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Winding Road mag have a review this month.

Go to windingroad.com and then you can down load the magazine.

The review seems to fall in line with my thoughts/experience.

i.e. unless you're driving around over 7.5k rpm then there ain't a massive amount of difference.

Interestingly they reckon 1/3 of the cost increase over an S4 is taken up by actually getting the cars to and from Neckarsulm for the work to be done.

Have you actually dragged a full driven in RS4 against your S4? I can't imagine not feeling a 60 hp difference(I know life does not go around dragging AWD cars, but it's the easiest comparision there is).
I did testdrive a RS4 and made some 0-200 km/h accelerations, also raced it against my Impreza on a straight track and lost from every angle. The interesting point was, that after the Impreza I drove the RS4 and it felt nice, but slowish, since there is no turbo-impact. But while dragging, the RS4 is just simply so much faster even if you don't feel the punch. I have not driven a S4, but i imagine it's similiar, the RS4 is more powerful, just doesn't feel like. Any seconds?

Have had a blast against an S4 and I was surprised how much quicker my car was, not saying they are slow but mine was a fair bit quicker. 90% of the torque from the RS4 engine is available from 2000rpm so I disagree that unless you rev the nuts off of it there's no difference. Both nice cars though.

But Scotty's car isn't standard, it's an AMD Stage 3 with approx 390bhp so their isn't going to be much difference.

I had an S4 with sports cats and exhaust on prior to getting my Avant RS4, i personally think there is quite a bit of difference between the 2 especially when you are driving the RS fast( not that i have done yet!)
The whole package of the car (brakes, handling, stability etc) makes the extra money well spent!

Thats a good review so informative - thanks

One thing to think about is when the S4 raced against the M3 on Top gear, the M3 clearly beat the S4 in a drage race, where as the new M3 with the new gear box was raced against an RS4 the other week on Fifth Gear and the RS4 blew it away.

There would be quite a difference between the S4 and the RS4.

I have not driven an RS4 yet but pressume that I will feel the difference the most as my car is the cab aNd is inherently a bit slower than the S4 saloon.

I test drove the RS4 saloon on Saturday and it did not feel noticeably quicker than my S4 Avant with full Milltek. Handling, steering and braking were better though even with a limited opportunity to explore these. Overall I was underwhelmed given the magazine reviews and thats not me being a bitter S4 owner, I had a realistic intention of buying an RS4 but not now. After testing something thats quicker than what I currently drive I got back into my own car and unusually for me I felt pretty impressed with it particularly after giving it a proper thrash on the way home.

I also test drove the S6 and it 'felt' quicker than the RS4 though I suspect this if a function of the extra torque in the V10. Or maybe I drove a dud.

J

From my experience, about pure thrust there is not that much difference. I mean that it does not feel that quicker while it is actually quicker (look at the speedo and you will notice the difference). I think that it is probably related to the tires that are larger and the chassis stiffer. So you don't have the feeling to go faster.
I noticed also that depending on the mileage, the result is quick different as it seems to require lots of run in to give its max.

However the key advantage is on B-roads where you can experience less body roll, much better feedback in the steering wheel and less understeer than with stock S4. So if you stay on the motorways there is actually to real reason to upgrade to the RS4.

The big flared wheelarches are reason enough to upgrade