I was at my local Audi dealer the other day checking out the line up (again) and was speaking with a salesperson. I was most interested in the A3 and the A4. He told me that of the two, the A3 was the sportier and that the A4 was more of a luxury sedan. I beleive him because of the way the two cars feel and their different driving tendencies. The thing that he couldn't give me any insight on was their feel on the track. My intention is to mod the vehicle to the point where it could be street legal and practical (relative) but still competitive (relative) at the track. There are only so many things you can tweak aftermarket, and the most important decision is which base to start with. I'd like to start with the DSG vs. Manual issue. I understand that it has been beaten into the ground on these forums already, but what I'm hoping to gain is some insight on whether or not the lightning fast DSG (which auto shifts at the limiter) is practical on the track. That brings into play the issue of the quattro vs. the FWD. The quattro only comes with the heavy 3.2 (albeit more powerful) and with the DSG. Quattro is inevitably better at handling, but its front bias anyway and I don't intend to be racing on a track coated with snow so is it really worth it. On that same note, the tuners engine is the 2.0T, theres more to play with and more options to play with, but your stuck with FWD. I wasn't able to go terribly fast on my test drive (<30 mph because of traffic) but even so torque steer was hardly noticable, from experience does the phenomena become more noticable around track speeds? I realize that I'm rambling and the thoughts are entirely coherent, but it's late and I wanted to get my thoughts out. any insight is appreciated on the aforementioned thoughts and anything else you can think of that I may not know or have overlooked. Thanks.

 

A couple links for you:

http://www.automobilemag.com/feature...son/index.html

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2577149

2.0T DSG will have quattro in their 09 lineup.