I ran against my friends S4 and was surprised to beat him. My car is stock and he has a full exhaust and some type of ECU upgrade (auto tranny). I thought those S4's were faster than that, especially with aftermarket parts.

We ran from a stop up to about 60-70 twice. The first time I didn't launch as hard as I could and we were door to door. The second time I launched abusively and beat him by about 1-2 car lenghths.

 

and you're stock? that's pretty pathetic driving by the S4 then.
how long was the race, 6 seconds? thought the v8 S4's ran mid-high 13's.

 

Mid to upper 13's is about right. Fastest magazine time I've ever seen for the new V8 S4 is 13.6 @103mph in the May '03 issue of C&D.

However, as the curb weight is 3864lbs (according to the same issue of C&D), and the engine is n/a, as temps and humidity rise, performance decreases significantly.

Most V8 S4 owners run the 1/4 in 13.8-13.9 seconds on average and can only touch the C&D time on a cool early Spring or Fall evening at the strip.

 

Yes, I'm stock with the exception of an axle back exhaust; and we all know the great performance enhancement that is.

It is a heavy car but it's advertised with 340 hp (I believe). The mods he has are advertised for another 40 hp or something like that. This was in Minnesota with an evening temp of about 55 degrees and little humidity. I guess that means my 03 wagon runs about 13.8, heh...I guess it's time for driving school for my friend, or at least that's what I'll tell him. Next time I see him he'll probably have it super charged. He wasn't happy.

It is one of the best sounding exhausts I've heard on any car.

 

He should be launching while brake torquing.
Is that even legal at a drag strip?
Used to launch like that with my Cerifo in Japan. Had the brakes down and gas at the same time. rear tires would be smoking, then when flagged let go of the brake and go.

Used to do quite well, except the wear and tear on tires....

 

But with an auto there is basically no driving skills needed? I mean you will just be flooring it and wait for the auto tranny to do it's work?