2007 Audi RS 4 Quattro

2007 Audi RS 4 Quattro - For a car designed and developed within a stone’s throw of the world’s fastest public roads, it’s a strange inconsistency. At the big track at Willow Springs International Motorsports Park in Southern California where Audi staged its stateside introduction, the RS 4 would reach maybe 130 mph down the pit straight. At that speed there was no sign of any tail wiggle. But when you got on the brakes hard for Turn Two, there it was again, the slo-mo shimmy.

Still, you don’t need huge top speed to enjoy the RS 4’s 420-hp direct-injection V-8. Just about anywhere will do. The engine pulls smoothly from idle, with abundant thrust available from 2300 rpm. In fact, 90 percent of the car’s peak torque is available between 2250 and 7600 rpm. Another sign of how serious Audi is about its high-performance credentials can be seen in the fact that it now fields two go-faster models based on its mid-size A4 sedan: the continuing $47,120 340-hp S4 and this new RS 4. That the RS 4 is being priced at $68,820 for the U.S. market is surprisingly good news. It’s a lot, but it’s almost the same number of euros required for the RS 4 in Europe, which at the current exchange would cost an American $83,857. Of course, some changes have been made to the car coming to our shores. For one, the flat-bottom steering wheel fitted to Euro cars has been replaced with the wheel you see in these photographs.

Another big difference between cars on the two continents is the replacement of the lightweight European race-type seats with 10-way power-adjustable Recaros. These do not afford quite the support we were looking for on the track, but they worked great everywhere else, even during high-speed work in the mountains. They are a lot easier to get into and out of, too; the Euro chairs have pronounced hip bolsters that will give you a wedgie you’ll remember for a long time if you sit in the wrong spot.

All this helps explain the curb weight of 3980 pounds, despite the fact that the RS 4 has an aluminum hood, trunk, and front-fender panels. The RS 4’s underlying structure has aluminum and magnesium elements, too. Also made of aluminum are the suspension links, the wheels, and the rear-brake hats. Even the battery has been moved to the trunk to improve fore-and-aft weight distribution. Instead of a spare tire, Audi supplies a repair kit.

Audi’s Quattro drivetrain, with a center torque-sensing diff that sends 60 percent of the power to the rear wheels, provides reassuring traction at high speed and helps the car achieve a dynamic balance something like a rear-driven vehicle’s. Being able to use full throttle without concern for specific rear- or front-axle traction makes the RS 4 easy to drive fast.

Despite the apparent balance of the chassis, high-speed laps quickly underscore the tough job facing a left-front tire on this predominantly clockwise track with its interminably long right-hand corners. On the penultimate lap of one four-lap session, the car executed a slow back-and-forth yawing motion through the track’s famously fast Turn Eight, and when I came in, the left front Pirelli P Zero Corsa DOT race tire Audi had fitted for the session had shucked some of its tread right down to the steel cords.

There are relatively few circumstances that remind you of the car’s underlying high-performance calibrations when you’re cruising suburbia on a shopping expedition. Okay, road undulations with wavelengths about the same as the car’s wheelbase will confound the diagonal shock system somewhat when front and rear wheels deflect at the same time. You can get occasional freeway hop that will bounce you in the seat hard enough to make your speech go disjointed. But mainly, it’s a smooth ride.

Speaking of feet, the brake pedal is firm and readable, and the brakes always feel like they have something left. Not surprising with pie-plate-sized front rotors gripped by eight-piston calipers that encircle a third of their real estate, all cooled by dedicated NACA ducts under the car’s nose.

Can this possibly be to avoid the old pedal misapplication bugaboo? We hope not. Audi seems a million years from those dark days. This new RS 4 is an extraordinarily sophisticated car, and we can’t wait to see how BMW will rise to its challenge.