The new front section has two spoiler lips and a very big center intake for the radiator and intercooler flanked by two smaller ones. It also contains a foglight above each of the small brake cooling air ducts.
The side skirts pick up the lower line of the front spoiler and run it visually to meet the rising edge of the new rear valance section, culminating in a central recess with cut-outs for the two twin-pipe exhausts. The finishing touch is a neat boot-lid-edge spoiler.
The standard A4 sits very high on its suspension with lots of clear air between the tires and wheel arches, and Abt offers three suspension lowering options. The first of these is a spring-only kit that provides a 35- to 40mm drop in ride height and a slightly firmer ride. This is a good compromise for normal road use. The more sporting driver can opt for a matching spring and damper kit using gas-filled Bilstein dampers, while more aggressive drivers might be tempted by Abt's height-adjustable suspension kit, which uses progressive-rate springs in front.
My test car had the height-adjustable suspension set at 55mm below stock ride height. This made a huge difference to the handling, as the standard car feels a bit soft on initial turn-in and also tends to transmit short, sharp bumps at low speeds more than its rivals from BMW and Mercedes. High-speed body control is much better, with crisper turn-in and a more settled feel through fast corners. The ride is taut at low speeds but gets better the faster you go.
The big 225/40ZR18 Continental Sport Contact tires on 8.5Jx18 Abt five-spoke alloys provide prodigious traction off the line and through bends, and with the quattro system pulling for you as well, it is hard to achieve anything but grip. The amount of power and torque on tap is at least nearly a match for the quattro chassis, and this makes the AS4 far more fun to drive. You can now begin to throttle steer the car to some extent in medium-speed bends, providing you don't turn in too early and tempt understeer.
The brakes on the test car were stock, as the new uprated brake kit was not ready in time for my visit. They are okay for normal driving, but if you are the press-on type of driver, the uprated brakes are a must.
The 260-bhp Abt AS4 was a revelation in its all-around abilities. On this black car, its dress code is still subtle enough that you can be different without attracting too much attention. But the real bonus comes from being able to cover ground safely and rapidly in a practical four-door car that is also interesting to drive.
ABT Sportsline Audi AllroadHow many SUVs do you see being used seriously off-road? Probably very few, but the genre has undoubtedly become a fashion accessory, spinning off a few sub-categories, one of which is the pumped-up station wagons like Audi's allroad and the Volvo V70 Cross Country.
Recently, an allroad became a notable fashion accessory as the star of "Ski to the Max," a 45-min. feature film made for the German fashion company Bognor. Being the larger than life character that he is, Willy Bognor had the film made in the I-Max format. The 3D effects added to some of the most amazing feats of skiing ever captured on film, and the scenes of an Audi allroad on snow tires and chains romping through the snow.
Of course, this was no ordinary allroad. As a big Audi fan, Bognor wanted a distinctive car to feature in his film, so he approached Abt Sportsline and asked it to help out with the concept for the car.