S4 impressions and Bavaria by night

["Jouko Haapanen" <joukoh@vtoy.fi>]

I had my chance at the wheel of a new S4 in Ingolstadt on Thursday.  The
car was thorougly impressive.

The first thing you'll notice is the stiffer clutch, many of us stalled the
car on our first try.  The car is much more civilized a drive than the
240hp Abt 1.8T.  The flat torque curve allows you to drive in almost any
gear, although I never tried sixth myself.  Traffic caused some disruptions
in my drive, but the car is incredibly responsive.  The car we had
apparently had no speed limiter, and there were reports of indicated speed
of around 280km/h.  On the autobahn, typical construction and other
slowdowns reduced the flat-out opportunities as well as some of the others
in our group not being quite as enthused.

The chassis setup is nice and controlled.  It is stiffer than an A4, but
definitely still set up for street with a reasonably good comfort level.  I
think I'd prefer mine a little stiffer, as if that matters.  The beefy feel
of the clutch and the IN-C plates raised our confidence levels and there
were some interesting power slides on pavement and gravel (!!!) as well as
squealing tires at takeoff.  

We also had a chance to drive some other interesting stuff such as A4
2.5TDI quattro and A8 2.5TDI quattro and numerous other A/S8 combinations
of gasoline power.  Most of the eights had modifications by quattro GmbH,
from full leather (no significant plastic surfaces visible inside) to
special paint or equipment.  Navigation plus (regular factory option) is
interesting, if not a little gimmicky with its TV screen.

Oh yeah, no TT for us, I'll have to wait until end of June (latest info)
for a test drive of a pilot car.  I did see a number of the pressings at
the Ingolstadt body shop.  Let's wait and see, the IN boys haven't
disappointed me lately...

I had thought that I'd make some notes and write a decent report, but heck,
I was too excited even when sitting in the passenger seat to remember that.
 The car was VERY convincing.  I actually have a better recollection of our
time spent at Hofbrauhaus in Munich quaffing litres and litres of pils. 
Munich by night will not disappoint, unless you are opposed to beer
drinking and having fun with friends.  


Jouko Haapanen
Pori, Finland