I just attended the Audi Driving Experience yesterday at Pocono Raceway. The entire event was AWESOME!
The had just about every car that Audi offers in North America there to sit in and in most cases drive on the track.
The main purpose of the event was to showcase the B8 A4 and all of it's new abilities due to the Audi Drive Select system. The B8 A4 was presented in two ways:
1. On the Pocono East road course against the BMW 328xi, MB C300 4matic and the Lexus IS250 AWD.
2. On the Eastern leg of the main racetrack and across the infield road course at higher speeds and heavier braking.
Overall the B8 performed amazingly. I was really surprised at how much the drive select changes the car.
Drive Select control 4 parameters of the car:
1. Transmission - Longer gear use and more aggressive shifts
2. Braking - Intelligent brake use to reduce nose dive and squatting
3. Suspension - Real time damper control to keep the car flat in corners
4. Steering - Steering ratio reduction and less sensitivity at high speeds
The total sum of these changes was immediately noticeable in every way. The car we each used was a german spec 3.2L V6 with the 6-speed auto tranny.
The BMW, MB and Lexus were all V6 cars with AWD and automatic trannys. The IS250 was quite underpowered but, they do not offer an AWD IS350. The C300 was also slightly less HP but again, there is no C350 with 4matic. The C300 4matic was the "sport sedan" version with the 7-speed auto tranny and a 228HP V6. The BMW 328xi is a 6-speed auto with 230HP 3.0L V6.
The BMW was better at braking than the Lexus or the MB. The MB had horrible body roll and extremely loose steering. The Lexus was a bit more nimble than the MB and the BMW since it's curb weight was lower. Hands down, the MB had the worst brakes out of every car.
All cars ran their OEM tires and OEM inflation pressures. None of these cars were equipped with a sport package (including the Audi). All vehicles has 17" alloy wheel packages.
The biggest surprise to me was the reduction in body roll and increase in braking on the A4 when using the dynamic mode of the drive select. The A4 felt like it had Porsche brakes on it.
After we had beaten the hell out of those cars, we then moved over to the main racetrack and drove the B8 at higher speeds and heavier braking. Our peak speeds on the track were about 100MPH on the banked corners of the east end of the main racetrack. The infield had some chicanes and sharp corners to fully test body roll.
We were very surprised to see how smooth the ride was in comfort mode and then noticed how the car tilted and tightened up when we swapped to dynamic mode. The motor even revved up since it no longer wished to use overdrive on the transmission. I also noticed that the accelerator was way more sensitive to input. I didn't need to mash it any more to start heavy acceleration.
Once we had finished all of this and were done with a survey, we then had the freedom to use any of the other A/Q vehicles in Audi's linieup on the racetrack for 10 laps at a time.
We had access to the A6 4.2 S-line, A3 3.2 S-line, A8L 4.2, TT 3.2 and the Q7 4.2. I drove the A6 4.2 and rode in the Q7 4.2 with some friends. The A6 was great to drive on the track and had no problem keeping up with the instructor's moves. The Q7 was the biggest surprise. Despite it's curb weight and added body roll, it stuck to the road like glue, even at 90+MPH on the racetrack with the other cars.
I will not deny that we beat these cars DOWN! The tires on these cars were gloppy when we left. If there was a way to skid out of control or skid off, we would have found it. Absolutely amazing day at the track.
Picture Time....
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Originally Posted by SoCalS4Avant
where do i sign up??
'12 Bril. Black A4 2.0T/Quattro/Prem+/Sports package
but Free program was awesome too.
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