Hello Hello, my name is Nick and just getting into the whole Audi/Auto Racing world. I am a serious racer of another discipline, but always loved cars and any kind of racing. I am pretty mechanically inclined and have a good understanding. My friend has purchased an Audi A4 that has been set up as a track car with a decent set of Coil overs. upgraded sway bars, Exhaust, and brakes. The car is doing well, but nothing special. We are looking at ideas to soup it up a bit more. My friend is also new to this and we aren't doing anything to serious, but would like to improve the car any way we can.

The car has really good sized brakes in the front and maybe slightly larger than stock in the rear. One issue we recognize is the brakes are somewhat mushy. There is a lot of travel in the braking. The car has upgraded lines and have been bled correctly, but we would like to make this into a more competition like braking feel. Do you guys have any ideas? Is there any upgraded Master Cylinder available? ABS Programming? Anything?

Next I would like to explore some engine performance upgrades to get a little more HP out of the car. Open to some ideas on cranking up the 1.8T...

Thanks in advance and I know I may be a n00b! but I am here to stick around and work through this A4.

 

Hey Nick,

I work for a shop doing media/coverage that races in NASA/SCCA. From what I've seen, in order to keep the car from heat-soaking under hard sessions, and intercooler upgrade is a must. One lap you'll have a pretty quick lap, then the rest afterwards, the car will be gasping for air. Also, is the turbo the factory KO3 unit? If so, I'd get that out of there and upgrade to a slightly bigger KO4 unit with bigger injectors and such, rather than getting software for the stock KO3. Yes the stock KO3 makes torque, but you'll find yourself short shifting like a madman even with software, to keep the power band from falling off badly towards redline. The KO4 still has power fade towards redline, but not nearly as bad, and it has the capability to make a bit more power.

As it sits right now, have you ever had the car on a dyno? Unfortunately I have seen many power #'s for this car on a stock turbo (even with mods), and it isn't impressive. What clutch/drivetrain upgrades does the car have?

Regarding brakes, he will definitely need upgraded, racing pads such as HAWK HT's or something similar, as streetable/Auto-X pads will not help the car stop under racing conditions. The size of the rotor/caliper really doesn't matter too much, as long as you have the proper pads, etc. Also make sure if you are running stock OE spec rotors, that they are vented. Slotted rotors work well, but in my opinion stay away from cross-drilled just because they crack much easier. As far as the master cylinder is concerned, I am unaware if you can install one from maybe an S4/A6? And a lot of racers do not run ABS, as it helps with brake feel, but yes there are some who have 'racing ABS systems'. These cost a heavy penny (think $$$$), and I don't even know if anybody offers it for the B5 platform.

Also, what tires is he/will he be running? Because Audi's are so front heavy, they have problems with understeering and excessively wearing out the front tires. I don't know how far you want to go with this, as it could get expensive very quickly. My boss used to race a Mk3 Jetta VR6 in SPEED World Challenge from 1998-2002, and handling was its biggest issue. He fabricated custom motor mounts to lower the motor farther down and move it back a bit towards the firewall. Even then, it was a pig around the turns due to all the weight being over the front wheels. In the early years, the Jetta had a stock VR6 with bolt-ons, and later on, it had a fully-built, 13:1CR 240whp VR6. But, on many of the shorter tracks such as Lime Rock, the car was not any quicker than it was in the previous years. Of course the built motor made the car blitzed the straights, the handling was the issue still. How light is the Audi currently? And with a driver?

In my opinion, I would recommend setting goals for the car, and which class you would want to run in with a certain organization. NASA GTS (German Touring Series) is a very tough class to be competitive in with an Audi (Audi's tend to break more often than BMW's and Porsches). The only Audi I know of that races near me is an Audi 90 built by 034 Motorsport, that runs in GTS4, with the 5-cyl. 20V motor and a pretty large-sized turbo. I would set on running the car in GTS1 or something like that

Post up some more shots of the car

 

Here is the info about NASA classes in particular. As I said, GTS3 and higher are very tough classes to be competitive in. GTS2 is even tough, as there are very fast guys in E36 M3's and Porsche 944's. Depending on what the car weighs, I'd say GTS1 is a safe class for this car to be in.

 

Awesome! I appreciate the input. The car does have some upgrade brakes with larger rotors and larger calipers in the front. The rotors are not cross drilled, but rather have many small half circles in them. Not sure what that is about, but it seems to be OK as they haven't warped or cracked. The turbo has been upgraded to a KO4 and the intercooler as well. We are changing tires to a straight track tire this weekend and will see how it goes. We have just gutted the exhaust a little bit to make it louder. It had a nice exhaust system on it with two huge mufflers so we removed one and now it is tastefully loud. Which helps with hearing the car to shift. Also just changed the steering wheel out.

Would really like to hear some brake upgrade tricks. We may have to try some different pads or something.

We have the adjustable front control arms now and thinking about putting like 2* of camber in it and see what it does. It is currently at .5* negative. Will adding 1.5* be to much of a jump?

Thanks!

Nick

 

Ok that's good! IMO, I'd run a somewhat aggressive pad in the front and make the rears more mild, as when the weight transfers to the front under hard braking, you don't want to lock up the rears and risk flat-spotting the tires. As for the rotors, are they like this? If so, then it is just another variation of slotted rotors.


-2.0 degrees of negative camber isn't that much at all for a car that will see hard, track use, so in my opinion, adding that -1.5 will be vital to help the car handle better.

It all depends on what brand/model track tires you will use. Hoosier R6's tend to like less aggressive camber settings than other DOT-R tires out there, but you can still run up to -3.0 without having a real problem.

Hoosiers are expensive though. Paying $300+ for one new one is a hefty chunk of change. For regular track days and such, I'd invest in Toyo RA-1 tires. Much cheaper, and last a LOT longer. You just won't have the same high level of grip that the Hoosier will have (but there still is quite a good amount).

 

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