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A BIT OF S&M: Audi’s S4 has muscled up with a new V8 to take on BMW’s six-packed king of the road. Can the Audi punch its weight against the world’s sexiest six, or will it be all torque?
This article was first published in the July, 2007 issue of MOTOR
Over the horizon, lights-ablaze, just a dozen kays away, roars a logging truck. We’re on a narrow goat-track of a road, deep in a pine forest, with a 40-tonne semi laden with big lumps of timber powering our way at warp factor nine.
We’ve got the best part of $300k of German engineering parked up for a static shot. We know these logging blokes don’t like to lift, and we also know from bitter past experience that wood chips will crack a screen and pepper paintwork as easily as coarse chip stones. We have to run and hide.
A few frantic exchanges over the radios and it’s realised there’s a safe place to get off the road just a kay or two away. Toward the oncoming truck!
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Marcus guns the M3’s straight-six, and its rump squats and fires off down the road before the Audi has a chance to draw breath. Each snap-shift from its six-speed SMG gearbox is accompanied by a little bob of the metallic army-green BMW bum and a momentary interruption of its staccato wail.
The Audi responds in equal voice and blazes away from rest with typical all-wheel-drive efficiency. Its regular manual ’box shifts with the usual rubbery feel found in Audi manuals, lacking in the tactile pleasure of the tighter Japanese version.
The S4 is playing catch-up to the Bimmer, but only really starts to make progress out of the tight corners, where its torque advantage is at its greatest. But on the faster bends, it’s clear the Audi is having the better time. Turn in, settle into steady-state understeer, push hard on the throttle and gently four-wheel drift out of the exit.
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"On the faster bends, the Audi is having the better time. Rapid progress doesn’t get any easier"
Rapid progress doesn’t get any easier. Okay, maybe its big brother RS6 might argue the toss, but you know what I mean.
The M3, on the other hand, looks like it’s making harder work of the task. It’s a game of slide-and-catch, as its front bites the rear slips 10 degrees before the tricky M-diff slides into play and throttle-adjustable oversteer becomes available. Nevertheless, the M3 is clearly outpacing the Audi.
About 500 metres off the M3’s tail, I pop over the rise and spot Marcus as he finds our safe haven. The M3’s brake lights flare red as its nose bites into the tarmac and its rear end hurtles back to greet me.
Hard on the brakes, the Audi’s ABS kicks in as its rear is still settling from the last crest. I tuck the S4’s bum into the side road, not 30 seconds before the truckie belts past, pace unabated, air-horn a-blaring.
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As the cars and drivers sit panting, nosed down this dusty side road, let’s take stock of what we’ve got here. An M3 up against an Audi S4? Coupe v sedan? Straight six v bent eight? Rear-drive v all-paw? Apples v oranges?
Yep, as for comparing the incomparable, we’re guilty as charged. But before you grab your letter-writing pens, Audi’s mad scientists of Ingolstadt clearly had a lock on the M3 when they reached for the shoehorns and stuffed an A4 to the gunwales with 4.2-litres of V8.
It’s the same basic engine as found in A6, A8 and allroad. In S4 trim, the 40-valve eight belts out 253kW at 7000rpm. For those who don’t go to bed at night cuddled up to an M3 brochure, that 253kW is just 1kW more oomph, but it’s available at 900 revs lower on the tacho than in the Bavarian stormer. With an extra two pots and a full carton of milk’s displacement advantage, it’s a gimme that the Audi thumps the M3 on torque output – 410Nm at 3500rpm to the M3’s 365Nm screaming out at 4900rpm.
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The on-paper advantage for the Audi is reduced in the real world only by the reluctance of its engine to venture into the very top of the rev stratosphere. But progress is just as rapid in the meaty mid-range.
The M3’s straight six is a stunning engineering achievement. Eighty percent of the 365Nm is on song from just two grand, giving the Bimmer a usable and exploitable rev scale of 6000rpm. And the last 2500 revs are accompanied by a blood-curdling shriek unmatched by any other engine of so few cylinders.
The Audi’s V8 is also an aural delight and its revs flare (to a point) and fall with almost no flywheel resistance. This makes operation of the six-speed ’box a hit-and-miss affair, with smooth, low-speed getaways being the most difficult to master, as it’s a challenge to feed the overly sprung clutch against the fast-revving V8. If you don’t want the hassle, tick the five-speed Tiptronic box for an extra $3000.
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The M3’s sequential six-speeder doesn’t ask you to bring a lot of skill to the table, but it, too, is compromised. Keep the M3’s throttle pinned to the carpet and orange shift-lights romp across the top of the tacho before demanding an upshift just after eight grand. Grab the steering-wheel-mounted paddle or the stubby alloy lever for an upshift and the rush around the tacho starts again, as the voice drops an octave.
But this particular M3 SMG shifted with such brutality, each full-throttle upshift was made with a pre-emptive wince etched across my face. I swear I even glanced rearward a couple of times, expecting to find cogs and shards of cast metal clinking down the tarmac behind. Not even the track-focused CSL shifted with such ferocity.
The M3’s shift-speed is adjustable, and around town you’d want to go for a medium setting, as its slowest speed is just too doughy. The full auto mode is one of the best within the whole sequential genre, but this is to damn with faint praise. And make sure you’ve depressed the sport button to sharpen throttle responses, otherwise you’ve got a fast-shifting gearbox competing with slow inputs from its engine.
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Although you don’t have to, a minute flex of the right ankle as you grab the next cog does wonders for the shift’s smoothness. Still, kinda defeats the purpose of having a sequential gearbox.
The Bimmer’s other great compromise lies in its ride quality. For the sake of fashion, most M3s are sold with the $3000 option of 19-inch wheels. Yep, they look great, but the ride is shot to bits and its back end bounces and skips around.
Indeed, I don’t entirely trust the M3 on the 19s. On the 18-inch rims and rubber (both 18s and 19s have the same 255 section-width in the rear), the M3 drives like a more powerful Nissan 200SX. It’s tyre-smoking, lock-stop, drift-central.
But on the 19-inch rubber with its lower 35-series profile and stiffer sidewalls, you’re always second-guessing the breakaway point. It slips, grips and sliiiides in that order, but its first slip drives the knuckles a bit whiter. Ride it out and it’s still the king of drift, it just isn’t as chatty as on the
18-inch Michelins.
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The Audi’s 18-inch alloys (and there’s a full-size spare) are shod with equally meaty 235/40 ZR18 Bridgestone Potenzas, but its suspension takes the edge off sharp intrusions in a way the M3 could never match, even on smaller wheels.
Along with the very front-mounted engine, this initial softness to the chassis does allow a bit more push, but you’ll usually only find it above 7/10ths. Remember, too, that the Audi weighs 1660kg, 165kg more than the M3.
Twelve grand separates the two on price and then you have to factor in some of the already more expensive M3’s options, including $3k on wheels, the BMW Individual interior appointments, sunroof, and so on.
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All up you’re looking at an on-road difference getting closer to $25,000 but it’s not as though the $129,500 Audi misses out on anything. Typically Audi, the S4 is well screwed together and the sombre cabin with its black leather trim is every bit as sumptuous as the Bimmer’s airy beige, black and faux wood.
This is the fourth time I’ve refereed an M3 in a straight comparo and I’ve steered one at various Bang For Your Bucks and PCOTY shoot-outs. It’s yet to suffer a loss and it’s record includes an outright win at PCOTY in 2002, a couple of class wins at BFYB, plus a string of comparo wins and a couple of drawn bouts. Unfortunately the clean record gets tarnished here, with a narrow points-decision loss to the Audi.
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Drop it back to 18-inch rolling stock and give it a good old H-pattern manual and the M3 is easily one of MOTOR’s favourite cars and still mops the floor with the Audi on sheer entertainment value. Hell, it’s in the PCOTY hall of fame as the most dominant winner ever.
But in no way should this be viewed as a default win for the Audi. Certainly, the S4 does not offer the thrills of the M3, neither does it demand the same compromises. However, we’re still talking about a small-ish, nimble car, powered by a bloody great lump of aspirated V8.
This Audi finished seventh at PCOTY back in April this year and narrowly missed out on a shot in the top six finals. In the process, it also beat off some big-dollar, big-horsepower competition, even though it was a little overshadowed by its hard-core chest-thumping RS 6 brother.
Like the mighty M3, the S4 is a car with an enormous breadth of talent.
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