SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the stories.
Pics by audi@motorpics
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday December 30, 2009
Don’t you just hate the motor industry’s fixation with acronyms? (I reckon agronyms would be a better word, but I digress.) Take Audi’s TFSI for example. “T” stands for “turbocharged” unless it’s the 3,0 litre engine in the S4, in which case it’s supercharged.
“FSI” stands for “fuel stratified injection.” That simply means direct injection into the combustion chamber via a common rail system. Stolen from diesels, right? Sorry, Fortesque, wrong again. Direct petrol injection was used in some cute little Goliath and Gutbrod cars and trucklets back in ’52, but the most famous early application was in the legendary Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing of 1955. Remember hearing about that? Of course you do.
Audi assures us that the “T” now means any kind of forced induction and they chose to use a Rootes-type supercharger on the 3,0 litre aluminium V6 simply because, in this application, it works better. The supercharger fits neatly into the V between the cylinder banks and does away with the need for an inlet manifold. Cunning, these Germans.
Cunning, indeed - the 2 995 cc DOHC 24-valve V6 pumps out 245 kW between 5 500- and 7 000 rpm and 440 Nm of torque between 2 900- and 5 300 rpm. It is a formula for rapid progress, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5,2 seconds for the zero to100 km/h sprint, in fact.
Guzzles gas, right? Actually, no. Car magazine puts the Audi S4’s fuel consumption index at 11,3 l/100 km and our real life experience over 328 km was about 11,4. Pretty fair for something not even a nun could readily find patience to drive frugally.
She would probably suffer earthly temptation to put the boot in on twisty bits too. Everyone knows that Audi’s Quattro all-wheel drive, combined with well-engineered chassis and suspension, works – very well indeed. The power goes down, the car goes where it’s pointed, it’s as stable as a monastery and it hangs on beyond the outer limits of any normal person’s sense of reason. ‘Nuff said.
Serving out the power is your choice of either a six-speed manual ‘box or a seven-speed twin-clutch S-tronic, as fitted to our test unit. This gives you the choice of either fully automated shifts or clutchless manual selection via the stick on the console or paddles behind the steering wheel.
This works very well, but unless my left leg suffers some nasty injury, and impaired functioning, my cog swapper of choice will always be a fully manual device with a gate, and a clutch pedal for stomping on. It’s a rhythm thing; deleting half the ritual is like dancing on one leg.
Included on the test car was Audi’s ‘drive select’ option. This allows changes to throttle response characteristics, shift points of the S-tronic dual-clutch transmission and the speed-dependent servotronic steering. It is only available in combination with certain other toys, so speak to your dealer.
This appears to be pretty much the way things work at Audi. Your list price includes a nice basic car with lots of good engineering and bagsful of electronic wizardry, but very few additions. They all cost extra, like the R91 350-worth on our test rig.
The car itself is a compact saloon with a decently sized boot, just enough head- and legroom in the back and a pilot’s cabin to die for. I would guess that it’s aimed at younger executives whose responsibilities to young families would preclude an all-out two-seater road weapon.
The numbers
Price: From R598 000
Engine: 2 995 cc DOHC V6, supercharged
Power: 245 kW at 5 500 rpm
Torque: 440 Nm at 2 900 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 5,2 seconds
Max speed: 250 km/h (governed)
Real life average fuel consumption: about 11,4 l/100 km
Tank: 64 litres
Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
This site is operated by Scarlet Pumpkin Communications in Pietermaritzburg.
Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are courtesy of www.quickpic.co.za
Copyright this business. All rights reserved.
SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8