If you can find me an Audi S4 owner that says his car is running perfectly, I'll show you a liar. Nobody's S4 runs perfectly all the time--if ever. It's a well known and documented fact. Whether it's because of the Audi-recognized ignition switch issues, fuel line shrinkage problems, or some lesser known vacuum hoses that seem to disintegrate if you look at them wrong, for one reason or another, I've yet to meet an S4 owner whose car, at the time of my conversation with them, is operating spotlessly.
Do an Internet search--I dare you. Pop open your browser and point it at Google or Yahoo!. Oh, you'll find people claiming their S4s are flawlessly operating, but you'll also discover that the same people are either trying to sell their cars or there's a giant "but" printed later in the sentence.
Maybe I like this specific S4 so much because, indisputably, S4s never run at their full potential. Maybe it's that the owner of this car drives what is basically an RS4 sedan with Volk wheels. In some form or fashion, you have to admit you like this car, too. In actuality, though, as much as you like the car, it probably pisses you off a little bit at the same time. It's not the fact that these are Japanese wheels on a German super-sedan, either, that will piss you off. It's the fact that you don't own this car. We're not sure at what percentage Greg Pastermak, the owner of this '01 S4, estimates his car was operating, but we do know that the car could do all-wheel burnouts and pull smoke from all four Pirellis. That's grounds to make anyone want to own the car.
The secret to the power output is simple: Greg purchased all the RS4 goodies he could. The motor is powered by RS4 turbos, intercoolers, injectors, and an intake, with APR's badge residing on the exhaust and the ECU upgrade. Greg also installed a UUC short shifter and RS4 clutch to punish the gears a little more and added an AWE drivetrain stabilizer to help keep certain driveline parts from pole-vaulting out of the belly of the beast. The result is a bone-jarring launch with very little clutch slip off the line. The rest of the car was built to contain the power and keep Greg from piling the car into the trees lining the road. H&R and Koni components were combined with a Neuspeed 19mm rear sway bar, and a UUC big brake upgrade was bolted to the front spindles.
Greg also added a stereo system to the car. Why not, though? Greg probably realized that, one day, a factory Audi part was going to fail, and he would be left by the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. Thus, Sound Innovations installed a handful of JL Audio amps and speakers and custom-fabricated a swell-looking box for the woofer in the trunk. Let's say, for a moment, that the stout 3,590-pound sedan decided to run at 100 percent one day, and let's also assume that Greg's estimate of 490 flywheel horsepower is correct. That means Greg is one of the fortunate ones who owns a car with a 7.3:1 power-to-weight ratio; now consider that the stock car has a 14.4:1 ratio. What can you do with a 7.3:1 power-to-weight ratio? Greg uses it at the dragstrip, where he pulls off 12.8-second passes.
Before you scoff at that number, claiming you can match that in your stock turbo, APR-chipped S4 in race gas mode, let's not forget that Greg is not a professional driver, he does his passes on Pirelli street tires, and his clutch will hold up to more than one pass before getting so hot that the best 1320 time he can hit is slower than a wheezing 8v. He also has time slips to prove his runs, and in the magazine business, that counts for a lot.