S4 (B5) gear ratios tiptronic vs 6 speed

aagallarini

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New member here. I was about to post a question, that I was unable to search the answer for on this site. I found it on another site and thought I'd share the link. My question was about a side by side comparison of the 2001 S4 transmission gear ratios. Here's the answer.
Audiworld.com S4 specs page
I'm trying to decide if the tiptronic transmission would be a great loss of low speed acceleration in 2nd gear. I like to autocross my current cars ('88 and '89 Integras) and see no reason why I would not want to share that kind of experience with my next car. I'm hoping to be in an S4 in the next few months. The prices are finally down into my range /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I would think you'd want the control of a manual - why get an automatic for auto-x? It doesn't make sense to me.

Yes, you'll lose time with the tiptronic.
 
I agree that manual transmissions are much better for performance driving. In autocrossing, it's been difficult for me to train myself to move my left foot to the brake pedal in anticipation of staying in 2nd gear. I've been competing in the Mazda Rev It Up for the past 2 years, and they supply automatics with manual shift capabilities similar to the tiptronics. I've always been a left foot braker with automatic transmissions, so this was easy to adapt to. Since all of those cars are equal, worrying about gear ratios was not an issue since everyone had the same sluggish acceleration from the start. I would not want to autocross a tiptronic S4 now that I see the huge difference in gearing as opposed to the 6 speed.

There are 2 S4s available locally, and the one I'm leaning toward right now is the 6 speed, for 2 reasons. It's manual transmission and it's being sold by a private party, not a dealer. The tiptronic S4 is at a Chevy dealership /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.

BTW, I placed 10th overall out of 1994 drivers at Mazda Rev It Up in Washington D.C. and 11th out of 1328 in Atlanta. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif