Upgrading B5 A4 suspension

[Cody Forbes]

I've been doing tire testing for BFG recently. They are going to be coming 
out with a new R1 compound called the R1S. It's supposed to compete with the 
Hoosier A6, the autocross compound. They sent me a couple sets to put on the 
A5 track car because they wanted to see just how much punishment they can 
take. I finally killed the two fronts of the first set after **FIVE** track 
days running an average of (5) 25 minute sessions every day, and in one day 
double-stinting them over two 20 minute sessions with a pit lane driver 
change about about 3 times (that’s 2 back to back sessions, 20 minute break, 
two sessions, break, two sessions).

Understand that this is on a car that I weighed at 3967lbs with a 180lb 
person in the drivers seat and the low fuel warning light on and running an 
autocross tire **HARD** on Road Atlanta, Carolina Motorsports Park, and VIR. 
Full list of mods:
http://www.gmpperformance.com/index.cfm?pg=carGallery&makerID=2&vGroupID=287&mode=displayVehicle&VID=3268

I actually just got back from VIR, ran a monday-tuesday Audi Club event. 
With these tires on this car was one of the fastest in the corners, I was 
easily running with Porsche GT3's on Hoosier R6's and similar tires. Even 
had the chief instructor come to me and state that the A5 was one of the 
best handling and best driven cars at the event (and he was in a GT2 on 
slicks). I cooked the brakes early on so I was braking early, WAY early, and 
still ran under 2:20.00 laps. Uphill esses were completely flat out, 120mph 
no problem in a car that would only do about 125mph top speed on the big 
straights. In my last session I got some data from an AiM datalogger, I'll 
get that posted somewhere ASAP.


So give it another month or so and the R1S will be out. Should be a huge 
improvement over the R1 in an auto-x. BTW, I saw a Hoosier comment - the BFG 
R1 is a better tire than the Hoosier R6. Times are close, but the R1 seems 
to last longer and be more predictable.

-Cody

-----Original Message----- 
From: Lee Levitt
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 9:44 AM
To: S-car List ; Quattro List
Subject: Upgrading B5 A4 suspension

Folks,

I've been running a Bilstein, Eibach, Hsport suspension on my '01 A4 1.8t 
for 3 years now, and am wondering if I can improve the handling by going to 
a different setup. For the street it's fine, for autocross it's not as 
precise as I'd like. Or maybe it's me. :)

I did an autocross school on Sunday, got 10 runs in on my street tires 
(Dunlops) and another 10 on BFG R1s. The car was a lot more controllable 
with the latter and I was putting down times equal to/better than many of 
the BMWs ( admittedly I have more autocross seat time than many of the other 
attendees...and the timed course was not power friendly.)

Anyway, I'd like to improve my results, and would appreciate all inputs. :)


Best,

Lee
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