Jamie P

I was directly behind an M coupe on a 3 lane, one way city street last night. From a stop light he gunned his car and left me. I followed in pursuit a couple car legnths behind his car. At full throttle, I did not gain on him. In fact, he widened the gap by another car legnth by 85 mph. At that point, I backed off. This guy had brass ***** and was bodering on crazy. He hit over 100 on a city street with poor pavement, cross roads, and trafic.

The road ends at a T intersection. I pulled up to his right side (outside lane) at the stoplight. As I accelerated a full left turn I began pulling ahead. As our cars straighted out, I was still nosing ahead. I could hear him grind and miss 2nd gear for a spilt second. I pulled a car legnth ahead and he gave up.

verdict: the M coupe is definitely faster than a stock S4. However, the S4 is fast enough to hang with just about any car (other than a crazy fast car like a new vette, viper, 911 twin turbo, etc.). Even if you race a car that is 1/2 a second or so faster on paper, you have a decent chance of winning based on a poor driver. When Car and Driver posts a 5.5 for the S4, that numer is easily reproducable on the street. When Car and Driver posts a 4.8 for a new M3, the same is not true. The reason is that Car and Driver beats the **** out of the cars in the test run. It freely admits that the drivers rev the engine and burn the cluch for a launch. If the car permits, they smoke tires pre-launch. In the Audi, this is obviously not possible. I hung with a new M3 on two seperate occasions for presumably this same reason.

LUCIFA

elaborate it please..

Jamie P

as compared to a time posting for a 2 wheel drive car.

veryfastS4

I really doubt our cars can hang with 'em.
Maybe the older 2000 M's. but then again, I've only ran with the older 2000 and prior M coupe. the new 2001 should eat us alive.
You can tell the difference in the M badge. the newer version badges are a little rounder.

alanaudi

On a straight up race against a *new* M coupe, a stock S4 would lose *badly*. On an older M coupe (240hp), it would be "close".

Also, I think even "good" drivers have missed a shift or two in their life. ;-)

Tostao

Probably not a drop of the clutch (S4), but still vigorous enough to be able to make it slip if it's released improperly. On the M3 you can always get the tires to spin before the clutch would slip (if at all), I bet you need to use some feathering on the M3, which can be fun...something that you should not do on an S4 BTW.

manveer

Burning out on street tires typically results in worse traction, not better.