[s-cars] Dragstrip Numbers - This Time at Sea Level (A little long)

[Sean Douglas]

Good write up Calvin.

Those are impressive 60' times, I've run my RS2-spec at sea level and
the best 60' I could manage was 2.4 sec out of three runs, my best ET
was 14.5 @ 101.7 mph. So, if I can get down to your 60' times, I'd
probably be around 14 sec flat.

I can't seem to get the launch right, mainly because I didn't want to
fry the clutch (with 160,000 km on it). I know we've talked about launch
technique before, but I haven't been out to the track since last summer
to test your suggestions.

With regard to that E55, I wonder if he was brake torquing off the line
as it looks like your 60' was much better. I agree on published stats
for any car, the only magazine I trust is Car and Driver as they adjust
their times to a standard temp, humidity and elevation, so this
eliminates much of the variables.

You are right, real s-cars did stop production in 1997 :-)

Sean Douglas
1997 Audi S6//RS2-spec
1990 Audi 90 quattro 20v


> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com 
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of 
> calvinlc at earthlink.net
> Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 8:19 AM
> To: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Subject: [s-cars] Dragstrip Numbers - This Time at Sea Level 
> (A little long)
> 
> 
> I drove my S4 down to Cape Canaveral, FL for my TDY 
> assignment down there because I just couldn't bear the 
> thought of driving a stinkin' rental car for 3 months!  Since 
> I was down there I decided to do a controlled experiment of 
> sea level vs. 5800 ft.
> 
> For refreshers I ran a 14.66 at 94.2 mph at Bandimere as my 
> best run with this same setup.
> 
> The Car:
> 1992 UrS4.  Only modification was wheels (17x8) and a chip, 
> otherwise totally stock.  The chip is one produced by Steve 
> Eiche with the VMAP sensor.  The sensor was set at the "2.8" setting.
> 
> The track and conditions:
> It's Florida in late May, what else do you need to know? :)  
> It was in the high 80's at the beginning of the set of runs 
> dropping to the low 80's by the end of the night.  Of course 
> for any of you who have ever frequented Orlando Speedworld 
> you know it is in a tiny town called Bithlo where it is 
> situated between trailer parks and swamps :)  Pretty humid....
> 
> I got in about 6 runs.  None were worse than 14.8.  The best 
> run of the night I had was a 14.05 @ 95.4 mph.  Only about 
> 1.2 mph pick-up from 5800 feet.  However, what I was able to 
> do consistently all night is demolish ANYTHING out of the 
> hole.  Most of my short (60') times were below 2.1 seconds 
> and my best was 1.901.  My weakness was 3rd gear pulling from 
> 62 mph all the way to the end of the run at 95.  The little 
> K-24 just doesn't have enough oomph up high.  If I lived at 
> sea level I would definitely get an RS2 type setup, but at 
> altitude I am afraid of the lag.  BTW, on that topic, I did a 
> test before I left that I repeated when I got to FL.  
> Starting in 4th gear at 2k rpms I reach 15 psi at 2700 rpm at 
> altitude.  It was only about 50 rpm sooner at sea level, but 
> the difference is that 15 psi of boost at sea level is 2.7 
> psi higher than at altitude. So it's not really a change in 
> boost vs. rpm you feel at sea level, but absolute pressure 
> vs. rpm that makes the difference.
> 
> For comparison purposes there were 2 2005 S4's there running 
> between 13.9 and 14.2.  Of course neither one of the owners 
> had a clue what my car was :) I lost one race by a fender to 
> a newer Z-28 and one race by a bit to a Mercedes E55 AMG (he 
> ran a 12.9 @ 110)
> 
> The funny thing about the AMG, though, was that it took him 
> up until we got to 60 mph to pass me because I just toasted 
> him with that 1.9 short time. This just goes to prove my 
> theory that the 0-60 times on supercars are greatly 
> exaggerated.  This thing is supposed to run a 4.3 second 0-60 
> time and I know my car doesn't run a 4.3. but yet I was right 
> with him at 60 mph...hmmm.  I would guess he runs about a 5.2 
> or so, as he was moving faster at the point I was at 60 mph 
> since he was catching up.
> 
> The best part was the looks people gave the car, especially 
> after seeing it run.  The rice-bruner scene couldn't believe 
> the size of the wastegate assembly and nobody could fathom 
> that the car had 145k miles on it.  It was really fun to be 
> unique and give people an education that S4s weren't just a 
> 2000 and up phenomenon.  As a matter of fact, real S-cars 
> stopped production in '97 :)
> 
> --Calvin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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