Audi: a4 mods most bang 4 the buck?

Mr. Kreiger, and buy the way I am almost 95% German myself. I admit that
your knowledge of autos and driving are far above mine. I also apologize if
my post was insulting in any way to you. I agree with you that everyone can
benefit from learning some good driving skills, and if we were ever to meet
i'm sure you could teach me a thing or two about driving. I do not want to
argue with you or anyone else, like I said I am a newbie when it comes to
Audis and by posting I am attempting to improve my knowledge of the car and
mods, not to be flamed. And for the person who commented on my "writing
skills" I graduated with high honors from my high school, and attended the
University of Scranton. The post was written quickly and I used unorthodox
abbreviations, R ,U, etc to get the point across quickly. Can you figure out
this abbreviation, GFY. Getting back to C.R. "*What* you drive has no
bearing on *how well* you drive it." I agree with you, I was just giving a
bit of background info on myself. I forgot to include the many sport bikes I
have also owned, so im no newbie to mind blowing accelleration. In addition
to the A4 currently my two wheeled baby is a 95 Honda 900RR. Now as for the
blizzacks they are by far the best snow tire available, I do not care what
any one thinks thats the truth. And, I'm not a complete idiot I am well
aware that you are not going to get any type of handling or conering from
snow tires on stock rims, but like I said it's winter time and they are
necessary. When the weather breaks I plan on getting a slightly larger rim
than stock and a good set of performance rubbers. I'm not trying to make the
A4 into a 10 sec car, I just want a little gain in acceleration while
keeping the inherent reliability and smooth ride of the A4, I just miss the
raw power of the M3. As for driving the car to it's limits, you are right I
dont know them, but pushing a any car to or beyond it's limits on public
roads is not only dangerous but foolish. This area has an abundance of
ignorant young punks that have seen the Fast and The furious one too many
times. They go out and pick up a Honda Civic and then run up to Pep Boys as
fast as they can and buy those big ugly aluminum wings, bolt them onto the
trunk, then cut off the muffler and put on the largest diameter exhaust tip
they can get and drive around like Vin Diesel ha ha.. I regulary whipped
them with the old M3, and I still do with my little stock A4, maybe its the
window tint that makes them target me, who knows. But I toy with them till i
prove my point and then let them fly off like idiots to most likely wreck
around the next corner or two. As for my M3 mods, The Dinan intake was free
from my buddy at active foreign auto parts, for screwing up my order, the
large maf was "donated" from a vandalized 7 series at my buddy's garage
which came from New York, some drug dealers car which was in limbo for
months. and the strut brace was a cheap but quite durable model from cosom
racing. The Turner chip was the only expensive mod, and although you can
disagree I did see a noticable performance gain from the maf/chip/intake
upgrade. But for most applications the car in its stock state was by far
fast enough. Im looking for some mods to gain some straight line
accelleration. So again in your opinion what mods would be affective for
achieving this? And I am considering driving school. please send me some
info on your school if you wish, net . I have been
humbled by your post and if I were a k9 I would be walking with my tail
between wy legs ha ha. "Forgive me Father, I am a worm....." Kurgan,
Highlander 1. When money premits it I plan to aquire a 94 or up 540 stick.
As for the Webbers, let me check my spare parts box in the closet, you may
be suprised what I have in there.
Thanks,
Dave



"C.R. Krieger" <com> wrote in message
news:google.com... 
news:<com>... 
kreiger, 
hold my 
lowes, 
can go 
handling 
and 
a 
reprogrammed, 

"dave smith" <net> wrote in message news:<com>...
 

Yeah; well, it happens in the best of families ... and you're still
using the English spelling. Remember: 'I' before 'E', etc.
 

I appreciate that, but I'm not looking for humility or admissions.
I'm trying to get *you* as pumped up about this as I have been for
some 20 years now. I'm a driving enthusiast and I would *love* it if
everyone *did* know as much as my Audi/BMW/SCCA friends and I do about
driving and vehicle dynamics. I don't want to be superior in any way;
I'd rather be *average* in a much larger group of enthusiasts, as I am
in these clubs.
 

No offense taken. I've been insulted by some true masters of the art.
 

So go out and find the resources to learn. I'll be just as pleased if
you're good enough to show *me* a thing or two when you finally get
out here to the 'Great White North' of Road America.
 

This isn't even in the neighborhood of an argument by Usenet
standards. And, until the words 'moron' and 'idiot' crop up more than
once or twice in my posts, it's not only not a flame, it's not even
warm. If all you got was "use this chip" - "buy it here" answers,
this place would be too boring for anyone to bother hanging out, so I
not only sell my philosophical approach, I try to make things
interesting.
 

None of us is above asking about weird usages, but as someone who
makes a living with the written word, I'll at least ask you to try to
learn how to:

1. Break your posts into paragraphs. Big blocks of uninterrupted text
are boring and difficult to read, especially if the capitalization and
punctuation is somewhat neglected (yours is). White space is your
*friend*.

2. Trim out the extra stuff from previous posts you're leaving at the
bottom. Just block it with your mouse and delete it. Better yet,
interleave your replies by moving your cursor to where you want to
respond and typing the response, like I'm doing. Delete as much extra
stuff as you can.

3. Get used to ignoring a lot of abuse. We all dish it out. If you
can't take it or ignore it, you'll have to leave or 'lurk' (reading
without writing).
 

And I ride a '95 Shadow VLX because I'd rather *look good* on two
wheels than be a blur (that has to stop every 50 miles/15 minutes
because my ass hurts and my knees are cramped). My/our standard
instructor spiel about going fast at Road America, as the novice
students drool over the stupendously long straights leading to Turns
One (over the crest of an uphill) and Five (*downhill*!) is, "A
well-trained chimpanzee could go as fast as you in a straight line.
You've gotta *turn* at the end." I've seen instrumented graphs
showing that my cornering speeds in my old 110-hp 4000 Quattro with
street tires on stock wheels were faster than a guy in a 350-hp Sport
Quattro on race tires that could pull 145 mph (compared to my ~112 -
on a downhill - with the wind at my back) on the straights. In the
same car, I kept up with a pair of students' Mitsubishi 3000GT twin
turbos through RA's twisty sections from Turn 5-14 and then watched
them disappear uphill as my tach went retrograde. So who's the
'faster' driver?
 

Well, I set you up here, and there are a few regular readers who know
this. The Blizzaks are a real step up from *regular* snow tires, but
they're not the be-all and end-all of winter tires. A short drive in
my wife's AWD Jaguar X-Type on its Dunlop Winter M3s would convince
you instantly. I've been through 3 or 4 sets of better winter
*performance* tires since I decided that Blizzaks were too squishy for
my taste. Pirelli, Michelin, Nokian, and Yokohama all make winter
tires that actually aren't bad on dry roads. The Blizzak might be
*slightly* better on glare ice, but that's about the only place.
 

Then *don't* use bigger wheels unless your total wheel/tire diameter
is the same or *smaller*. Your acceleration will be *worse* if you
do. At the same time, with a shorter sidewall, your ride quality will
deteriorate. If English composition wasn't your strong point, then
math & physics should have been. You can figure this out yourself or
you can do a quick Google search on the topic.
 

Having higher capabilities than almost everyone else on the street
isn't a hazard; it's your safety net. I've slalomed around deer at
night on an interstate. I've swerved just enough to drive a narrow,
snowy shoulder when a woman who "didn't see" me pulled out in front of
me in the snow. I've threshold braked to avoid countless incidents,
and I've modulated my own braking a few times to allow someone behind
me enough room to stop before hitting me. I've modified my lines
within my cars' handling capabilities to avoid dozens of clueless
motorists doddering into my path. I drive out of slides instead of
aggravating them; heck sometimes, I purposely drive *into* slides just
for the fun of it.

In most of these cases, the average driver would slam on the brakes -
and slam into a collision. While my normal driving includes things a
lot of people might *perceive* as dangerous or foolish, if you can do
the same thing ten times out of ten without fail, I'd consider that
safe. Remember that a lot of people perceive a smoky burnout as
dangerous and foolish, but you and I know better, don't we (OK;
ignoring tire wear, which *is* foolish.)? Remember your tail-happy
M3?
 

So how does that make you much different? It's usually better to
ignore them totally, secure in the knowledge that you're a better
driver. It's easier to do that after some formal training.
 

Ahhh, poetic justice. Doesn't happen nearly enough. While I don't
hold out much hope they'll purge themselves from the gene pool, I'm
not above baiting one as we approach a heavily monitored speed trap
....
 

I'm still not going there. For one thing, other guys have already
answered you. Second, I don't have any direct experience with the A4
turbo. Third, and personally most important to me, I don't want to be
the guy riding in the right seat when the 'little extra boost' you've
dialed into your car spins us into the walls in The Kink. I've done
that and, thankfully, walked away. Instructors are much more
comfortable exploring the *stock* limits of your car with you because
they're more familiar, usually easier to reach, and quite often,
they're more forgiving than the sudden breakaway characteristics of,
say, the E36 M3. We've snap rolled more than one of those in our
schools, but rarely a regular E36. We even have a *special* lecture
for *experienced* M3 drivers, because it isn't the novices who crash,
it's the advanced guys.
 

Our schools are all at www.badgerbimmers.org, but those are all no
closer than Michigan or Illinois to you. I mentioned Lime Rock and
Watkins Glen. Audi Club NA and BMW CCA both have schools at both
venues. Check their websites; join one, and get out there.
--
C.R. Krieger
(Been there; done that)