What were Audi thinking with the Speedometer on Audi S3...

[Leo-RS]

Why does the UK Audi S3 have clocks that run upto 160mph but yet European Audi S3' run upto 186mph? That's quite a significant difference and surely a design flaw for UK spec cars?

The top speed is governed by a limiter at 155mph but this is not a speedo indicated 155mph, it's usually a GPS 155mph limiter which means the clocks will easily run past 160mph before hitting the limiter. For example, look at the acceleration video below, this car hitting the limiter at 266kmh (165mph speedo) The 1.6tdi has a 160mph clock, seems nuts that the S3 has the same, for those of us that like tuning, we are going to go way way off the standard clocks. Very lazy by Audi UK

AUDI S3 8V ACCELERATION 0-266km/h TOP SPEED - YouTube

 

[The Challinor]

I presume if it's de restricted then the traditional clock needle will stop at 160 and the digital speedo will continue to increase.

 

[illingworth22]

300 KPH here in Ireland

 

[cuke2u]

Maybe because you have a speed limit of 70mph in the UK? Just trying to put myself into the head of an Audi exec..

 

[pat15312]

Why does the UK Audi S3 have clocks that run upto 160mph but yet European Audi S3' run upto 186mph? That's quite a significant difference and surely a design flaw for UK spec cars?

The top speed is governed by a limiter at 155mph but this is not a speedo indicated 155mph, it's usually a GPS 155mph limiter which means the clocks will easily run past 160mph before hitting the limiter. For example, look at the acceleration video below, this car hitting the limiter at 266kmh (165mph speedo) The 1.6tdi has a 160mph clock, seems nuts that the S3 has the same, for those of us that like tuning, we are going to go way way off the standard clocks. Very lazy by Audi UK

AUDI S3 8V ACCELERATION 0-266km/h TOP SPEED - YouTube

Send in a letter and I'm sure Audi UK will get right onto it...

 

[vivalacoulter]

My 12 year old S3 laughs in the face of 160mph clocks...

 

[Silky-S3]

I've had mine off the clock loads of times. The digital speado keeps going (up to 171 mph so far!)

 

[Leo-RS]

Send in a letter and I'm sure Audi UK will get right onto it...

Haha, and redesign the clocks based on my complaint.

It's something that I think Audi have overlooked or is clearly a cost cutting measure when converting from its native euro to Brit config, if the Euro cars have 186mph clocks, why dont we? 186 - 160 is quite a significant difference. The old Audi S3 dash above runs to 170 ***.

As for the 70mph limit haha, why not just put limiters on the car set at 70 then

It's just an annoyance I suppose but I guess the dash also reads digitally so not a big issue, but a design flaw non the less. Hey maybe if we do complain, the MY16 will see a re-designed 180/200 clock face? You never know

 

[veeeight]

It's to give us better granularity for more of the scale, before it changes to the smaller scale on the speedo.

 

[Vertigo1]

There's another odd difference.

The UK dial has two different "zones" - it's linear up to 100mph, then the scale doubles beyond that - so the same arc that would be a 10mph increment below 100mph is a 20mph increment above it.

On the European dial pictured above there are far more zones or scales on the dial. 10-70kmh appears to be one zone, then 70-100 is another, then after 100 it gradually changes, with each 40kmh increment being a slightly smaller arc than the previous one. It's all over the place!

 

[Flibble]

There's another odd difference.

The UK dial has two different "zones" - it's linear up to 100mph, then the scale doubles beyond that - so the same arc that would be a 10mph increment below 100mph is a 20mph increment above it.

IIRC it's three zones: 0-30, 30-100, 100-160. Pretty sure the bottom 30 mph is much larger than the next 30 mph anyway!

 

[RossR]

The different zones are partly for the adaptive cruise control. Towards the bottom of the scale you can change the set speed in 2.5mph increments, but above 40mph it is 5mph increments. You can't set it to over 100 mph. These are all indicated by LEDs at constant spacing.

On a road with a speed limit you won't be going over 160 mph indicated unless you are looking for some free accommodation for a few years. If you're doing some top speed testing on a de-restricted autobahn then you can turn on the digital speedo for more precision (but not accuracy). I can't think of a situation on a track where you would need to know your speed so precisely at the top end - and if you do the speedo isn't going to be very accurate anyway.

 

[Leo-RS]

The different zones are partly for the adaptive cruise control. Towards the bottom of the scale you can change the set speed in 2.5mph increments, but above 40mph it is 5mph increments. You can't set it to over 100 mph. These are all indicated by LEDs at constant spacing.

On a road with a speed limit you won't be going over 160 mph indicated unless you are looking for some free accommodation for a few years. If you're doing some top speed testing on a de-restricted autobahn then you can turn on the digital speedo for more precision (but not accuracy). I can't think of a situation on a track where you would need to know your speed so precisely at the top end - and if you do the speedo isn't going to be very accurate anyway.

To be fair, that is a silly analogy. Why have a speedo that runs above 70 then, or indeed 100 if that's the speed you lose your license at?

For a 300bhp S3 to have the same 160mph dash reading as the bog standard base model is lazy by Audi, especially when the top speed surpasses the maximum range on the clock. (You'll hit the 155 limiter north of 160) The old S3 had a 170mph clock, the new S3 in Europe has a 300km/h (186mph) clock. Why has the UK been missed out here?

It is nothing short of laziness from Audi UK when they converted from EU to GB spec. The clocks should read minimum 180 but probably more like 200 same as existing RS3 model. This is the first car I've ever come across when the top speed of car, even limited surpasses the design of the clocks.

You can go faster than 160 in the UK at race events such as 30-130 / Vmax typed events. Why should we have to ''just do'' with the 160mph clock because we have a 70mph limit. That's a ludicrous statement. Yes, you can still use the digital but that is not the point. This is clearly a design flaw and very lazy from Audi UK to not have noticed this.

 

[veeeight]

Take direct action.

Write to Audi UK and express your indignation.

 

[RossR]

To be fair, that is a silly analogy. Why have a speedo that runs above 70 then, or indeed 100 if that's the speed you lose your license at?

For a 300bhp S3 to have the same 160mph dash reading as the bog standard base model is lazy by Audi, especially when the top speed surpasses the maximum range on the clock. (You'll hit the 155 limiter north of 160) The old S3 had a 170mph clock, the new S3 in Europe has a 300km/h (186mph) clock. Why has the UK been missed out here?

It is nothing short of laziness from Audi UK when they converted from EU to GB spec. The clocks should read minimum 180 but probably more like 200 same as existing RS3 model. This is the first car I've ever come across when the top speed of car, even limited surpasses the design of the clocks.

You can go faster than 160 in the UK at race events such as 30-130 / Vmax typed events. Why should we have to ''just do'' with the 160mph clock because we have a 70mph limit. That's a ludicrous statement. Yes, you can still use the digital but that is not the point. This is clearly a design flaw and very lazy from Audi UK to not have noticed this.

I don't think I used an analogy, silly or otherwise.

Surely if you are doing a Vmax type event you wouldn't rely on the stock speedo?

Don't let me stop you taking this up with Audi though.

 

[warren_S5]

As the UK is one of a very few territories running MPH maybe they made a decision to run a single set of clock templates for MPH cars and reduce costs???

To be honest given where the TT clocks have gone I think that many of the new Audi's will be leaving tradtional analogue clocks behind in future generations.

In the meantime I'll leave you with an image of the clocks in the 8P that offer a 190mph maximum speed (although I can attest from a trip to Germany it doesn't get close).

You don't think it was to make the clocks easier to read?????

 

[chrisboyle999]

As the UK is one of a very few territories running MPH maybe they made a decision to run a single set of clock templates for MPH cars and reduce costs???

Exactly. It'll be a bean counter input. More likely so as not to incur increased cost rather than to reduce it.

 

[The Challinor]

Anyone heard of a way to de-restirict without invalidating the warranty? Not via Stage 1 route, just de-restrict.

 

[steeve]

Am I bovvered?

 

[Tristan2]

So what is the top speed with the limiter taken off?

 

[NATOuk]

The different zones are partly for the adaptive cruise control. Towards the bottom of the scale you can change the set speed in 2.5mph increments, but above 40mph it is 5mph increments. You can't set it to over 100 mph. These are all indicated by LEDs at constant spacing.

On a road with a speed limit you won't be going over 160 mph indicated unless you are looking for some free accommodation for a few years. If you're doing some top speed testing on a de-restricted autobahn then you can turn on the digital speedo for more precision (but not accuracy). I can't think of a situation on a track where you would need to know your speed so precisely at the top end - and if you do the speedo isn't going to be very accurate anyway.

That's not true I'm afraid, I can adjust my adaptive cruise control +/- 2.5MPH at all points on the speedo (above the minimum around 20MPH of course). Haven't tested the upper end mind you, but it definitely goes to at least 100MPH.

 

[RossR]

That's not true I'm afraid, I can adjust my adaptive cruise control +/- 2.5MPH at all points on the speedo (above the minimum around 20MPH of course). Haven't tested the upper end mind you, but it definitely goes to at least 100MPH.

Well it must have been revised because mine has different increments across the range. My car was manufactured in July or August 2013.

 

[NATOuk]

Well it must have been revised because mine has different increments across the range. My car was manufactured in July or August 2013.

Yeah, looks like it, mine's July 2015, they must have tweaked the setup of the ACC.

 

[PhatGit]

Am I the only one the finds the bottom segment really annoying? It mainly because I keep misreading it and driving at 35 instead of 40 (way too many speed cameras around here!)

 

[NATOuk]

Am I the only one the finds the bottom segment really annoying? It mainly because I keep misreading it and driving at 35 instead of 40 (way too many speed cameras around here!)

I actually really like it! I got used to it very quickly, but obviously it's personal preference

 

[PhatGit]

It's been 14 months, and I'm still not use to it. Will probably click with me on the way to trade it in !

 

[veeeight]

Yes, early cars had the choice of standard ACC, and enhanced ACC, which went to a higher speed.

 

[glospete]

124mph if I recall correctly.

 

[Terminator x]

RS3 has 180 on the clock

TX.

 

[thebluefox]

It's been 14 months, and I'm still not use to it. Will probably click with me on the way to trade it in !

I do the same thing when the satnav is on. Ususally I use the digital speedo - when the Nav is on the DIS though I'm always getting confused between 0 and 40!

 

[/dev/null]

Does it really matter? If you're doing over 160mph then the last thing you should be doing is staring at your speedo.