review audi s quattro it s been a while since i ve reviewed a car but today i paid a visit to an old friend whose love for audis has been so overwhelming that he makes a not too sucessful living selling them without further delay i will get to the audi s servotronic steering for those who are not familiar with what servotronic is it is the name for the speed variable power steering manufactured by zf and used in audis and bmws i have been outspoken in my damming of servotronic over the past couple of months and this was based on magazine reviews and drives of the audi cs quattro and the audi cs fwd i am quite happy to report now that on the s the servotronic is inoffensive i suppose that due to the fat gumball tires the servotronic has been loaded up more and this so far has been the best implementation that i have tried it is far from perfect mind you and i d be much happier if it was an option that i could refuse but on the s i no longer consider this to be bad enough where i feel the entire car is ruined the steering is still a tad too light but it is accurate and i suppose the stiffly sprung chassis sends back so much information that some makes it through to the driver s hands so there is feel and there is accuracy in the s s steering but there is also room for improvement i consider the s s steering to be better than the japanese competition primarily because the japanese do not believe in feel and engineer it out completely engine wheee what a pressure cooker with just miles on the clock i did not expect the s to be producing anywhere close to what it will be putting out miles later but still the car packs a terrific punch for a turbocharged machine it is very unusual in that it encourages lazy driving i e low revs high gear it is so supremely flexible that one could hardly believe that there s only liters of displacement to move this pound car around in such a fashion with maximum torque available at rpm and a rpm redline the car can pretty much be left in third all day which translates to a speed range of something like mph a chracteristic that one normally associates with large capacity v s the technical achievement is breadthtaking throttle response is right up there with a good atmospheric engine in fact it would even put peaky multivalve engines to shame downshifts are almost unnecessary it is more fun to use the overboost feature than to rev the engine for those not familiar the s engine features up to seconds of additional turbo boost for passing sort of like lighting up the after burners in a jet fighter one could with the right foot only in third gear blast the car from to in just a few moments simply by flooring the gas as far as the numbers go maximum torque available in overboost mode shoots up to about lb ft incredible for a liter it takes a few moments for it to develop overboost but it is well worth waiting for since this is quite a heavy car one s body parts are not flung around like say the corrado vr the acceleration is smooth and strong somewhat similar to riding in a jetliner as it accelerates down the runway on takeoff also one is treated to a very distinctive and entertaining whistle from the turbo the only entertaining sound to come out of a very refined but bland sounding banger yes audi has refined the to the point where at rpm it sounds as serene as it does at the smoothness is outstanding but not quite up to the standards of a very good e g a valve bmw i d say that in terms of refinement i e willingness to rev smoothness lack of harshness under full acceleration it is better than many v s however lost in the refinement process is the characteristic cylinder bark that made the older engines so characterful if not terribly refined the valve turbo sounds pretty bland except for the whistle under full boost subjectively i d rate the vw vr engine as being far more musical than the turbo also audi s own v is also far more musical with a rorty race car growl when pressed though none of these can match its grunt the only hint of the engine s true capacity occurs when one is taking off from rest after the turbo has come to a near stop with the extra inertia from the permanently engaged wd system one has to be somewhat delicate in feeding in the clutch to prevent an embarassing stall alternately one could use more revs in both cases a very small price to pay for such a fantastic engine i think that audi of america should offer an automatic option for this car just as they offer though in extremely small numbers a speed for the much peakier v the characteristics of the engine are perfect for an automatic ironically in europe a slush is available but none is offered for the land of the slush marketing twits rearing their ugly heads again chassis i ve noticed that audis tend to have very wide wheels and relatively modest tire widths the car comes with firestones of size zr which is not uncommon at all however the very attractive spoke wheels are no less than inches wide so there is no sidewall bulge whatsoever combined with the flared wheel arches the s has a mouth watering macho yet subdued look on rough concrete it becomes immediately clear that the new body style has made significant advances in structural rigidity as well as road noise suppression i suppose the two are inter related but i digress to use a cliche the s s body feels like it has been carved out of stone flex is totally undetectable even when going over rough roads with a super rigid body like this stiff springs and stiff dampers do not cause excessive harshness and while the s s ride quality will never worry a lexus it will also not draw comparisons to trucks or pony cars the servotronic steering has already been mentioned i consider it to be inoffensive because it did not inhibit spirited cornering i was able to test the car s cornering powers without too much trepidation i think a new concept is at work in this car with its fat gumball tires talking about understeer or oversteer is practically meaningless on a banked highway on ramp i went in slow and started applying power as i went around i could feel the g forces build to the point where the skin on my face was being tugged sideways yet the car was totally and completely obedient to throttle and steering inputs it felt that the limits were not even close to being approached the g forces were thrilling but the entire affair of going around a curve is strangely uninvolving you tell the car what you want and it does it end of story i think that i am starting to relate more and more to those reviewers who were highly impressed by the honda nsx s clinical efficiency but were unable to fall in love with the car the brakes have a very good firmness to them and stop the car pretty well too though i ve read that they are prone to fade i am not too surprised since the s does not have uprated brakes over the base audi fwd harder pads would help but that in turn would lead to a more wooden response when cold i am starting to see a trend among the luxury sports sedan makers where extra weight is not being offset by additional braking capacity the ls s fade performance is nothing to brag about neither is the q s or the legend s brake fade these days seem to be a forgotten virtue when everybody s attention is focused on anti lock capability comfort for a car with such sporty abilities its comfort levels are also excellent the cabin is beautifully appointed with carbon fiber panel inserts in place of the wood trim of the s all the expected gizmos are there heated seats power seats seat memory power this and that the glaring ommision was the trip computer which was removed because audi hasn t gotten it to work reliably yet that means that the car has no boost gauge a real disappointment taking into account how much the turbo dominates its performance unusual for the germans the s comes with a honda style moonroof as well as the very intelligent dial a sunroof position rotary switch noise levels including engine and tire noise is so low that i wouldn t consider the lexus advantage in this area to be significant enough to sway a potential buyer conclusion even though few will be able to afford an audi s at its sticker price of k the car is a bargain if one takes into account what it has to offer over the competition the valve turbo is a real gem even if it doesn t produce ferrari sounds no other luxury sports sedan maker offers the utter security of quattro all wheel drive which to some is worth the extra money all by itself the safety features are also top notch side impact standard compliant the very elegant automatic seat belt tensioners and the dual airbags the series audis have been outstanding in government crash tests it gets my thumbs up for being so overwhelmingly capable rather than being all out exciting and intoxicating eliot
