Audi A4 Cabriolet

...Saab, the even prettier little Audi A4, the BMW 3 series and the Mercedes C Class. The C Class was the first to be eliminated because I’ve heard so many horror stories about its reliability. Everyone and his Granny has a 3 series so that got the thumbs down, leaving just the Swede and the Audi. The Saab is a lovely car, no doubt about it, but there’s just something about it that doesn’t quite appeal to me so I ambled off up to see Jeff, my long-suffering ...
...digress for a moment, that Audi by rights only owns one of the four circles that adorn the noses of its cars. You don’t? Well… The four-circle emblem was originally the moniker of a company called Auto Union. Auto Union was created in 1932 by the amalgamation of four earlier companies, Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer; hence the four circles – one for each of the (at the time) near bankrupt members. And who was it set the new company up? That self-proclaimed ... more

Time to change cars again and what with summer coming on‘n all, I thought perhaps a nice little soft top wouldn’t go amiss. So I looked at the pretty little Saab, the even prettier little Audi A4, the BMW 3 series and the Mercedes C Class. The C Class was the first to be eliminated because I’ve heard so many horror stories about its reliability. Everyone and his Granny has a 3 series so that got the thumbs down, leaving just the Swede and the Audi. The Saab is a lovely car, no doubt about it, but there’s just something about it that doesn’t quite appeal to me so I ambled off up to see Jeff, my long-suffering Audi salesman. He’s a smashing feller and he sat me down with a cup of coffee while we chatted about the various A4 cabriolet options.

In keeping with Audi’s deliberate strategy of confusing the hell out of its customers, it turns out that you can have no less than 5 different engines and three different gearboxes in the A4 Cab. As if that wasn’t enough, the car can be had with option of two or four-wheel drive (Audi’s famous Quattro) and there are no less than 13 different alloy wheel patterns, 17 external colours, 15 interior trims and 7 trim inlay variations. And we haven’t even started on the optional extras yet! You begin to wonder if they’ve ever built two the same.

The big question is which engine to have… Hmmm. Here’s what you get; 163ps in the 1.8T, 170ps in the 2.3 (why did they bother?) 163ps in the diesel, 220ps in the 3.0 and a whopping 344ps in the V8 powered S4, which just happens to be exactly one horsepower more than BMW’s M3 – Vorsprung durch technik as they say in Germany, which roughly translated means, “Up yours BMW”

Of course, the price goes up exponentially with engine size. The range runs from about 25K for the base 1.8T up to around forty big ones for the outrageous V8. That’s an awful lot of wonga for an A4 with its top sawn off.

In the end, the decision was made for me. Jeff casually let slip that he had a six month old 3.0 Litre ‘round the back with only 4000 miles on the clock and would I like to have a go in it? Do bears shit in the woods? Five minutes later we were off. Ten minutes later I owned the bloody thing. Jeez am I a salesman’s dream or what?

My one is a dolphin grey (read titanium) 3.0 Litre Multitronic. According to the original order, its first owner specified a black leather and alacantra (posh word for suede as best as I can make out) interior, with Birchwood grey inserts and a few other bits and bats like sports suspension, sports seats, an upgraded stereo (called a Symphony) and a rear park distance warning thingy that beeps like a tamagochi just before you hit whatever it is behind you. It’s also got a clever steering wheel with rocker switches set into it to change gear and a set of big-ass five spokes wide enough to go truck crushing in. I dread to think what the tyres’ll cost to replace when the time comes.

I have to admit, this is one very pretty car. The front-end has different, more rounded, plastic to its A4 saloon sister. It’s been made to ape the little TT, which in turn, takes its styling cues from the legendary Silver Arrows racers of the mid 1930’s. Of course you do know, if I might digress for a moment, that Audi by rights only owns one of the four circles that adorn the noses of its cars. You don’t? Well… The four-circle emblem was originally the moniker of a company called Auto Union. Auto Union was created in 1932 by the amalgamation of four earlier companies, Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer; hence the four circles – one for each of the (at the time) near bankrupt members. And who was it set the new company up? That self-proclaimed busybody of the German motor industry, none other than Ferdinand Porsche himself. By all accounts old man Porsche was a bit of an insufferable prick, however there is no doubt he was also something of a driving (sic) force in the German Auto industry between the wars. You may also be aware that he was a mate of Adolf’s and, among other things, the designer of the Volkswagen Beatle.

However, in 1932, he had Grand Prix on his mind and he formed Auto Union to build racecars (funded by his pal with the dodgy moustache). The Silver Arrows racers he designed were built to conform to a new rule that limited the weight of the cars to 750Kg (net of fluids and driver). However, it said nothing about engine size or power. The lightweight Silver Arrows were some of the most powerful racing cars ever built. Years ahead of their time, they were mid engined and gave around 600 horsepower. Legend has it they could “light up” their rear tyres at 150 mph! Imagine that on skinny cross-plies and drum brakes. Puts the Audi S4 into perspective doesn’t it?

Anyway, after the war Auto Union eventually got subsumed into VW and only the Audi name survived (complete with the three stolen rings). Meanwhile, having recently lost his best mate and sponsor, old Ferdie turned to tricking up VW Beatles in the back of a garage in Stuttgart and eventually came up with the first Porsche, the 356. Thus proving once and for all that with enough hard work and a lot of attention to detail you can indeed polish a turd. So now you know.

Anyhoo, I think my pretty little Cab carries some echoes of old Ferdi’s fire breathing monsters. But let’s get back to the op… Inside, the car is snug and inviting, the controls all fall nicely to hand and they all work with that beautifully positive feel that only the German manufacturers seem to be able to achieve. The seat and steering wheel are both multi-adjustable so there’s no reason not to get comfy. Reaching back for the seatbelt is a bit of a chore because it’s set low into the hip of the car (no B pillar to hang it off in a cabriolet). While we’re on the subject of the not-so-good points, there isn’t a lot of legroom in the back but it’s OK for kids or even adults for short journeys and the front seats have a tilt & slide capability making it easier for passengers getting in and out. For touring, you wouldn’t want to take four people anyway ‘cos there’s bugger all room in the boot and even less with the hood lowered – it drops into a bag in the boot which takes up about half of the, already meager, room.

The real fun lies in the fact that the car has 220 horsepower on tap and Audi’s trick Multitronic transmission. The idea of a constantly variable transmission (CVT) is not new, in fact the original concept is attributed to Galileo and it’s been used many times since. The little Dutch car company DAF had a CVT car in production way back in 1958 and many small vehicles such as Skimobiles and ride-on lawn mowers use the same principle. It’s difficult to explain exactly how it works without a drawing (I've included a schematic at the bottom of the op) but essentially power is transmitted through a rubber, or steel, belt running between two cones. Audi call this a “variator”. Squeezing the two cones together forces the belt out while releasing them allows the belt to slide in towards the axis. Thus, by varying the pressure (usually hydraulically) on the cones the output ratio can be constantly varied, hence the name. There are a couple of inherent problems with a CVT transmission; the first is that the belts are prone to slipping under heavy loads while the second has to do with the way in which the box takes power from the engine. Instead of a gradual acceleration, like you would get in a conventional set-up, the CVT will tend to run the motor up to maximum output and hold it there while the cones catch up. It sounds and feels weird, which unfortunately puts a lot of would-be purchasers off. Audi have spent nearly twenty years solving these issues, which is a shame when you realize that the Multitronic box may already be obsolete with the advent of the equally astonishing DSG (Direct Shift Gearbox) system, also invented by Audi and first released in the 3.2 A3 and TT earlier this year.

In use, Multitronic feels and sounds pretty much like a conventional automatic. It’s not until you absolutely floor it that the traditional CVT characteristics manifest themselves and the motor wails up to its maximum power while the cones do their magic. The effect is electrifying, the car catapults forward feeling more like its being fired by a gigantic rubber band than anything else. Great fun. What’s more, unlike a conventional automatic, there are no power losses through the torque converter (‘cos there ain’t one) so fuel consumption is identical to that of a manual car. Having your cake and eating it or what? My car is giving just under 28 mpg over all, which is damned good for a big three-litre automatic.

What else do you need to know? The hood is a conventional “fold-into-the-boot” item just like on the Saab, BMW and Merc. There are no catches to undo of fiddle with, just a single button amid-ships, down by the handbrake. You pull it up to open the hood and push it down to close it. The mechanism itself is frightfully complex and there is a whole chapter in the handbook dedicated to showing you how to manually put the hood up in the event of an electrical failure (gulp). My car also has the optional wind-deflector thingy that goes over the top of the rear seats and flips up behind your head. It’s a bit like a fine mesh grill. With it fitted, you can whistle along at fast motorway speeds without getting blown about by the slipstream. It really works and it’s a hoot rattling along at eighty or ninety miles per hour (where regulations permit) with the hood down. You can even hear the radio!

Road holding with the sports suspension is pretty spectacular although those ultra wide tyres make the car feel as though it’s dragging its arse a bit through the twisty bits. Like all front wheel drive cars, it’s the front end which will eventually let go first but you’d have to be a bloody lunatic to get it into that condition on Her Majesty’s Highway, so high are the levels of grip. According to the handbook the car’s also got loads of acronyms to help stop you from throwing it up the pictures. I kid you not. It’s got ABS, EDL, EBD and ASR no less. No idea what any of ‘em do but you get lots of pretty lights flickering on the dashboard when you drive like a complete twat in the wet. It’s fun to see how many of ‘em you can get to light up at once (Nurse! Where’s my medication?).

The downside of all this naughtiness is that the ride on the lowered suspension is pretty hard and it crashes you around a bit on poor road surfaces. On the Motorway and smooth blacktop though, it’s absolutely superb. With its top speed of 150mph and its ultra comfortable seats this is one car that really does deserve the GT moniker. If I had to get down to the south of France by tomorrow night then I would be quite happy to take the A4.

Very slick, very quick, very trick. Nice one Audi.

 

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