[V8] 5-speed article

[Jeremy Ward]

In February I had a chance to interview Herr Thomas Janßen, the head of
development for the V8 Quattro.  He told me that in 1991, he matched an
(early) 4.2 with a 6spd and achieved 300KPH (186 MPH) on the Autobahn near
Stuttgart.  

Today some super cars can exceed 200 MPH, however 186 is still pretty
respectable!  Keep in mind that NO production super car went that fast in
1991...  Thank you Herr Janßen!  :-)

One other tasty tidbit he told me was that each V8Q took 65 man hours to
build.  Compare this to 36 man hours that it takes to build today's D3 A8!

- Jeremy

-----Original Message-----
From: v8-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v8-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of
Tony and Lillie
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 5:17 PM
To: dsaad at icehouse.net; v8 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V8] 5-speed article

Well...........Just keep in mind most spedometers are a bit optimistic. Most

magazines either clock them with radar or time them through a set of traps 
at a given distance. More accurate that going by the speedo. This is why cop

cars have Calibrated speedo's. Otherwise, they couldn't use them for 
clocking-although with courts as they are nowadays, you could probably fight

that one.

The reason manufacturers do this is several. BMW reporst to do it for two 
reasons. It keeps customers a little lower in speed (hey, look john, I'm 
doing 110!). Also, they figure on some people putting larger wheels and 
tires on (think 760iL with 24's). They have been found to be as much as 15 
mph off at 150.

Audi's usually are closer to this: 2 mph at 60, 4 at 120, etc. The top speed

is limited on the 3.6 V8q by power, not a limiter. I believe the 4.2's have 
a limiter, but have never had the oppertunity. Anyone? ;-)

Anyhow, I put it out there more for the acceleration figures. With those 
kind on figures, I can only imagine what a 4.2 converted 1991 5-speed would 
do. The ultimate V8!

Tony Hoffman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dsaad at icehouse.net>
To: <v8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [V8] 5-speed article


>I wonder about that top speed -
> I had a picture from someone on this list who was at 152MPH when he 
> snapped the
> pic.
>
> I have had mine at 143MPH on mid-grade gas at 7000 feet elevation, and two
> people + junk inside.
> It was still (slowly) climbing but I ran out of road. There was no hint of

> a
> limiter.
> At sea level and with good gas it would have to go faster.
>
> Dave