.:Eurocode Tuning:. Group Buy on Our Alu Kreuz Drivetrain Stabilizer for the B8/B8.5
03-11-2013, 11:09 AM
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.:Eurocode Tuning:. Group Buy on Our Alu Kreuz Drivetrain Stabilizer for the B8/B8.5
GROUP BUY IS: CLOSED
Please add your forum username in the "How you heard about us:" section of the shopping cart at checkout, this will aid us in updating the post.
Click HERE to join the facelift (2013MY) Group Buy
Click HERE to join the pre-facelift (2009-2012MY) Group Buy
Here is a review for the new B8.5 Alu Kreuz
In July I sold my 2009 BMW M-Sport 335i coupe and purchased a 2013 S4 with ADS and sport differential. Compared to the BMW, the S4 is more comfortable, has a better interior - overall a better daily driver BUT it wasn't as fun to drive as the BMW. Compared to the bimmer, the S4 had more body roll and understeer and less road feel. In August I purchased the Eurocode USS front and rear sway bars with end links which significantly reduced understeer and body roll. However it still did not feel BMWish - the steering was vague and numb. Well...today Eurocode installed the new (for 2013) Alu Kreuz stabilizer. I have put about 50 miles on the car since the install and all I can say is Holy Shi*. The Audi now feels better than the BMW in every way. The steering is precise, there is more control during cornering, especially initial turn in. No more tramlining on the freeway. I am finally a very happy Audi owner.[
]
]First the disclaimer; I am in no way associated with Eurocode, other than a totally happy customer. Dave and his crew at Eurocode run a small but great shop and are turning out some amazing products. If you live in the LA area and own an Audi, you need to get to know these guys. If you can't make it to their shop, then get to know your UPS driver.
Now for the review. Before adding the Alu Kruez drive train stabilizer and the USS sways with the solid end links, I had a bone stock 2013 S5 ( B8.5). This car has the electric steering, and I do not have the drive select. I have about 4000 miles on the car with many canyon/mountain runs just for fun. Of course miles of free way also. Before this car I had a 2002 BMW 330CI, owned that car for 10 years, put 140,000 miles on it. I loved driving that car, and drove it hard when the road turned curvy. It was and is a great handling car, so most of my comparisons will be to the BMW.
The Audi is an amazing car, and I love just about everything about it, but that said, there were a few things that were starting to bug me in the handling and driver feel department. First, when driving down a straight stretch of freeway at high speed, it felt numb and vague at neutral. The road feel was not there, and putting in a small force input to center the lane, was inconsistently met with no response from the car, then a little more input and it would be too much. Large sweeping turns were the worst, a small input to start the turn, often then needing a bigger input, that would then turn out to be too much, it was just weird and inconsistent. There was also a bit of tramlining, although it was less than the BMW. If you have a 2013 S5, I think you know what I am talking about.
Well let me tell you, these problems are now gone. I just can't believe the difference. Virtually no tramlining, and the steering vagueness is gone, I now have road feel in neutral. It now feels very much like my BMW on the freeway. Put a little pressure on the wheel and the car instantly and consistently responds, just like it should. Before I put these parts on, I was a little worried that the USS with the solid end links might adversely effect the comfort and noise input of the suspension. I was relieved on the drive home to notice no issues at all. The car is just as compliant over bumps as before, and those annoying little expansion cracks are still met with the same dull thud as before. I would not be worried about adverse effects to comfort or noise. It is one of those rare win win improvements. If anything I think it responds to bumpy problems in the road with more comfort, and much less drama now.
Now for the really good part. I just got back from some mountain / canyon roads, and holly sh** its a different car. It has been transformed into a BMW killer. Turn in is instant, hitting the apex easy, and acceleration out of turns breathtaking. Before these mods, accelerating out of turns would cause some pointing issues, but they are now gone, I have so much more control of the car, it is now point and shoot and I hit everything I point at. IMO it is now better than my 330CI by a wide margin. I obviously am not driving the car to the limit, these are public roads, but wow, the way it feels is so much better than before, body roll vastly reduced, turn in instant, stability and precision when carving a turn impressive even when the road is bumpy, and I can really feel what the tires are doing now. My confidence in the car has gone way up. This is with stock shocks and tires.
Summing it all up, no detriment to comfort or noise. Freeway manners are fixed. Hard cornering is impressive. This is how it should have been built. Thank you Eurocode for engineering and selling such great parts that totally enhance the enjoyment of this car.
Alu Kreuz + USS = [] If you can't decide if this is the right thing to do, I can only say, read all this again, its totally win win.
Now for the review. Before adding the Alu Kruez drive train stabilizer and the USS sways with the solid end links, I had a bone stock 2013 S5 ( B8.5). This car has the electric steering, and I do not have the drive select. I have about 4000 miles on the car with many canyon/mountain runs just for fun. Of course miles of free way also. Before this car I had a 2002 BMW 330CI, owned that car for 10 years, put 140,000 miles on it. I loved driving that car, and drove it hard when the road turned curvy. It was and is a great handling car, so most of my comparisons will be to the BMW.
The Audi is an amazing car, and I love just about everything about it, but that said, there were a few things that were starting to bug me in the handling and driver feel department. First, when driving down a straight stretch of freeway at high speed, it felt numb and vague at neutral. The road feel was not there, and putting in a small force input to center the lane, was inconsistently met with no response from the car, then a little more input and it would be too much. Large sweeping turns were the worst, a small input to start the turn, often then needing a bigger input, that would then turn out to be too much, it was just weird and inconsistent. There was also a bit of tramlining, although it was less than the BMW. If you have a 2013 S5, I think you know what I am talking about.
Well let me tell you, these problems are now gone. I just can't believe the difference. Virtually no tramlining, and the steering vagueness is gone, I now have road feel in neutral. It now feels very much like my BMW on the freeway. Put a little pressure on the wheel and the car instantly and consistently responds, just like it should. Before I put these parts on, I was a little worried that the USS with the solid end links might adversely effect the comfort and noise input of the suspension. I was relieved on the drive home to notice no issues at all. The car is just as compliant over bumps as before, and those annoying little expansion cracks are still met with the same dull thud as before. I would not be worried about adverse effects to comfort or noise. It is one of those rare win win improvements. If anything I think it responds to bumpy problems in the road with more comfort, and much less drama now.
Now for the really good part. I just got back from some mountain / canyon roads, and holly sh** its a different car. It has been transformed into a BMW killer. Turn in is instant, hitting the apex easy, and acceleration out of turns breathtaking. Before these mods, accelerating out of turns would cause some pointing issues, but they are now gone, I have so much more control of the car, it is now point and shoot and I hit everything I point at. IMO it is now better than my 330CI by a wide margin. I obviously am not driving the car to the limit, these are public roads, but wow, the way it feels is so much better than before, body roll vastly reduced, turn in instant, stability and precision when carving a turn impressive even when the road is bumpy, and I can really feel what the tires are doing now. My confidence in the car has gone way up. This is with stock shocks and tires.
Summing it all up, no detriment to comfort or noise. Freeway manners are fixed. Hard cornering is impressive. This is how it should have been built. Thank you Eurocode for engineering and selling such great parts that totally enhance the enjoyment of this car.
Alu Kreuz + USS = [
] If you can't decide if this is the right thing to do, I can only say, read all this again, its totally win win. 
Here it is, the second group buy on our facelift version Alu Kreuz (pronounced kroitz) drivetrain stabilizer for the B8.5 chassis Audi's to include the A4, S4, A5, S5, Q5 and RS5. Our Alu Kreuz replaces the factory multi piece drive train stabilizer with one solid, lightweight structural member to further stiffen the chassis and prevent unwanted suspension deflection. All 6 mounting points are secured to one single plane; the net result is sharper steering with a reduction in chassis flex.
Who would benefit from the addition of the Alu Kreuz? We feel that if you enjoy spirited driving, like to take the on ramps and off ramps of the highway a little quicker than you peers, enjoy a nice drive through the canyons (twisties), the occasional track day or high performance driving class or just want to run your car ***** out on the road course, the Alu Kreuz is perfect for you.
During our testing of the B8.5 chassis cars which are comprised of the Audi A4, S4, A5, S5, Q5 and RS5 we found that there was quite a bit of torsional flex coming from the factory subframe/engine carrier. This torsional flex produced what we felt to be incorrect steering sensitivity and response in all aspects of driving. To combat this unwanted characteristic, we did a thorough examination of the front suspension, chassis unibody, and the engine carrier/subframe. Our conclusion was that the OEM hollow steel drivetrain stabilizer underperformed.
The team at Eurocode set out to combat this torsional flex and decided to redesign the drivetrain stabilizer. Our first step was to analyze the material that the factory stabilizer was made up of and then create a load case scenario in which to test it under. We sent out a sample for materials testing and found the factory stabilizer to be made up of carbon steel with a density of 0.284 lb/in3, predominately hollow and stamped into shape. The OEM stabilizer is made up of nine separate pieces, and they are all welded together to form one single unit. Once all of this data was collected and loaded, our team set out with the goal of improving chassis rigidity and weight reduction. Our team found that a replacement stabilizer manufactured out of billet aluminum would accomplish our goals, so the next step was the design process.
Our design process went through several revisions, with each version being loaded into computer modeling to test how it would stack up against the inferior OEM product; these revisions were also built and tested not only on the road, but as well as on a closed course with the feedback provided by a professional driver to the design engineers.
The finished product, which we dub “Alu Kreuz”, is incredible. It features a one piece, billet T7 aircraft aluminum construction, type III hard anodized coating, and all necessary provisions to attach the OEM sound deadeners. It requires zero modification to the vehicle, and works perfectly with the OEM power steering cooler. The Alu Kreuz is also nearly two pounds lighter than the OEM brace and greatly improves chassis torsional rigidity. It looks amazing as well.
Independent analysis was performed on the product and the conclusions were that in each of the pre set load case scenarios, the Alu Kreuz deflected less than the OEM stabilizer, carries less stress for a given applied load and the fatigue life of the product is greater than OEM.
The group buy also includes the pre 2013 cars (non-facelift)
Terms of the group buy are as follows:
[LIST][*]Group buy will run from February 14, 2013 through March 30, 2013 [*]Individual discount will be based on the number of participants in the group buy[*]A fully refundable $349.00 deposit is required to join the group buy (backing out will affect others)[*]We will update this post as necessary to inform the participants of the discount level[*]All orders will need to be paid in full prior to shipment of the group buy items[*]A link will be provided to place deposit[*]2012 and below pre-facelift cars are also eligible to join too!!![*]We reserve the right to modify/extend/close the group buy based upon the response and quantity available.
Click HERE to join the facelift (2013MY) Group Buy
Click HERE to join the pre-facelift (2009-2012MY) Group Buy
Group buy pricing:
- 1-10 participants $389.00
- 11-20 participants $379.00
- 21-30 participants $369.00
- 31-40 participants $349.00
List of 2013 face lift group buy participants:
1. gendry PAID
2. oldzmann PAID
3. s4seven PAID
4. Tomasz@Startup PAID
5. nightfury22 PAID
6. aaronz PAID
7. sixoc PAID
8. kitb8s4 PAID
9. drob23 PAID
10 i8abug PAID
11. Gordon Shumway PAID
12. Coldwolf PAID
13. S-Fore PAID
14. Vixcan PAID
15. thenuge PAID
16. Reb66 PAID
17. tenbosch PAID
18.
19.
20.
List of pre-2013 (non-facelift) group buy participants:
1. MOBSCREAMER PAID
2. easygo PAID
3. Rick Weil PAID
4. BarrelMan17 PAID
5. Stupidfast31 PAID
6. professor_chaos PAID
7. Raizon PAID
8. Trex1200r PAID
9. RHayman PAID
10. CloseEncounters PAID
11. motionneon PAID
12. mrmomo313 PAID
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Customer Testimonials
Click HERE for customer review #1
Click HERE for customer review #2
Click HERE for customer review #3
Click HERE for customer review #4
Click HERE for customer review #5
Click HERE for customer review #6
Click HERE for customer review #7
Click HERE to join the facelift (2013MY) Group Buy
Click HERE to join the pre-facelift (2009-2012MY) Group Buy
Last edited by info@ecodetuning; 02-24-2014 at 11:49 AM.
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