[s-cars] Re: New M Roadster in the house

[William Noland]

Congrats on the new car, Chris. My M Roadster shares the garage with my
94 S4, so I can speak fairly authoritatively on the differences between
the two. You will never get complaints from the back seat passengers,
when you nail the Roadster -- this is not necessarily true in the case
of the S4. OTOH, the glovebox on the S4 is roughly the same size as the
trunk on the Roadster and is slightly easier to pack. For that matter,
the M Roadster will fit in the trunk of the Audi, if you fold the side
mirrors in.

The S4 is the stealth car. My Roadster, with b&b triflo exhaust, is
anything but stealthy and will set off car alarms a block away. People
never say that the S4 is "so cute". When I hear this in the Roadster, I
let them live, because there's too much killing going on in the world
today and they know not what they're saying.

One freak hail/snow storm, last year here in the hills of Oakland, CA,
proved the obvious advantage of the quattro set up over a powerful
rear-wheel drive car on summer tires. I had minivans pass me up on the
long climb to the house in the Roadster.  When I made it home, I jumped
in the S4 and took a drive and could not break the tires loose. Some
serious snow tires are definitely in your future.

All that aside, you're going to love it. Can you say torque monster? As
numerous car mags point out, the (rear, especially) suspension on the
Roadster is somewhat dated. Those same mags also pointed out the fast
lap times the car managed relative to it's competition. Does feel a
little unsettled at times on fast sweepers, but you soon learn to
compensate -- can't say I notice it anymore. So, enjoy and seriously
consider picking up another S-Car some day, for those times when stealth
and traction are needed. The two Germans coexist quite happily in this
house (along with their former axis partners, the WRX and two Honda
sport bikes).  :-)

Bill N




>After selling the 93 S4 a few weeks back, the new car search intensified,
>resulting in a marathon run to North Carolina and back to pick up a perfect
>99 M Roadster.  Haven't rolled it yet, not even on the West Virginia turnpike
>(which has to be one of the funnest roads in America).
>
>What a monster.  Published 0-60 times of around 5 seconds stock, and it stops
>hard enough to unzip your fly.  I remain convinced that it's insane to be
>exploring the limits of this thing on the road.  If we decided we wanted to
>thin the herd of 16-year-old boys (and errant former S-Car listers), all we'd
>have to do is distribute M Roadsters...
>