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Is it me? Ive owned my RS4 for a month now, and I feel compared to my old S4 the car is slightly slower at lower revs, alot smoother but the engine doesnt really really kick in until your higher up the rev range,and then its hold on time! Its a little anoying around town, but great on the Motorway's. Perhaps its time for an upgrade!!

are you sure you bought an RS4?

Possible but not likely....... The S4 has smaller turbos so spools up quicker, but the RS has different mapping etc which overcomes this, may be something else but I bet you a good dinner it is just what you are used to and how the RS delivers its power. Old quattro suffered massive lag and no throttle response off boost, not a complaint I would level at the RS

IIRC Bushy and Sita both said their S4s has more low down torque than their RS4s...

Dunc

Thats it Dunc, my old s4 felt torque at lower revs, I think a visit to MTM is a must.

I'd say my old S4 'Felt' a bit faster at lower revs due to the quicker turbo spool up. When i test drove my 'old' RS4, i felt the car was gutless at lower revs until approaching 4k revs when the thing just took off!

I agree with this to some extent. I traded in my B5 S4 for a RS4 abut six weeks ago and while the RS4 is considerably quicker, it lacks puff at low revs, which I think is just a characteristic of the turbo sizing. It doesn't bother me as beyond that point there's comparison...

A

The S4 although quicker at low revs, ran out of puff at around 5k rpm, then it was pointless revving any further so time for next gear.
Made it into a quick shifting car so not very enjoyable.
The RS4 in comparison although lacks low down grunt, as soon as the blowers spin up, it peaks power right the way into the red line.

mtm will sort that out for ya
cheers
jr

The revo sorts this perfectly dial in i little more boost and ou get full power much earlier ie 3k,standard it starts building at 3k and is on full song by 4k,it makes a fantastic difference you can make v rapid progress just shortshifting through the box,you dont have to really rev it to get it seriousley tramping on,the punch is just sat there waiting at normal motorway speeds no need to stir the box a bit to get it on boost,im very happy with the set up give it a trial eh?

The OEM map for the RS4 is really quite poor for such a car. There is absolutely no doubt that a stock RS4 suffers worse lag than the S4, and this is not just because of the difference in turbo size.

Don't forget that a decent remap raises and smooths out the whole torque curve - it does not just increase peak horsepower!

Agree with John. MTM solves the issue! In stage 3 format, the Starship Enterprise would be hard pressed to keep up!

I changed from an S4 (in Feb 04) to my RS4 which already had the MTM stage I remap. I'd test driven a standard RS4 prior to buying this one. I'd agree with the comments here - get a remap. As you are in Surrey you are a bit closer to QST (at Haywards Heath) than I am. I'm sure you'll be impressed with the change.

Likewise, I have an MTM chip and drove both this one and a standard one before buying. Interestingly thought they were both standard to begin with, cos that's how it was sold to me since I wanted to do the mods myself. Ended up chosing the one with the chip cos it drove so much better and I prefered the colour. Only found out why it was quicker after I tried to chip it and took the ECU apart to find someone had beaten me to it!

Proof, if you need it of how easy it is to tell the difference and how much difference it makes.

Guys - I have just driven an RS4 - my first time....until now it has been S4 only. It was an immaculate 60k miler with FASH and very tight etc....

It'll be my last time, I was not impressed at all...yes the handling is way better and the brakes are good but the performance.....well my S4 would eat it for breakfast at least up to 100mph.

I was really dissapointed and have indeed decided to keep the S4 and have RS4 suspension and brake upgrade fitted.......shame really because it looks so promising...