gibsonl

I got handily beat by a ecu tuned B8 S4 a few months ago, so from the videos it at least looks like there's hope to level the field. It's pretty insane that they are picking up 100hp just from the tunes.

sakimano

I agree, that's insane (because it's frankly just not true). All the dynos I've seen have the car (same car same dyno with just a tune) picking up about 25-35 whp. That's probably about 30-40 crank hp. Nowhere near 100.

The B8 comes with about 350 crank hp and 350 crank torque from the factory if you use good 93 octane gas. The 333 is a bit sandbagged. Tune it and they pick up some hp as the car is allowed to run to redline making full boost. Stock tune bleeds off boost starting around 5000-5500 rpm. The real reason the B8 is so strong is their torque curve. It's very impressive. It's really not a curve. It looks like someone just drew a line with a ruler that doesn't seem to lose steam.

I raced a B8 who had tune, downpipes and catback and 18lb lightweight wheels when I had my B7 S4 with tune/downpipes and catback. He won by 2.5 car lengths on a rip from 50-120 mph. We were both on pump gas. My B7 S4 was basically stock RS4 fast (it ran 12.9 @ 107.8 mph at the dragstrip, faster than any stock RS4 time but Richard Jeans...and me in my B7 RS4). When I was in my RS4, and raced a JHM tuned B7 RS4 with full exhaust at the dragstrip, I lost by 3 buslengths (as you saw in the video).

They B8 is definitely a killer fast car (it's nuts really considering the dynamics involved with their 3950+ lb weight). But don't miss their torque numbers...that's where they beat the RS4. HP sounds more fun and makes the dick feel bigger, so lots of B8 guys talk up their stock/tuned hp with their car but their torque curve is their real weapon. That's the raison d'etre of the TVS series blowers.