Post
by Dippy » Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:43 pm
Dano,
Yes I was on Scoobynet with the same alias - well remembered!
I have not drivern an RS6 (or even an A6 for that matter), but being so big and heavy, I really think it'd be wrong to compare it's handling with an Impreza.
I agree with Heksa - the Impreza is much more of a driver's car than an S4, but when you look at the whole car ownership experience the S4 has its attractions. If all you want to do is drive like a rally driver and don't care that the car is made out of recycled rubbish then the Impreze is fine, but if you want more it soon becomes lacking.
I'll tell you more about my Impreza to S4 transition:
The Impreza was my first decent performance car and my first 4WD car. I think I did let that go to my head a bit and I did use the acceleration a lot. I'm not an excellent driver but I have been around a few race tracks so I can handle a car. However I got caught out by the Impreza's 4WD system. I took a corner too fast in the wet and succumbed to lift-off oversteer and crashed the car into a tree. It was written off and I was lucky not to be!
Anyway, since then I have been to the same corner (not actually much of a corner really) in my S4, in same or worse conditions, going fast, and wondered how the hell I lost it in the Scooby. I put it down to the S4's superior 4WD system (which of course includes ESP although that never came on round this corner).
To answer your specific questions:
Stock S4 suspension certainly doesn't match up to the Scooby's. However good aftermarket suspension such as the H&R coilovers does. My car handles almost as good as a Scooby on all roads. The almost is down to the extra weight over the Scooby which no amount of suspension upgrade can compensate for.
No I don't expect to go back. I have no plans to change my car in the near future, however I now cannot possible see myself going from the excellent build quality of my Audi (probably better than BMW and Merc these days) back to the Subaru. Chalk and Cheese.
Lastly from memory, there are two factors that I remember most in going from Impreza to S4:
1) The stock S4 gearshift was too long
2) The S4's torque. Whilst in the Scooby I needed to keep the revs up to get any torque (and if I didn't, boy was the turbo lag bad!), but the S4's torque was always there when I wanted it, in any gear.
2001 Silver S4 Avant
AmD remap, APR R1 DVs, APR bipipe, Full Miltek exhaust
H&R coilovers, AWE DTS, Porsche front brakes, Short-shifter, 18" RS4 replicas
Defi-HUD boost gauge / turbo-timer (with afterrun pump modification), Phatbox
May I ask you whether you see yourself ever going back to a Scooby?
