B8 Audi A4 Avant Gets S4 Powertrain Swap for Max Performance
This Audi A4 Avant S4 clone mimics something that wasn’t sold in the U.S., and the results are quite impressive.
It may seem hard for many of us to believe, but 2009 was a pretty long time ago at this point – 14 years, to be exact. That’s an eternity in the automotive world, when things change quickly and technology advances at a rapid rate. However, there’s still plenty to like about Audi vehicles produced during this era, with their simple, tasteful styling that’s held up nicely over the years, as well as some compelling performance models. However, there was one ride in particular that wasn’t sold in the U.S. – the B8 S4 Avant, so a fellow named Mark Jackson set out to create his own by starting out with a 2009 Audi A4 Avant, a build that was recently featured in a video from Deutsche Auto Parts.
This Audi A4 Avant came from the factory with a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four cylinder under the hood, which generates a reasonable 211 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. It’s a decent engine for this platform, but it’s no hot rod by any means, leaving enthusiasts like us – and Jackson – wanting more. Thus, he decided he was going to build his own version of the B8 S4 wagon that America didn’t get.
Jackson set out to find a suitable donor, and wound up doing just that in the form of a wrecked S4. He harvested that car’s supercharged 3.0-liter V6, six-speed manual transmission, and differential, but he didn’t just leave the new motor alone, either. Instead, he added some performance extras such as an Integrated Engineering Stage 2 Double Pulley tune, a smaller supercharger pulley to ramp up boost, and a CTS crank. The result, according to Jackson, is that his wagon now makes around double the horsepower of the engine that it replaced.
Amazingly, Jackson points out that this job was actually pretty simple and straightforward, given the fact that the A4 and S4 share so much in common. His goal here wasn’t just to make his wagon faster, however – rather, he wanted to ensure that the average person couldn’t tell that this isn’t a factory B8 S4 Avant, so he even went to the trouble of swapping over the entire interior and other bits and pieces. Needless to say, it’s an amazing finished product, and one that makes us want to go out and build our own hot rod wagon.
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