Audi R8 and RS4 driven at Infineon (long)
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Audi R8 and RS4 driven at Infineon (long)
Sorry for the full-length blog version here gang, I just don't have the time and energy to chop it down to BB compatible levels. It begins abruptly after the autocross exercise in 3.2 TTs. Anyway, my story is below.
-Mirror
Once we were done with the autocross, we moved over to the helmet station where the RS4’s and R8’s were parked. There was a big table with the biggest selection of silver Arai helmets that I’ve ever seen, which everyone got subsequently got fitted for. I figured after this there would be an information session about the R8s and what the drive would be like.
No sir. Once we all had our helmets on, it was straight to the cars, get in quickly, seatbelts on, a quick radio check, and “let’s go” and off our instructor went. Away from me, up the pitlane. I did not move.
The reason for this is that my car was not running, nor could I get it running. With our rapid placement into the cars, I was not briefed by Audi Strategic Command on the top-secret procedure to start this R-Tronic transmission R8. Turn the key? No. Slide the lever over to the left and turn the key? No. Turn the key off, put the lever to the left, press the brake pedal, then turn the key again? No. Granted, with every turn of the key the gauge needles gave me full-sweep, smiley faces of encouragement, but the 4.2L FSI behind my head stayed as dead as a moon rock.
The instructor thankfully realized what was happening to his car #1 dumbass and backed up. He then guided me through a procedure that involved pressing on the brake pedal, moving the lever to the left, pressing on the gas, pulling back on the upshift paddle, turning the key, and maybe something else. Hell knows what order those steps were in, I certainly don’t remember. Regardless, it’s a needlessly complicated procedure. Hope and pray you never need to make a quick getaway from a carjacking.
Once fired, the engine makes the appropriately hard edged, deep rumble V-8 sounds that you would expect. The automatic clutch take-up was very smooth, and we were off and running.
Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point) is a very fun track with big hills and undulating terrain, off-camber blind corners, a challenging S-bend section and a significant hairpin at the end of a lap. Even though I’ve never driven on it, I know it very very well from spectating there a million times and watching countless races on TV. We ran on what is called the NASCAR configuration, which eliminates several corners replacing them with a couple of short straights. For our exercise it was perfect, for it gave us good full-throttle stretches and predictable braking zones. Our first lap was at about two-thirds speed, with the instructor communicating over the radio where to brake, when to be smooth, when to go full throttle, etc. Our “formation” was to be as close to 2 carlengths apart as possible. This doesn’t mean scrape paint off of the car in front, it means 2 carlengths. Easy enough.
On lap 2, we were off and running.
Once up to speed, our time was spent in gears 2, 3, and 4. This engine puts out an amazing amount of torque for its size, with significant shove from as little as 2500rpm all the way up. The race car soundtrack is there throughout. It sounds fantastic. It’s the best sounding German V-8 I’ve heard since Devek’s 6.0L 928 white car development mule….and that thing screamed like a wild animal. Rolling the R8 into full throttle from the exit of the hairpin, it’s a warp-drive blast through second, third, and fourth gear past the start/finish line into the first big uphill left hand sweeper. The car was totally planted through this section, with very little drama as it simply squatted down and roared. Its so forgiving and adjustable, you can alter your line significantly without any complaint or strange behavior from the chassis. From the get-go, this is a car that despite its unfamiliarity, is very very easy to drive fast.
On a side note, as you soar past the start/finish line you become acutely aware of that concrete wall to your right. Before you hit the first kink, you’re heading at that wall at a 30degree+ angle. Crikey. In the back of your head you simply can’t help but imagine the hit you’d take if you somehow got it wrong at 100+ mph. Gulp, respect……..
On the increasingly curvy parts, the car exhibits very little understeer and body roll is virtually nonexistent. OK, so there’s a little body roll, but it feels concentrated from mid-chassis back. Certainly in keeping with a mid-engined configuration, it took me over a day to truly think about it and come to that conclusion. Now that’s balance. Awesome.
Even at full throttle you can move the R8 back and forth with corrections and it simply responds, no drama. Steering is pin-point accurate without being nervous, its very linear and has good feel. The real happiness comes with the fact that it stays that way through triple digits. The brakes are phenomenal, and despite our rapid pace we really only used them to half of their capability. They do exhibit that characteristically aggressive Audi bite, and no doubt some folks will grouse that they are over-servoed. A legitimate viewpoint, but in my case it wasn’t difficult to adapt to.
The combination of power and chassis balance makes Infineon Raceway seem small. As soon as you hammer through a quick couple of gears full throttle, you’re jumping on the brakes again. Turn-in in the R8 is very precise and predictable, as is steady-throttle cornering poise. Again, its just amazing how easy it is to drive this car quickly.
Some notes on the R-Tronic transmission. It’s a clutchless manual, and apparently most of the R8’s sold in the US will come with one. Certainly you get to play Fernando Alonso with the paddles, and downshifts are nicely slick with the ECU providing rips of throttle to match revs. Upshifting however, isn’t quite as compelling. There is a distinct delay between paddle tap and transmission reaction, almost enough to wonder if it actually received the command to grab another gear. When it does so it does with a bit of a lurch; something that produced a fairly disconcerting rear-end wiggle when upshifting in a corner (see comment above on start-finish line concrete wall).
Granted, it wasn’t near enough to upset the rear end entirely, but I imagine it could be a good deal more cheek-pinching in the wet. Proceed with caution, R8 owners. I’m sure its something one would get used to over time, but its just not for me. I’d personally go for the standard manual transmission version should I become a buyer. Its not just because of that characteristic; its also because with a straight manual the driver has control of the clutch; when to let it out, how fast or slow, give it a pause if you need it, etc. More control equals a safer drive to me, so in that sense its a no-brainer.
Oddly enough for my 15 minutes on-track, the R-Tronic actually turned out to be more of a distraction on the track than a regular manual., With the gear lever and clutch pedal being eliminated, you would figure the opposite. As I was not familiar with the car, I repeatedly had to look down at the gear indicator to see what gear I was in on the first 2 laps. After that I was able to more or less remember where and when I downshifted, and listened to the engine as well. I don’t think I even looked at the rev-counter once. There was just too much going on with the instructor car in front of me, making sure I accurately held my line, clipping my apexes correctly, and keeping my inputs smooth. I ended up just shifting by ear, which is what I do anyway. I figure I was upshifting somewhere around 7500rpm. I never hit the limiter, and I’m happy that I didn’t.
Driving position is outstanding, as is the interior layout. There is lots of footwell room, without the pinch-down effect from the left front wheel well like in so many Ferraris and Lamborghinis. The seats are comfortable, the steering wheel adjustable for height and reach, and visibility is quite good. Headroom is ample as well; I may be 5’9” but I have a torso like Wilt Chamberlain…..therefore my head is regularly scraping the sunroof in all types of cars. Add a helmet to that mix and there’s some vehicles I simply can’t drive comfortably (see C5 Corvette and Mazda RX-8). Not so here, I had a full inch of headroom above my helmet, which to me is as good as a full cubic yard. Joy.
So there you have it. A bullet fast supercar with de-facto race engine in back, excellent steering, brilliant chassis dynamics, crushingly strong brakes, and enough grip for a nice neck sprain. Add to that a great interior with superior ergonomics and room, and you have Audi with its foot wedged firmly up Lamborghini and Aston Martin’s ass. Its widely understood that Audi’s 5.0L V-10 will make it into the R-8’s engine bay, but I don’t know why…..this car has every bit as much power as it needs right now and the biggest performance gain any owner would see from is in his/her own driving skill.
Actually, I do know why the V-10 will see time in the R8. Its because the chassis can handle it and people will buy it. OK, fine with me.
RS4
Right after we got out of the R8’s, they turned us around and marched us right back out onto pitlane and we strapped into the RS4s. Say…this is more familiar! I’ve got a sedan seating position, sedan visibility, a regular manual transmission, and a key that actually fires the motor when turned. There was a little talk given to the group earlier in the day about being nice to the clutches, apparently a participant in another city fried an RS4 clutch in ¾ of a lap at another speedway. How the hell they managed that I don’t know, but we all nodded in agreement that our group would do no such thing.
Anyway, once strapped in it was straight onto the track. The RS4 carries the same engine as the R8, but after that, the similarities end. This car has the engine hung out over the front axle, its much taller, has a narrower track, weighs 200lbs more, and of course has four doors and seating for four. It still stands up and scoots though, with significant oomph from the 4.2 FSI…albeit with a more muffled soundtrack.
After the pin-sharp, ultra-focused R8, the RS4’s somewhat softer edges were immediately apparent. Engine up front, more vehicle weight, higher center of gravity and less tire? Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to introduce you to my friend understeer. The RS4 is a very rapid, very forgiving and easy car to drive on a track, and the eventual understeer actually proves to be pretty entertaining. That is due to steering that is so wonderfully linear and progressive, you can adjust the whole attitude of the car with millimeters of steering in either direction. This is a far cry from Audis of the past, where over-assistance made high speed manuvers uninvolving, uninspiring, and occasionally dicey.
The Audi RS4 is a car that’s very easy to carve a line with, and also one that rewards very smooth inputs. Hack at the wheel and you’ll bleed off a lot of speed with understeer. If you really wring its neck, with wild abrupt steering, throttle, and brake inputs, the Quattro system will still probably keep you on the road ala AWD heroes like the Mitsubishi EVO, Subaru WRX STi, and VW Golf R32
The RS4’s transitional behavior is very very good, with predictable behavior in turns over 90mph. The standard A4 has boatloads of compliance built into its suspension geometry and bushings, but the vast majority of that is tuned out of the RS4. Here you have a car with very good balance, excellent steering, strong brakes, and that awesome engine. Push it hard and it understeers, it would take some seriously un-hygenic driving to get it out of shape.
The only improvements I can see for it is a more track-focused suspension and lighter flywheel if that’s what you’re going to do with it. If its going to be a street car then its absolutely perfect as-is. Track junkies will need a little less body roll and a lower center of gravity, but that goes for just about any car (except the R8!). The manual transmission shifts well, has very well spaced ratios and a nicely progressive clutch. If I was going to track an RS4 on a regular basis though, I’d search high and low for a lightweight flywheel. When lapping Infineon Raceway, I found myself waiting for the engine to spin down during shifts to make them smooth. A lighter flywheel and short shifter would sharpen up the RS4 significantly on the track, but again on the street this change really wouldn’t be needed.
After driving the RS4, and the A4 3.2’s, I found myself wondering exactly what the S4 is for. I wonder if it will end up being a vehicle that will fall into a model range black hole; too much for the 3.2 owner, not enough for the RS4 hardcore. Time will tell I guess, but make mine an RS4 please.
-Mirror
Once we were done with the autocross, we moved over to the helmet station where the RS4’s and R8’s were parked. There was a big table with the biggest selection of silver Arai helmets that I’ve ever seen, which everyone got subsequently got fitted for. I figured after this there would be an information session about the R8s and what the drive would be like.
No sir. Once we all had our helmets on, it was straight to the cars, get in quickly, seatbelts on, a quick radio check, and “let’s go” and off our instructor went. Away from me, up the pitlane. I did not move.
The reason for this is that my car was not running, nor could I get it running. With our rapid placement into the cars, I was not briefed by Audi Strategic Command on the top-secret procedure to start this R-Tronic transmission R8. Turn the key? No. Slide the lever over to the left and turn the key? No. Turn the key off, put the lever to the left, press the brake pedal, then turn the key again? No. Granted, with every turn of the key the gauge needles gave me full-sweep, smiley faces of encouragement, but the 4.2L FSI behind my head stayed as dead as a moon rock.
The instructor thankfully realized what was happening to his car #1 dumbass and backed up. He then guided me through a procedure that involved pressing on the brake pedal, moving the lever to the left, pressing on the gas, pulling back on the upshift paddle, turning the key, and maybe something else. Hell knows what order those steps were in, I certainly don’t remember. Regardless, it’s a needlessly complicated procedure. Hope and pray you never need to make a quick getaway from a carjacking.
Once fired, the engine makes the appropriately hard edged, deep rumble V-8 sounds that you would expect. The automatic clutch take-up was very smooth, and we were off and running.
Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point) is a very fun track with big hills and undulating terrain, off-camber blind corners, a challenging S-bend section and a significant hairpin at the end of a lap. Even though I’ve never driven on it, I know it very very well from spectating there a million times and watching countless races on TV. We ran on what is called the NASCAR configuration, which eliminates several corners replacing them with a couple of short straights. For our exercise it was perfect, for it gave us good full-throttle stretches and predictable braking zones. Our first lap was at about two-thirds speed, with the instructor communicating over the radio where to brake, when to be smooth, when to go full throttle, etc. Our “formation” was to be as close to 2 carlengths apart as possible. This doesn’t mean scrape paint off of the car in front, it means 2 carlengths. Easy enough.
On lap 2, we were off and running.
Once up to speed, our time was spent in gears 2, 3, and 4. This engine puts out an amazing amount of torque for its size, with significant shove from as little as 2500rpm all the way up. The race car soundtrack is there throughout. It sounds fantastic. It’s the best sounding German V-8 I’ve heard since Devek’s 6.0L 928 white car development mule….and that thing screamed like a wild animal. Rolling the R8 into full throttle from the exit of the hairpin, it’s a warp-drive blast through second, third, and fourth gear past the start/finish line into the first big uphill left hand sweeper. The car was totally planted through this section, with very little drama as it simply squatted down and roared. Its so forgiving and adjustable, you can alter your line significantly without any complaint or strange behavior from the chassis. From the get-go, this is a car that despite its unfamiliarity, is very very easy to drive fast.
On a side note, as you soar past the start/finish line you become acutely aware of that concrete wall to your right. Before you hit the first kink, you’re heading at that wall at a 30degree+ angle. Crikey. In the back of your head you simply can’t help but imagine the hit you’d take if you somehow got it wrong at 100+ mph. Gulp, respect……..
On the increasingly curvy parts, the car exhibits very little understeer and body roll is virtually nonexistent. OK, so there’s a little body roll, but it feels concentrated from mid-chassis back. Certainly in keeping with a mid-engined configuration, it took me over a day to truly think about it and come to that conclusion. Now that’s balance. Awesome.
Even at full throttle you can move the R8 back and forth with corrections and it simply responds, no drama. Steering is pin-point accurate without being nervous, its very linear and has good feel. The real happiness comes with the fact that it stays that way through triple digits. The brakes are phenomenal, and despite our rapid pace we really only used them to half of their capability. They do exhibit that characteristically aggressive Audi bite, and no doubt some folks will grouse that they are over-servoed. A legitimate viewpoint, but in my case it wasn’t difficult to adapt to.
The combination of power and chassis balance makes Infineon Raceway seem small. As soon as you hammer through a quick couple of gears full throttle, you’re jumping on the brakes again. Turn-in in the R8 is very precise and predictable, as is steady-throttle cornering poise. Again, its just amazing how easy it is to drive this car quickly.
Some notes on the R-Tronic transmission. It’s a clutchless manual, and apparently most of the R8’s sold in the US will come with one. Certainly you get to play Fernando Alonso with the paddles, and downshifts are nicely slick with the ECU providing rips of throttle to match revs. Upshifting however, isn’t quite as compelling. There is a distinct delay between paddle tap and transmission reaction, almost enough to wonder if it actually received the command to grab another gear. When it does so it does with a bit of a lurch; something that produced a fairly disconcerting rear-end wiggle when upshifting in a corner (see comment above on start-finish line concrete wall).
Granted, it wasn’t near enough to upset the rear end entirely, but I imagine it could be a good deal more cheek-pinching in the wet. Proceed with caution, R8 owners. I’m sure its something one would get used to over time, but its just not for me. I’d personally go for the standard manual transmission version should I become a buyer. Its not just because of that characteristic; its also because with a straight manual the driver has control of the clutch; when to let it out, how fast or slow, give it a pause if you need it, etc. More control equals a safer drive to me, so in that sense its a no-brainer.
Oddly enough for my 15 minutes on-track, the R-Tronic actually turned out to be more of a distraction on the track than a regular manual., With the gear lever and clutch pedal being eliminated, you would figure the opposite. As I was not familiar with the car, I repeatedly had to look down at the gear indicator to see what gear I was in on the first 2 laps. After that I was able to more or less remember where and when I downshifted, and listened to the engine as well. I don’t think I even looked at the rev-counter once. There was just too much going on with the instructor car in front of me, making sure I accurately held my line, clipping my apexes correctly, and keeping my inputs smooth. I ended up just shifting by ear, which is what I do anyway. I figure I was upshifting somewhere around 7500rpm. I never hit the limiter, and I’m happy that I didn’t.
Driving position is outstanding, as is the interior layout. There is lots of footwell room, without the pinch-down effect from the left front wheel well like in so many Ferraris and Lamborghinis. The seats are comfortable, the steering wheel adjustable for height and reach, and visibility is quite good. Headroom is ample as well; I may be 5’9” but I have a torso like Wilt Chamberlain…..therefore my head is regularly scraping the sunroof in all types of cars. Add a helmet to that mix and there’s some vehicles I simply can’t drive comfortably (see C5 Corvette and Mazda RX-8). Not so here, I had a full inch of headroom above my helmet, which to me is as good as a full cubic yard. Joy.
So there you have it. A bullet fast supercar with de-facto race engine in back, excellent steering, brilliant chassis dynamics, crushingly strong brakes, and enough grip for a nice neck sprain. Add to that a great interior with superior ergonomics and room, and you have Audi with its foot wedged firmly up Lamborghini and Aston Martin’s ass. Its widely understood that Audi’s 5.0L V-10 will make it into the R-8’s engine bay, but I don’t know why…..this car has every bit as much power as it needs right now and the biggest performance gain any owner would see from is in his/her own driving skill.
Actually, I do know why the V-10 will see time in the R8. Its because the chassis can handle it and people will buy it. OK, fine with me.
RS4
Right after we got out of the R8’s, they turned us around and marched us right back out onto pitlane and we strapped into the RS4s. Say…this is more familiar! I’ve got a sedan seating position, sedan visibility, a regular manual transmission, and a key that actually fires the motor when turned. There was a little talk given to the group earlier in the day about being nice to the clutches, apparently a participant in another city fried an RS4 clutch in ¾ of a lap at another speedway. How the hell they managed that I don’t know, but we all nodded in agreement that our group would do no such thing.
Anyway, once strapped in it was straight onto the track. The RS4 carries the same engine as the R8, but after that, the similarities end. This car has the engine hung out over the front axle, its much taller, has a narrower track, weighs 200lbs more, and of course has four doors and seating for four. It still stands up and scoots though, with significant oomph from the 4.2 FSI…albeit with a more muffled soundtrack.
After the pin-sharp, ultra-focused R8, the RS4’s somewhat softer edges were immediately apparent. Engine up front, more vehicle weight, higher center of gravity and less tire? Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to introduce you to my friend understeer. The RS4 is a very rapid, very forgiving and easy car to drive on a track, and the eventual understeer actually proves to be pretty entertaining. That is due to steering that is so wonderfully linear and progressive, you can adjust the whole attitude of the car with millimeters of steering in either direction. This is a far cry from Audis of the past, where over-assistance made high speed manuvers uninvolving, uninspiring, and occasionally dicey.
The Audi RS4 is a car that’s very easy to carve a line with, and also one that rewards very smooth inputs. Hack at the wheel and you’ll bleed off a lot of speed with understeer. If you really wring its neck, with wild abrupt steering, throttle, and brake inputs, the Quattro system will still probably keep you on the road ala AWD heroes like the Mitsubishi EVO, Subaru WRX STi, and VW Golf R32
The RS4’s transitional behavior is very very good, with predictable behavior in turns over 90mph. The standard A4 has boatloads of compliance built into its suspension geometry and bushings, but the vast majority of that is tuned out of the RS4. Here you have a car with very good balance, excellent steering, strong brakes, and that awesome engine. Push it hard and it understeers, it would take some seriously un-hygenic driving to get it out of shape.
The only improvements I can see for it is a more track-focused suspension and lighter flywheel if that’s what you’re going to do with it. If its going to be a street car then its absolutely perfect as-is. Track junkies will need a little less body roll and a lower center of gravity, but that goes for just about any car (except the R8!). The manual transmission shifts well, has very well spaced ratios and a nicely progressive clutch. If I was going to track an RS4 on a regular basis though, I’d search high and low for a lightweight flywheel. When lapping Infineon Raceway, I found myself waiting for the engine to spin down during shifts to make them smooth. A lighter flywheel and short shifter would sharpen up the RS4 significantly on the track, but again on the street this change really wouldn’t be needed.
After driving the RS4, and the A4 3.2’s, I found myself wondering exactly what the S4 is for. I wonder if it will end up being a vehicle that will fall into a model range black hole; too much for the 3.2 owner, not enough for the RS4 hardcore. Time will tell I guess, but make mine an RS4 please.
Last edited by TheMirror; Sep 16, 2007 at 10:42 AM.
Moderator Alumnus
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 64,162
Likes: 14,317
Great read - you make me want to drive Infineon! I guess GT4 and GTR will have to do, for now.. 
Liked your paragraphs on paddle vs. manual, it must have been kinda annoying in that R8 with the paddle-shifting. And, I think the S4 is available for people who can't afford the RS4 (or just don't want to shell out that much cash for it) and want a "sport" version of the A4.
Liked your paragraphs on paddle vs. manual, it must have been kinda annoying in that R8 with the paddle-shifting. And, I think the S4 is available for people who can't afford the RS4 (or just don't want to shell out that much cash for it) and want a "sport" version of the A4.
You really have a talent to write...I felt like I was there while reading and it surely sounds like you had fun with the R8 and RS4...Thanks again for sharing 
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