APR Motorsport Audi S4 Expects Podium at Lime Rock

The APR Motorsports Audi S4 in action at VIR. (Courtesy APR Motorsports)

PR Motorsports introduced its brand new Audi S4 to the Grand Am Continental Tire Sports car Challenge Grand Sport class. The car had never been raced anywhere by anyone, and had the teething problems one would expect from a totally untested car in a demanding racing series.

The Audi qualified in the top five at the Homestead and Barber rounds, and showed it had the speed to run with the podium winners. Reliability was the car’s downfall, but with each race, more problems were fixed and more was learned.

Through constant development, the team believes it has fixed all the problems that hindered the car in the past.

“This is what developing a new program is about, something goes wrong and you develop a fix and learn from it. We know we have the pace, and the reliability is getting better all the time,” said APR Director of Motorsport Jeff Mishtawy, in a press release.

2010 Audi S4

2010 Audi S4 is a great car. With 333 supercharged horses and an elegant and well put together interior, what's not to like?

Audi's six-speed manual transmission is silky smooth, with a nice short throw. Engine power is plentiful thanks to the supercharger. But unlike most, there is no hint of that blower - no whine, no boost gauge to look at. In fact, it sounds like a normally aspirated V-6 but feels like a V-8.

Inside is absolutely gorgeous. The interior is classy and clean, yet trendy and sporty. Our black on black color scheme with aluminum accents was very nice. I'm not a fan of the electronic emergency brake; I still like the old-fashioned grab handle. But with Audi's MMI system, there isn't enough room for an e-brake lever. The seat bolsters wrap around your torso and hold you in, but they're still comforta

Audi 2010 Audi S4 Road Test

The Audi S4 returns, after a one year hiatus, for the 2010 model year. A lot has happened in the last year, and Audi Canada is one of the few car companies that could truthfully say "it's been a good year."

Audi's ability to adapt to new market reality has not only been its saving grace, it has allowed the German automaker to relish the new order. Audi is cleverly positioning itself in the marketplace as "progressive luxury." Never mind size or glitz -- just feel and enjoy guilt-free performance and real quality.

Based on the A4 sedan, the new S4 fits perfectly into this lean and athletic new definition of luxury. Fast yet fuel-frugal, technically advanced yet sensibly priced, this S4 offers the smart buyer a sophisticated high-performance sedan for a new generation.

At $52,500 (for the six-speed manual version) the "repositioning" of the S4 has made it almost $20,000 below its predecessor. Instead of a fuel-guzzling V8 engine, the new and lighter S4 comes with a fuel-efficient, direct-injected three-litre V6 with a supercharger.

The new TFSI V6 engine can develop 333 horsepower between 5,300 and 6,000 r.p.m., which is only seven horsepower less than the V8. Torque is rated at 325 foot-pounds, which is 23 ft.-lbs. more than the old V8 and 90 per cent of it is available between 1,500 and 4,200 r.p.m.

Fuel economy has improved considerably compared with the previous-generation S4, and is estimated to be 13.8 litres per 100 kilometres in the city and nine litres per 100 km on the highway. Like the old V8, however, premium fuel is a "must" in the new S4.

The base S4 ($52,500) comes with a smooth and precise six-speed manual transmission (6MT) with short easy to navigate shifts through its gear range. The S4 (for $54,100) can also be ordered with an optional paddle-shifting, seven-speed S-Tronic transmission, which also operates like a normal automatic.

It's actually a dual-clutch auto-shifting manual transmission that cleverly pre-selects the next gear, with its second clutch, so effectively the shift has already been made. The S-Tronic can also skip gears when required, it blips the throttle when downshifting, and it can change gears in micro-seconds during hard acceleration.

Quattro all-wheel-drive is standard and the S4 can also be ordered with a new Sports Rear Differential ($1,500). No ordinary limited-slip differential, it's an active or "torque vectoring" differential. When steering into or accelerating out of a corner this differential can add torque to an outside rear wheel, to reduce under-steer.

Another piece of Audi techno-magic is a Drive Select system that comes with the Premium trim and gives the driver a choice of four driving modes. Throttle response, suspension damping, transmission shift points and steering action can all be set in comfort, dynamic, automatic or an individual mode, which is setup by the driver.

The S4's refined powertrain allows it reach 100 km/hour in about five seconds and it has a top speed of 250 km/hour. We got to experience this first-hand on the Infineon Racetrack in Sonoma, formerly called Sears Point. It's a challenging circuit that has lots of corners and changes in track elevation.

Audi also gave me an S4 to take for an extended (six-to-seven-hour) drive to Los Angeles, as I took a slightly longer route back to Vancouver. Is there a better way to test seat and cabin comfort than spend hours behind the wheel on motorway in 110-degree heat?

Apart from scorched eyeballs, no aches, pains or speeding tickets to report. The latter would have been easy to achieve as the S4 feels very stable at highways speeds and has lots of reserve untapped power at the legal limit. My fuel-consumption calculations were scuttled by a lengthy traffic snarl in the Bay Area, but I still managed to average 10.1 L/100km.

2010 Audi S4

Napa Valley, California - Time does fly in the automotive world. I remember driving the A4-based Audi S4 in 2001, and being blown away by its poise and power at the time. Equipped with a twin-turbocharged V6 engine making 250 horsepower, it was a substantial step up from the 150-hp, 2000 A4 1.8T. But it cost about $70,000.

By 2008, the S4 had transformed into a rip-roaring 4.2-litre, V8-powered car making 340 hp. Its sound under hard acceleration was something to savour, but the price was still over $70,000. Serious coin, as they say.

After taking a break from the marketplace for a year, the Audi S4 returns for 2010, and it is a true evolution. Not because it’s bigger, more aggressive and more imposing (it’s not); but rather because it’s more sophisticated, more fuel efficient, and makes about the same power as the V8 S4, even though it uses a new and smaller-displacement 3.0-litre V6 engine. Happily, the price now starts at $52,500 for the six-speed manual version, which is what car manufacturers call a “repositioning” of the product, and would-be S4 owners call an opportunity.

2010 Audi S4. Click image to enlarge

The new engine is a supercharged, direct fuel-injected, dual overhead camshaft V6 that makes 333 hp at between 5,300 and 6,000 r.p.m. Torque is rated at 325 foot-pounds from between 1,500 and 4,200 r.p.m. (23 more than the outgoing V8), but 90 per cent of the S4’s torque is available at only 2,200 r.p.m. Fuel economy is improved compared with the previous-generation S4, estimated to be 13.8 L/100 km city and 9.0 L/100 km highway. Premium fuel is required, and the coefficient of drag is 0.28.

The re-engineered six-speed manual transmission (6MT) is a very smooth and precise unit with short shifts and no vibration when moving up and down through the gears. Alternatively, for $54,100 you can order your S4 with the optional paddle-shifting, seven-speed S tronic (7AT) which operates like a conventional automatic transmission with benefits.

In paddle-shifting mode, this dual clutch transmission shifts faster than Allan McNish (Audi’s Le Mans-winning driver) can shift through a manual gearbox, doing so by preselecting the upcoming gear with its second clutch while accelerating through the range. The result is that when it’s time to shift, it’s effectively already happened.

2010 Audi S4. Click image to enlarge

In automatic mode, the S tronic transmission shifts almost imperceptibly through the gears under mild or moderate acceleration, but responds instantly and optimally to your right foot when high performance is requested. This transmission can skip gears when required, blip the throttle when downshifting, and change gears in micro-seconds when accelerating hard, with no power loss (according to Audi) between one gear and the next.

Standard equipment on the “base” S4 includes a full array of safety and convenience features, including stability control, multiple airbags, climate control, full leather interior with contrasting stitching, power seats, tilt/telescope steering, Sirius satellite radio, special grey-faced gauges, trip computer and, of course, quattro all-wheel drive.

For an extra $4,700, you can order your vehicle with a Premium Package that includes 19-inch wheels, “Silk” Napa leather seats, rear parking sensor, Homelink, Audi Side Assist, and Advanced Key with start button.

New Images: 2010 Audi S4

We saw the 2010 Audi S4 at the 2008 Paris Motor Show and it crossed our mind at that time that everyone at the stand was so proud of Audi dropping the 340-hp V8 for a supercharged V6 that makes 333-hp. We, on the other hand, think Audi is a bit late to the market with their supercharged V6.

Rivals Infiniti and BMW have already been in the market with their 330-hp Infiniti G37 and 300-hp (actually produces 320-hp according to dyno results) BMW 335i a little over a year now.