A sleek, silver four-door sedan drives by, its raw carbon-fiber hood glinting in the sun. It's an Audi S4, with perhaps a little more burble than usual, warning the observer that beneath the composite lid is something a little different. As it stops for the light, the more observant may notice the larger wheels and tires, the lower stance and non-stock front end surrounding the carbon-fiber hood.
But, when the light turns green, it becomes clear this is no ordinary S4 as the tires sing their tortured song-and smoke pours from all four wheelwells. Amazingly, this is the mildest of the three cars pictured here. It retains its stock turbos, but the black wagon and the other silver S4 have been subjected to turbo upgrades. All have undergone brain surgery in the form of reprogrammed Motronic engine management, and all are products of AWE Tuning's fully engineered approach to producing more power from Audi turbo quattros.
The freakish S4, called the Silver Bullet, is a 2000 model. It has run the quarter mile in 11.9 sec. at 121.5 mph. The black wagon is a very trick 2001 S4 Avant, with upgraded KO4 turbos from the European RS4. The car with the plain carbon-fiber hood, nicknamed the "Blitzkrieg Beast," is a 2000 S4 sedan. All retain the 2.7-liter V6s and six-speed transmissions they left the factory with, as well as the quattro system that's the source of the four-wheel burnouts.
The most amazing aspect of these cars is, despite their prodigious power and propensity for smoking and shredding all four tires in unison, they are all daily drivers. Some of the parts are experimental, but each car is driven every day and has proven to be reliable. "We are able to make a lot of power, day in and day out, repeatedly," said Todd Sager, president of the Pennsylvania-based Audi hot-rodders.
AWE began in 1991 as a general repair shop that specialized in performance work. As the years passed, the focus shifted to performance equipment, and about 6 years ago repair work was dropped from the list of services. AWE continues to perform installations, from brakes to its own turbo upgrade kits. "The RSKO4 installation takes 45 hours of labor," Todd pointed out. Thus, AWE recommends that it or one of its approved shops perform installation of the turbo kits.
"We've evolved from being a repair shop to a manufacturer, retailer, warehouse and performance shop. We've stuck with the companies that do the best work in their respective fields-GIAC, H&R, Bilstein. We like their products, we work with them, and we saw no need to re-brand their parts as our own or come up with our own parts where they already have superior items."
AWE Tuning is the primary company, but there's also a division called AWE-McNeil, headed up by legendary race fabricator Kenny McNeil. Kenny has been involved in many segments of the car industry for the past 25 years. Famed as an engineer and fabricator, he's the driving force behind the big power in many of AWE's projects. Most of these involve moving quite a bit more air through the motor than originally intended.