Reviews & Road Tests
4 Season Test: 2007 S4 Sedan - Report 7
By by: George Achorn and Anthony Garbis, photos by: George Achorn
Aug 15, 2007, 17:11

Now in the heart of summer, we’ve had ample intent to log many an enjoyable mile on our 4 Season S4. Holidays, events and even an American Le Mans race give us many reasons to take a road trip in the white sedan.

8203 miles

In the last week of June, we’d headed to NYC for an American Le Mans sponsored press conference and Cars & Stars event at the Audi Forum. Now, just one week later, we’ve returned to Manhattan en-route to the ALMS race in Lime Rock to ditch the S4.

Yes, we’re ditching the S4. We’d planned on taking the car to the race in order to display it near the Audi hospitality tent, but a call from Audi’s PR department changed our plans. It seems three R8s were to be driven from the Audi Forum to the track in Lime Rock and back after the race and all in the same day. Each was to be driven by a writer from New York’s main newspapers, but a scheduling conflict caused the writer from the Wall Street Journal to bow out. His loss is our gain.

We park the S4 in our usual valet garage at Rockefeller Center – just three block’s walk from the Audi Forum. Security is tight due to some recent threat or another, so the guard at ‘the Rock’ slips a mirror underneath our lowered S4 and also checks the trunk before we’re allowed to park.

For the next several hours, we trade our white S4 for a grey R8. For obvious reasons, this is one of the first times we haven’t been happy to jump back into the S4 as that meant relinquishing the keys of Audi’s new exotic to the Audi rep at the Forum.



8564 miles

A trip to San Diego has us leaving the S4 at the Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania. Smaller airports have their privileges and Harrisburg’s is a surprisingly reasonable daily rate in the hourly parking garage. Given long-term lots are not under cover, we opt to pay the daily premium to keep the S4 garaged while we’re gone.

A door ding inflicted on the car shortly after we acquired us has us gun shy. Even under cover, we park the S4 at the back of the lot.

8702 miles

In preparation for an upcoming show, we’ve waxed and detailed the S4. It’s good practice to protect your car through a good detail and waxing several times a year, though rubbing our Zymol into the paint, you learn all of the imperfections that the car has earned.

8986 miles

We’ve made the trip to Englishtown, NJ for the annual Waterfest Event, where upwards of 15,000 Audi and Volkswagen enthusiasts converge for their annual summer get-together. Fourtitude parent Vortex Media Group will display in the vendor area, and the S4 will be part of that display.

We pull into our hotel late on Friday night. The parking lot is filled with other Audis and Volkswagens. Owners and visitors are congregating in the lot, talking cars and drinking beer. As we pull through, the S4 grabs a fair degree of attention.

Getting out of the car, I see a number of people walking toward the car. At the head of the pack is an attractive blonde woman no older than twenty. She tells me she is in love with the car. I’m not sure whether the crowd of guys following her are interested in the car, or just following her as she’s one of the few women to be seen. Nothing against the car, but my guess is that they weren’t terribly focused on the Audi.



9067 miles

At Waterfest, it is easy for a stock car to be easily overlooked. With so many attention-grabbing highly modified cars on hand, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Our S4 features very minimal modifications – wheels, lower suspension and some white-stitched pieces like an S4 steering wheel and RS 4 shift knob thanks to a friend at quattro GmbH.

The car’s fairly conservative look is not expected to draw much attention at the show, but we’re pleasantly surprised. Only one Audi uber geek notices the quattro GmbH pieces. However, it’s the car’s bone stock silver Alcantara and Recaro interior, available in the S4 since the 2004 B6, that grabs the most interest. “Is that stock?” is a very common question we tend to get with wide-eyed interest.

9264 miles
Approaching the S4 that is parked in our garage, we note that one of the carbon fiber center caps for the rear OZ alloy wheels is sitting on the floor, seemingly having popped out. We pop it back into place.

We’ve heard of caps popping out of wheels during or after track time, but our S4 hasn’t been driven that hard. Odd.

9351 miles

That same OZ center cap is now missing in action. It must have popped out again. We order a replacement from the Tire Rack at $25. That the cap is made of real carbon fiber makes us feel better about spending $25 to replace a cap. The piece arrives from Tire Rack within 48 hours.

REQUIRED READING:

Waterfest 2007 Event Report

RELATED LINKS:

4 Seasons S4 Main Page

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