[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
[CAR ENGINES REVVING]
CHRIS HARRIS: So I bought an Audi S4.
And I've done so for several reasons.
First up, it used to belong to a family member.
So it is in a disgusting state of repair.
Remember the Zero [BLEEP]
Given RX7?
This is the Zero [BLEEP]
Given Audi S4.
I challenge anyone to present to me an S4 in worse condition
than this car.
Its bodywork is ruined.
Pretty much every panel's got a dent or a scratch in it.
Inside, it's been lived in by two big, hairy,
smelly, mostly wet dogs.
And it stinks.
You know what?
We need a better camera car this year because the old
Passat was just too slow, too much of the time.
The car wasn't too expensive.
That's two reasons.
Third reason, the S4, as you now know, is a car I've always
really admired.
And I quite fancy one because it's low-key, and yet it's
very fast and compact.
Fourth reason, people keep telling me that you can
extract more power from these things quite easily.
I haven't tuned a car since I was quite a bit younger.
And I quite like the idea of having something
that's a bit stealthy.
So I went to a place called REVO Technik.
And they said to me, that they'd had better results with
changing the software on the Audi S4 V8 model than
virtually any other car they'd ever played with.
So I thought, let's go along there, have them play with the
software, maybe stick some brakes on it, and see what we
end up with.
Now, what car do you match against an S4 to find out if
it really is performing to a higher level?
What's a higher level of S4?
It's an RS4.
So I thought, we'd go and find out how a REVO software-mapped
S4 performed against an Audi RS4.
What I have here is the quite beautiful-looking new B8 RS4,
450 horsepower from a normally-aspirated V8 engine
four-wheel drive with launch control.
And I'm looking at two miles of Bruntingthorpe straight
ahead of me.
To my right is my raggedy old Series 1 B8 Audi S4,
supercharged 3-liter V6.
And it's got a standard engine in it at the moment.
I say, "at the moment." That has 333 horsepower.
So we've got a big advantage here.
And that doesn't have any launch control.
Neil, now, hopefully, will set us on our way.
[CAR REVVING]
CHRIS HARRIS: And it's an annihilation at the moment.
We've crucified him off the line.
And now, we're just [CAR ENGINE ROARING]
edging ahead.
What's the gap?
I don't know.
Looking in my mirror, 15?
What, 10 car lengths?
15 car lengths?
I mean, it's just a long, long way behind.
We're now pulling 147, 149, 150, 154, 156, 160.
Still going, where's the limiter?
163, 164, 165.
There's no limiter, 167.
I think we can safely say that that was an annihilation.
It's a different league of speed.
But when we go back to the pit area, there's a man called
Kevin, who's going to plug his widget or his dongle, whatever
he calls it, into the ECU of the S4 and make it perform a
little bit differently.
And then we'll have another race.
Quite looking forward to this.
Look what it takes to make a B8 S4 go from 333 horsepower
to, let's say, something beginning with a four.
Watch this.
It'll blow your mind.
Kev, show me.
KEVIN: Ignition on.
Switch into performance mode with your SPS.
[SUSTAINED BEEPING]
CHRIS HARRIS: Make a beep.
KEVIN: Find the diagnostic port.
[ELECTRONIC BLIPS]
KEVIN: The bleep indicates that we're switched to
performance mode.
CHRIS HARRIS: And that's it?
Engine on.
KEVIN: Off we go.
CHRIS HARRIS: So 30, 40 years ago, you did cams.
You did pistons.
You did intake.
You did exhaust.
Now, you-- you give me that, please.
Look at that.
Isn't that extraordinary?
Right.
So will the old dog snotter now match an RS4?
We shall go and find out.
Seconds out, round two.
I have 450 horsepower in my RS4.
It hasn't changed.
However, the S4 now has a bit more horsepower.
I don't know what the dyno figures are, but I'm led to
believe it might have something in the region of 400
horsepower and a lot of torque.
So let's see what happens.
[CAR ENGINES REVVING]
CHRIS HARRIS: There he goes.
I mean, off the line, it's almost identical.
I gave him as much as I could because
I've got launch control.
But look at this now.
We're just level bagging.
I've got a little bit of a margin in there.
But it's tiny.
We're just poking each other.
Can you see him?
Maybe, I'm taking a yard out of him there.
A yard?
You see the bonnet popping up on the old girl a bit.
Maybe, two yards.
Not really, is it?
166 miles an hour.
And there was, I reckon, there were, what?
Two, three yards in it by the end.
Isn't that extraordinary.
I'm a little bit speechless.
So to recap, the 3-liter supercharged Audi engine is
something else.
It really does offer a huge scope with tunability.
So we've taken a very ordinary Audi S4, put a bit of software
to it, and we've ended up with a car that is absolutely as
quick as the brand-new RS4.
Does that take anything away from the RS4?
Suppose in some ways it does because a halo product, an
absolute alpha male like the RS4 shouldn't really have any
competition from within its own model range.
But it's the beauty of forced induction is that you'll never
get round it, this razor-sharp 8,400 RPM V8 that makes those
lovely noises.
[ENGINE ROARS]
CHRIS HARRIS: It's an amazing engine, but it restricts
anyone messing around with it afterwards.
There's not so much you can do with it.
However, when you start playing with supercharged
engines-- there's a suspicion that Audi would've held that
thing back anyway to give it a gap between
the S4 and the RS4.
Once these clever blokes start messing around with laptops
and working out how they can make them boost better and do
other things, I don't know.
It's all black magic to me.
They can make them perform, can't they?
So this car now owes me less than 20,000 pounds and will do
naught to 100 miles an hour in 9.4 seconds and
will match an RS4.
I think that's quite an impressive little estate car.
We had a new toy to play with for the timed runs as clever
bods at Racelogic have created the VBOX Sport, which is a
water and bash-proof sensor that clips to your windscreen.
And it's Bluetooth connected to an app on your iPhone.
Very cool and very convenient.
The RS4's launch control is subtle.
It slightly rides the clutch, then you feel a little slip
from the rear wheels, and then it just bolts away.
Gear shifts from the jewel clutch box are imperceptible.
And the numbers are impressive.
Zero to 30 takes just 1.67 seconds.
60 takes 4.12 seconds.
And the zero to 100 time is a sharp 9.42 seconds.
The NFG S4 has no launch control.
It's an early car.
You just mash the right pedal and hope the smell of wet dog
will disappear.
The gearbox is far less crisp as well.
First to second is noticeably slower than in the RS4.
But from then on, it rips down the runway in a way that must
make it the small estate car bargain of the year.
Get this, naught to 30 in 1.73 seconds; 60 in 4.17 seconds;
and 100 in 9.48 seconds, just 6/100 of a second slower than
the RS4 to 100 miles an hour.
With the standard software--
just to show you-- the S4 ran 60 in 4.7 seconds, and 100 in
11.3 seconds.
Still impressive, but miles off the REVO-adjusted version.
How much power does it have?
I don't really care, actually, so long as it does the numbers
on the flat.
But it must have well over 400 horsepower now.
With so much extra poke, we're trying some Stasis 370 mil
front brakes with 6-piston calipers.
They fit behind the standard rims, and are miles better
than the stock at full brakes.
The only other mods are thicker rear anti-roll bar and
an optional exhaust, which sounds a little fruitier and
ditches the slightly pathetic S4 tailpipes.
It's a bit shiny right now.
But the strict "no washing" regime will soon fix that.
Here's a breakdown of the costs.
Now, I need to be absolutely clear.
This exercise is about showing just what you can squeeze from
an S4 with very little work.
It's not about belittling the RS4.
Of course, in comparing it to the RS4, I'm naturally
slightly exposing some of its performance, let's say,
"deficit" compared to the car that's
lower down in the range.
But I'm not trying to take the mickey out of the RS4, for the
simple reason that the RS4 is a lovely car.
But by heck, is it a confusing car!
Neil and I have spent several days in this thing now.
And it really is like the sort of beautiful,
boyfriend-girlfriend situation that isn't actually all the
personality you might want it to be.
On the road, the steering can be really
odd, the dynamic steering.
The chassis, when it's in Comfort mode, it's a bit loose
and doesn't ride that well.
When you put it in Dynamic mode, I don't know what they
were thinking.
I mean, you just simply can't drive it.
It's so firm.
The engine's so exciting and wants to rev, and yet it
doesn't have anything like as much torque as the S4.
And you have to really be up it the whole time.
But this is the big problem with the RS4, every time you
see it, you completely fall in love with it because it's so
good looking.
And as an object, it's just gorgeous.
The interior is beautiful.
It's a car that I'd love to have outside my door all year
long, but probably for all the wrong reasons.
And of course, anyone looking to spend between 60,000 and
70,000 pounds on a new small estate car isn't looking to go
and buy a used S4 and chip it up and do the
things that I've done.
So there isn't really a comparison there at all.
The RS4 really is a flawed diamond.
But it proves that these Audi RS products are
very hit and miss.
We're going to drive an R8 B10 soon, and
that's a bit of kick.
The RS4, I think, is in many ways quite the compromised
driving machine, but a beautiful object.
[MUSIC PLAYING]