B7 saloon dynoed - 308 hp at the wheels, 320 lb ft torque

[ARSEY4]

I really dont understand why everyone gets hung up on rolling road figures. Its been proved that the tolerance levels are so broad that I would not bother even taking a car to one. If you have test drove the car and like it ten really wgaf what the numbers are. until some bod takes the engine out and tests it we will never know. My car felt brilliant and so did the car I test drove 18 months ago.

[PetrolDave]

The difference is that in the RS4 you won't be picking yourself up from a ditch or a side of a tree if you really push it in country roads. It really can be pushed at 10/10ths without staining your trousers.

Plus you can enjoy the performance more of the time in typical British weather conditions.

The RS4 is an all day, every day performance car.

The M3 is a good days only performance car - unless your name is Stig or Lewis Hamilton.

Given the tiny performance difference between the two IMHO it's a no brainer to go for the RS4 - just the the cost per fun day per year calculation!

[graemep]

To go back to the Evo article, the interesting point was that even though the R8 appeared down on power when measured on a rolling road, it exceeded Audi's own quoted performance figures on tarmac, which suggests Alex's comments on RS4 performance may well be correct.

[William_Blake]

Alex 123 fra; How was it £ to have your car dyno'd at surrey rr,as mines now done 83.5k and i'd like to know if the power
is + or -.

APM, it wasn't much only 40-50 quid. Very knowledgable they are as well.

With respect to Williams's point, that the M3 coupe (E92) is faster in a straight line than an RS4 (saloon), this is true. The Autocar test however found that the difference between the 2 cars was 0.3s on a sprint from 0-150mph. Hardly embarrassing for the RS4. The E92 M3 saloon is obviously heavier than the coupe version and I don't think it has the CF roof. That car is the natural competitor to the RS4 saloon and I have no doubt it is actually slower than the audi. In real world terms, there is probably nothing in it. The difference is that in the RS4 you won't be picking yourself up from a ditch or a side of a tree if you really push it in country roads. It really can be pushed at 10/10ths without staining your trousers.

Car and driver tested the RS4 vs C63 vs M3

RS4 took 29.2 seconds to reach 150, the M3 24.3!!

and just look at the GT board movies, but I read sometimes they are a fraud?

[PetrolDave]

Is William_Blake a synonym for RussianM3_Dude?

[William_Blake]

Is William_Blake a synonym for RussianM3_Dude?

haha I have no idea who that is.. I'm genuinely looking for an RS4 but some things like the DRC and the power issue hold me back.

i wish it was underrated instead of overrated

[Dom81]

Is William_Blake a synonym for RussianM3_Dude?

Certainly a chip off the old block!

[SR71]

Check out the Nurburgring times....

Over 20.8km, RS4 runs a best of 7:58 (~8:09 if you want to use Sport Auto figures), with the E92 M3 running a best of 8:05.

R8 runs 8:04.

997 C2S runs between 7:58 and 8:05 depending on whose figures you want to take...

M6 runs 8:09 and E60 M5 runs 8:13.

I'd suggest that means that, in reality, on the road, underpowered or not as the case may be, in the hands of the average road driver, the cars are evenly matched.

Throw in some rain and leaves and track debris, and I'd suggest the M3 would be a spot in the rear-view mirror. I like the idea of not having my heart in my mouth every time I go round a corner in the wet in a £50+K car....

This is why STi's and EVO's are so popular....

[William_Blake]

thank you for those figures.

[SR71]

http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?viewFo ... ID=3&fID=0

That site has loads of lap time comparisons...

The E92 is generally faster than the M3 around the track because above 6.5K rpm (see http://www.rs246.com/index.php?name=PNp ... +rs4+power) the M3 starts to make good power so if you've got some significant straights, it will start to pull away....

But if you were to average wet and dry times, I wonder what the results would tell you?

[P_G]

William_Blake, don't be put off an RS4 because of r/r figures, as said by others having come up against an M3 saloon and coupe separately there is nothing it it when I have been trading acceleration rates in my avant. And I'm not a svelte been 9st bean pole either.

As for the DRC there is a sdignificant number of RS4 owners on here however not all of the 4000 IIRC that have been sold in the UK frquent here. I am another who thus far has not had DRC issues with 30K+ miles on the clock now and come end of warranty I may change over to Ohlins or KW's to give better ride and sort some of the heavy breaking skittishness the car suffers from.. and when I say heavy, hauling it down from 3 figure speeds to standstill.

[William_Blake]

Great information! Thanks!

I also read alot about ECU updates.. something to do with misfiring and cold start problems.. .. things to worry about or not?

[SR71]

No.

The ECU cure this problem. Again, it never affected my car.

You will also notice the car tends to smoke on starting from cold, particularly from the right bank. All of them do this, although not on a predictable basis i.e., one day it will smoke, the next it won't.

One warm though, it does not smoke, although some have noticed that FSI's tend to smoke more than other "normal" engines.

The car burns oil.

Mine? About 1L per 2000 miles. Fairly standard that.

[PetrolDave]

I'm genuinely looking for an RS4 but some things like the DRC and the power issue hold me back.

OK let's tackle those points.

DRC - how many owners have a DRC problem? On websites like this it seems maybe 50%+, but the vast majority of owners do not post on websites like this so that is likely an unrealistically high figure. In the UK there are over 2500 B7 RS4s - and how many of them have posted here that they have a DRC problem?

Power - frankly who gives a damn what the numbers say! All that really matters it the seat of the pants feel and how it compares in the real world to other cars with similarly quoted power figures. On that basis there is NO power issue.

[William_Blake]

Thanks guys! You're all very helpful!