CLeonard

I said they are cars designed for performance first, then comfort accomodations. The A8 is a luxury cruiser, intended first for comfort. Even if stripped down, the A8 will still weigh more than a stripped down Porsche, Viper or Vette, it will still have a huge front weight bias, and still have a design not intended to be competitive on a racetrack (long wheelbase, front weight bias....for crying out loud, it's a 4-door sedan!).

And when you say the A6's are blowing doors off Porsches and Vipers, you need to take it into context as to what type of racing you're talking about. At an autocross, Miatas blow the doors off Vettes and Porsche 911's because they are better suited for that race. At a drag strip a Big Block Camaro will blow the doors off most Porsches, Vettes, etc but would be laughable at any other event.

I'm not knocking Audi's, and i agree the RS6 is an impressive machine, but you're talking about the A8...and they are two very different machines.

Colby

ryoung

Time ...... Driver ......... Car ......... Tires ....... HP .... Weight
1:56 ..... Pobst ........ Audi A8 ...... street ..... 310 ..... 4000
1:50 ..... DYoung ..... Audi S8 ...... street ..... 360 ..... 4000
1:50 ..... BrianTill ... Acura NSX .... street ..... 290 ..... 3200
1:45 ..... ???? ...... Dodge Neon .... street ..... 150 ..... 2500
1:44 ..... Prall ......... Audi A4 ....... street ..... 250 ..... 2600
1:37 ..... Galati ...... Audi RS6 ...... street ..... 495 ..... 3150
1:35 ..... ???? ...... NASCAR Busch . race ...... 600 ..... 3300
1:31 ..... Pobst ...... Audi RS6 ....... race ...... 495 ..... 3150
1:29 ..... DYoung ..... SCCA FC ...... race ...... 150 ...... 980

I don't recall who the drivers were, but I personally witnessed the lap times of the Busch Series car and the Neon. Brian Till is the CART Champ Car driver in the NSX in the Mid-Ohio video <A HREF="http://www.midohio.com/school/video/">In the Driver's Seat</a>. Also, to be fair, Randy Pobst's 1:56 in the A8 was the best of only a short three lap session; Don's 1:50 in the S8 was the best lap of five 30-minute sessions.

but The Ugly Truth:

The lightweight bone stock Dodge Neon with track pads will embarrass most cars. The only problem is that the Neon has a tendency to roll onto it's back when pushed too hard in a corner :-(

Martin Dower

Quick in a straight line but compared to my track-prepped Lotus (with just 170bhp) it is a dog, it understeers, it's unresponsive, it's got crap grip, it won't stop quickly etc....the list goes on. For the money buy a 1990 Bimmer 325, strip that down to 1,000kgs, sort the suspension and brakes and for £7,000 you will get a proper race car with race car handling, brakes and feel.

ex-a8drifter

Well the lesson is that even a metro could be fast with enough money into it.

CLeonard

The reason I ask is because back in the day (AKA mid 90's) I was quite active in the import drag race scene (well before Fast and the Furious came out). I had a '90 Talon AWD. It was insanely modified (stripped, made well over 400hp and ran 12 sec 1/4 miles IN DENVER...sea level it was an 11 sec car). The car was silly fast and amazingly enough the 2.0l motor could handle it. Well, the rest of the car could not. I went through 4-5 transfer cases a season, a couple transmissions, and numerous axle shafts (in fact, I had to draw a line on each shaft before every run, at the end of the run I would look at the shafts to see how wrapped the line was around the axle). AWD was essential. It gave me an insane launch, even monster Chevy's would lose off the line, but after the 60' it was a game of catch up to the finish line. But the AWD system wasn't designed to take that kind of abuse. Is Audi any different?

Also, AWD is sometimes a disadvantage. It tends to create understeer, and in tight courses, actually in most courses, drivers prefer slight oversteer to understeer. Unequal front axle lengths also can cause torque steer, which was a HUGE issue on my Talon (it was a challenge to keep it straight on launch). True, the Porsche Turbo comes w/ AWD, and it's a beast, but if AWD is so great ON THE TRACK, why do so few cars have it?

Colby

Sven_S8

The TorSen Quattro is quite strong, but 'how much' is difficult to answer. There are RS4 and RS6 out there with ~ 650bhp, so 'a lot' would be safe to say.

Also the (real) Hummer uses a similar system, different circumstances, but still, they get a lot of abuse.

Oversteer can be provoked with the (S)8, as said in the <a href="http://www.audipages.com/on_track/Midohio0.html">Mid Ohio</a> review. So that needn't be much of an issue. (I go round corners quicker as I used to with my BMW's).

AntiSocial

But hey, it's your money.