, I think we have to remember that to achieve those time, the manufactueres will be using ideal conditions, using an empty car with an almost empty tank of fuel and a light driver, and will not be showing any mechanical sympathy to the car whatsoever. If I was only 1 second away from those times I think I'd be happy as I'd cetainly not want to push my own car to the extremes that the manufactures would.