ROAD Editor, Phil Royle’s B5 Audi S4 Twin Turbo Project Car, as sponsored by Adrian Flux insurance, Millers Oils, Milltek exhausts, Forge Motorsport, Dunlop Tyres, Bilstein suspension, Viper Tuning and Henstead Motorsport. Road trip and track tests on all products coming soon…
BIG thanks to all those who have supported the project so far.
There’s just a hint of Spring in the air, and that means Road Magazine’s Project S4 (http://www.roadmagazine.co.uk/project-cars/) – like your car – is calling out for its Spring clean. And it needs it, after a Winter of salt, icy rain, sleet & snow corrosion. After years of being a motoring hack, I have acquired a garage full of samples from various car cleaning, valeting and...
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Fitting a good set of brakes to any car that’s used on track days – like Road’s Project S4 – is a no brainer. Even a good performance car, like the S4, will suffer from brake fade – caused by overheating discs, pads and fluid – on a track day, driven properly. The result is a soft, useless, spongy pedal and a serious, ney dangerous fade in braking performance. And if...
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As a motoring Editor, journalist and road tester, I’ve been lucky enough to be taken around a number of suspension manufacturers’ factories to see how their different engineering approaches develop (and affect) their end product. And I have tested a huge range of suspension kits – on road, race and rally cars. But, without a shadow of doubt, it’s my own, long term road and...
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It’s that time of the year again – Project S4′s “BIG service,” just in time for the glorious Summer track day season and the S4′s planned jaunts to Spa-Francorchamps and the Nordschleife, to name but a few circuits on the to do list. And, this year, with the cambelt being too many years old (despite not doing that many miles), it’s time for a cambelt change,...
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Project S4 is currently in for a “big service,” up at www.henstead-motorsport.co.uk: A pre-summer-Spa-Francorchamps-spa-treatment if you will, but more on all that in another post here very soon. At the heart of any servicing regime is the critical lifeblood of any engine, the oil. Regular oil changes (with factory filters) are absolutely essential, especially with turbocharged cars,...
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Spring is well and truly here, and after a freezing, muddy, salty-road-Winter to end all Winters, we felt it was time to give Project S4 a proper Spring clean. That meant either another costly, poor quality, rushed trip to the local Jet wash, or… getting our very own pressure washer, for DIY useage galore: No time limits, no cues, no poor quality battered and bruised garage forecourt...
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Turbocharged cars, like my Audi S4, have blow off valves (BOV’s), often called dump valves, fitted to them. They prevent compressor surge “loading,” by allowing compressed air to vent to atmosphere (or be re-circulated), to reduce wear on the turbocharger and engine. Nine times out of ten, manufacturers use horrible, cheap plastic BOV’s, which might do the job OK, but...
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Let’s face it… picking car insurance is (A) rather dull, (B) often painful and (C) notoriously and increasingly expensive. The name of the game (as I see it!) is to get insured as cheap as possible and yet not compromise on quality of service; because, believe me, you want a good insurer if you do suffer theft, damage or have an accident: I was shunted from the rear in 2009, by some...
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I wanted a set of performance road and occasional track tyres for the Project S4. And, having covered the Dunlop Sport Maxx TT challenge cup races, with hot hatch/fast road, lightly modified saloon cars in previous race seasons, and chatted positively to the racers about these new Dunlop tyres, I thought I would give them a go. People often forget to sort their only point of contact with the road...
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Having had great success with a simple air filter swap from the OE manufacturers paper unit, to a high-flow replacement panel filter before, we’ve decided to fit a K&N High-Flow FilterCharger® version to the Project S4 (www.knfilters.co.uk). I have dyno checked panel filters versus cold air induction kits of a number of different project cars over the years and found that – assuming...
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Replacing your standard exhaust for an aftermarket performance exhaust system on any turbocharged car is a superb way of reducing turbo back pressure and increasing gas flow – liberating power, reducing turbo lag and improving throttle response. It also often saves weight, so there are gains to be had all round. I have replaced more exhaust systems than I care to remember – especially on my...
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I have been using Millers engine and transmission oils (and their fuel treatments for track days) in all of my normally-aspirated and turbocharged performance cars for years now, with great success. So, they were a natural product choice again when I bought ROAD’s B5 Audi S4 bi-turbo. Regular oil changes not only help your engine live longer, but give it the best chance of producing the...
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Welcome to ROAD’s fast road project car… a 1998 B5 Audi S4 2.7 bi-turbo. We bought it from Richard at www.jacksonandhow.co.uk, who offered a fabulous ‘personal touch’ to what was probably the nicest, most open car deal I’ve ever done (a lot!), over a very nice chat and a cracking espresso from Richard’s retro post-war uber-cafe-machine. Based at Colston Basset...
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