I suppose it was only a matter of time before some video maven caught site of The Truth About Cars (TTAC) and thought, hmmm, that might make an interesting TV show. Obviously, any program along those lines would A) have about as much chance of landing a major sponsor as a Kansas fisherman pulling a swordfish from the Keith Seblius Resevoir and B) would boldly go where Top Gear has gone before. With pay-per-view channels and YouTube, the first objection is surmountable. The second is more problematic. Top Gear is a well-funded (via the UK's TV tax) program with all the best toys and… Jeremy Clarkson. Yes, even from that tiny, cold island in the North Sea, the semi-journalistic stylings of "Jezza" cast a long shadow over anyone who seeks to tell the truth about cars with rhetorical flourish. I think TTAC TV would have one main advantage over Top Gear: no Jeremy Clarkson. While I admire the man's wit, prose and telegenic charisma, he's a first class bully and a meglomaniac, with bells on. If Lieberman, Johnson, Farago and Spinelli ever get it together video-wise, more than half the fun would come from the "happy talk" interplay between the different personalities. Bottom line: we all respect each other enough to provide the open space for our natural creativity to emerge. That said, this podcast is a celebration of Jonny's virtuosity mit de RS4. Another Clarkson? Please God no.
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ttactv? id pay for that. provided all the commercials are for fleshlites and not cialis
I’m sorry for the rant…
Seats, mirrors etc… if you’ve got RS4 cash you can afford the regular 8E A4 shape mirrors or even the more costly matte finish aluminum look pieces from the S4. I believe we still get shorted on the really hardcore RS4 sport seats. Just like the aluminum look steering wheel. If you can afford the car and must have it your way… by all means do so.
To the average joe a V10 is a V10, a V8 is a V8… but the truth of the matter is just not so. The V10 is not “de-tuned”… peak power was reduced to adapt the engine to a svelt Q-ship from a screaming and kicking pseudo Italian sports car. Oh and it has to last 4yr 50k miles and then Audi would like for the car to be Audi Assured till 100k miles or what 6 years? The S8 and S6 would feel unfinished or inappropriately tuned if they had the Lamborghini engine without adaptation. Clearly the added heft of a saloon body and much different driving environments of the S cars warrants an alter ego to the V10.
The phrase “de-tuned” is inaccurate in a world where suspension is adjusted for selective market appeal and on occasion to improve side impact results. Producing multiple variants of the same or simmilar engine is traditional of VW/Audi. There have been many variations of the 4.2L V8 which powers the RS4 just as there were two completely different generations of 1.8T engines and now a third is about to be made with FSI. Belt drive, chain drive, 4v, 5v, 4v/FSI. Lots of 4.2L V8’s. Just last year the A8 had a belt drive 40v EFI V8. This year’s the A8 has a rear chain driven FSI 32v V8… but the trunklid badges remained the same. The RS4’s engine is simmilar to the A8’s FSI V8… they even use the same valve cover gaskets…. but the valve covers are different colors and the internals are likely *please dont make me check, because I will* completely different from the intake manifold to the block… its a V8, its a 4.2… but its not the same. There was once also a 3.7L V8 in the A8 97-99 for USA… FWD only, apparently 300hp FWD was not to be had in an Audi. Perhaps too much torque for even quad link suspension to restrain.
Truly “de-tuned” is the AUG code 1.8T 06A block engine with the same everything (head, block, internals, turbocharger) I can think of as the AWM. The difference? AUG = 150hp found in the VW Passat for about 4 months of production. AWM = 170hp found in the A4 of the same vintage ~2001 model year. Same engine different software. This is an example of a crippled engine or “de-tuned” simply by software be it for whatever reason.
That as far as I know is the truth.
Hey Robert,
Can you expand upon what you mean when you call Clarkson a “first class bully?”
Clearly, he loves destroying lesser automobiles with combines or attacking 80s Corvettes with gatling guns…but I am missing something else?
Nopanegain: From my experience…
Watch how Clarkson speaks to the other hosts of the show, clearly he is the alpha personality in the lot. Hampster as Clarkson calls him is spoken down to and the other fellow whatever his face is called something like “captain slow”. Is practically only on the show for irreverence sake. Clarkson very clearly projects his own as the most important opinion and practically over-rides what the others say or do whenever he gets the chance.
I’d sure as hell watch TTAC TV.
Just leave out the Clarkson type personality.
Jealousy, night and day you’re haunting me.
Second thought: You could always go the Motorweek, Motoring 2006 route and say absolutely nothing about anything. That way you’ll be broadcast on Saturday mornings at 10 am and Friday nights at midnight.
Somehow, Topgear avoids that kiss of death. SOMEBODY must like the lads – all of them.
I think of Clarkson as the alpha because he is the elder with experience. And with experience comes wisdom. I guess that is why he also Entertaining. A TV show without a lead alpha personality is called Car & Driver TV or Motor Week as Philbailey points out. Boy that Pat Goss really knows how to change that filter…
But the notion of four TTAC TV journalists hammering a vehicle on an equal age/experience/demographic playing field sounds pretty cool.
You left out chauvinistic…
He is funny though.
qfrog — it is detuned.
Moreover, the engine in the RS4 shares exactly a water and oil pump with other Audi V8s — totally different engine.
People watch Top Gear for the silly stunts and Clarkson. Forget the expensive cars 99.9% of us will never see, let alone own or the celebrity of the week driving around the same old course for the hundredth time.
Clarkson is highly opinionated, racist, and hated by everyone with an enviromental bone in their body. And he wouldn’t have it any other way. His weekly jibes at the capitulating French, fat Americans and Poland invading Germans delight his audience.
No one can outdo him. We’ve seen what happens when Americans copy British shows (The Office, anyone? ugh). It just turns out plain bad.
considering the kind of driving that most of us do, or should do, i still think its more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.
I love audi’s tho. if someone gave this to me, i might keep it.
Michal
I absolutely love the US Office and think Gervais & Novak have done a terrific job with adjusting it to the audience. You just can’t compare them head-to-head. You want a bad adaption, try the US version of Fawlty Towers in the early 80s. Vomit.
I like Clarkson on screen, it’s his writing that pisses me off. He drones on like Dickens for the first page, then compresses the actual review into a concise, biting, usually humorous assessment (like another website I know). Personally, I think he should just stick to the TV persona, it suits him much better. His writing sometimes just seems forced.
jonny, I know you are not a fan of the R8 looks wise. but after taking that mill for a ride in the RS4, are you selling small exotic animals to get a ride in the R8?
Can you guys do something about the sound levels in the podcast? Farago is way quieter, which makes it hard to adjust the volume on my speakers so the both of you are at a reasonable volume.
Well I like Clarkson. But I generally like aggressive types being from nyc and all. Plus he’s funny. I read a piece he wrote about Americans recently on the Top Gear site. He basically says we are the most angry aggressive drivers on the planet. Well I haven’t driven in too many other countries, but I would say his comments were on – terrible tailgaiting, not letting people merge into your lane, etc. The sort thing I see all the time here. I just wish we could get Top Gear on tv here, instead of on YouTube. ttactv sounds good too!
Dave — When I was a child my parents packed me off to tennis camp on Tuesdays during one summer.
About two hundred of us would bash each other over the heads with rackets until someone cried or bled or bashed back. Something happened with yellow balls, too.
One day the instructor told us to think of a name for our racket and then scream it at the top of our lungs. After we were all done screaming he looked in my general direction and said, “who named their racket Ono?”
I have a horrifically loud voice. Sorry.
Gold Plated: I would very much like to drive it. All judgements, except aestetic ones, are reserved until then
(ugly!)
Driving the S8… was better than sex.
FWIW, the mirrors are probably better in Europe since they get convex mirrors over there, that we don’t.
At least they didn’t put the Q7 mirrors on it.
After driving a Gallardo, I can certainly understand increasing its capacity and changing various engine parameters to sacrifice HP in the name of torque…that thing had no guts below 4000 rpm. Would have been a dog in the S6/S8.
Agreed.
I would LOVE to hate the way a Gallardo drives.
I’m not saying that at all. Actually, I found myself liking the G more than I expected to, with its exotic looks and Audi guts… It just has a power curve that is the exact inverse of the blown 5.4 in the Ford GT, that is all done at 6500 rpm. Very different. If I got one, I’d send it to Heffner for his bad ass twin turbo kit.
Come to think of it….I wonder what a well engineered TT pkg would do to the non traction challenged RS4! ;-)
Come to think of it….I wonder what a well engineered TT pkg would do to the non traction challenged RS4! ;-)
It would destroy the character of this car. This car lives in the splendid world of g-dly NA engines with no turbo lag and high redline. The high compression ratio means a TT or SC would require totaly changing the personality of the engine.
Seats, mirrors etc… if you’ve got RS4 cash you can afford the regular 8E A4 shape mirrors or even the more costly matte finish aluminum look pieces from the S4. I believe we still get shorted on the really hardcore RS4 sport seats. Just like the aluminum look steering wheel. If you can afford the car and must have it your way… by all means do so.
The Euro seats are crap to sit in. Go read the euro owners of this car who are wishing they ordered it with the optional recarro buckets that we greatfully get over here.
The steering wheel is easy to retrofit. The sideview mirrors I prefer on my RS4 over the ones on the S cars. The S cars don’t have matte finish mirrors, they have aluminum mirrors which break with the rest of the mat aluminum look of the window trim, and front grill. The aluminum mirrors also weigh more, every pound counts.
Yes, but the mirrors are the size of shot glasses.
I don’t remember the mirrors themselves being any different on the S4, in terms of reflective surfaces. I can’t be certain though..
They are too small.
Fast cars need big mirrors.
it has an ugly front end
The one I had didn’t have a front plate.
As a result it is a good looking front end.
the front plate kills the looks.
Agreed, you need the “filler plate” like in the picture above.
you don’t have to be logged in to comment any more. you might want to fix that.