Welcome to AF!

You can always do an engine swap. VR6-T FTW!

 

well if all u can find is a 96, then just wait.. if all u wanna do is fast and furious mods then wait till u find a 30v and be done with it

 

Well what's wrong with the auto? Besides the mods you should start with are the basic ones: free flowing exhaust and intake. Since the stock air intake can handle 400hp there isn't much you can do there. Someone located a forged rebuild kit but again I think it's only for the 30v.

Your stock exhaust goes from 2.25" to 2.5". Make it a full 2.5" system if that's legal in Australia. For a muffler I would recommend Magnaflow. It's a really popular muffler for our car, and do a mid-muffler (resonator) delete.

Don't rice your car out, keep away from bodykits. Just get nice S4 bumpers and side skirts.

 

Well I can't say that i've driven the A4 auto, but i've driven a 80 2.4 V6 in auto and i really didn't like it, seemed really indesisive and jumpy, I'd prefer to have the control of gears with a manual, perhaps a semi-automatic?

Oh **** no, god, the last thing i'd ever do is rice a car out, YUCK! as i said, it will only be very minor mods to the outside, like a nice set of BBS wheels in 15", probably some Bilstein suspension lowered and as i said, i don't really want a body kit, but if i was going to, i would only go something smooth that matches the contours of the body and not some abomonation with 100 curves and out of shape extruded edges. part of the reason I'm going with euro, and that's because I hate all of the over the top show pony **** that goes along with Japanese cars and would much rather see a minimal, tastefully modded car. Needless to say, exterior is not on my list of concerns, i'd like to put time/money into making the car perform rather than look 'fully sick'.

Thanks for the suggestions, too! Sounds like a good start.