April 24, 2007 - MUNICH, Germany. – To say the plan was to have no plan is a bit disingenuous. With a free day after this year’s Geneva auto show, and a flight home booked out of Munich 24 hours later, The Plan, so to speak, was to turn down Audi’s offer of a charter flight and utilize a Euro-spec 2007 Audi RS4. Not only as a means to Munich, but also as a way to intimately experience some of Switzerland’s Alpine roads from behind the wheel of one of today’s fiercest sports sedans instead of the distant cabin of a chartered jet.

Taking the most direct route, it takes a little over five and a half hours to drive the almost 600 kilometres from Geneva to Munich Germany.



But what if one took advantage of the Audi’s navigation system, threw in the occasional driving detour to see what the RS4 could do on some of those famous serpentine Swiss switchbacks? Even leaving Geneva at 7:30 a.m. the Not-a-bahn route should leave plenty of time to get to the Munich airport for dinner.

At least, that was The Plan.

The two-lane N5 west out of Geneva follows the south shore of Lac Léman, and a relatively mundane drive for what (hopefully) would lay ahead.

It did have one surprise in that the route briefly dipped in and out of France. Switzerland seems resolute in not joining the European Union, so passports are required for the return into Swiss territory in the sleepy lakeshore village of St. Gongolph.

From there, the topography of the Alps forces all roads south, towards Martigny, close to Italian border.



The slow, mid-day, mid-week traffic meant three hours and less than 300 kilometres had passed to this point, which made a bit of a dent in The Plan.

But both sides of the valley that the westbound A9 cuts through near Sion was lined with windy roads that disappear up into the mountains, and beckon the RS4—and driver—to go and play.

The German-spec RS4 differs slightly from the Canadian version. Mainly in the form of a square-bottom, aluminum-trimmed steering wheel that looks nicked from Volkswagen’s GTI, and fantastically supportive front seats that could pass a German touring car championship tech inspection.

What you still get is the RS4’s well-documented all-wheel-drive with poised and neutral handling.

Kudos to Audi’s new dynamic ride control, which subdues roll and pitch by linking diagonally opposed shocks to a centrally valved reservoir. It still can’t hide the physics involved with hanging that 420 horsepower, 430 pound-feet of torque 4.2-litre V8 well ahead of the front wheels. The dynamic ride control does, however, minimize front-end dive and understeer, but the backwards-Porsche 911 metaphor still applies.



If not rising as fast as the appreciation for the RS4 in its natural habitat, the route’s elevation was climbing as well.

Snow, something that has been a rarity in these parts of Europe this winter, finally made an appearance, closing the only westward road at the Furkapass.

The disappointment of not being able to drive the Furka was slightly remedied by the novelty of one of the Swiss car trains.

Instead of driving over the mountain, for 30 Swiss Franks, one drives up onto a flatbed train car and rides through the mountain.



Neat. But the next train wasn’t for an hour, so the goal of hitting St. Moritz, Switzerland for both human and automotive refueling at lunch was toast.

The closed pass/train excursion added a big chunk of time, only compounded when one arrived at another closed pass, 40 minutes west on route 19 to Andermatt.

A friendly train station attendant suggested not to wait for the train but to drive back up north to Göshener, and then head back south towards Bellinzona via one of Switzerland’s many long road tunnels.

It was now 2:30 in the afternoon. Munich for dinner? Nein!

The Revised Plan may have altered the Munich via St. Moritz route from a V to a W, primarily to get around those darn Alps. But the opportunity to exercise the rambunctious RS4 on those well-manicured Swiss roads tipped the destination versus the journey equation decidedly towards the journey.

Sunshine and 20 degrees Celsius weather arrived in the turn north to Chur. So did warning lights that the RS4 was running low on 98 octane and 5W30.



Despite a four-lane, semi-autoroute running parallel and in view, the Audi’s nav system seemed to telepathically get The Plan, and directed the RS4 to a breathtaking backroad alpine switchback at Mesocco.

Just before Chur, the road to St. Moritz turned south, again, accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature and near blizzard conditions.

From the east, the only way into St. Moritz is over the Julierpass, and it’s open!

More fun with the Audi, but the arrival in the famous Swiss ski resort was about five hours later The Plan.

The Munich airport was still another four hours and 300 kilometres away; only confirming that the best-laid plans of a car zealot with an Audi RS4 can easily go awry.



CALABOGIE, Ontario – There are no television helicopters circling overhead to distract me. No grandstands full of cheering fans chanting my name. No track marshals waving brightly coloured flags.

Heck, there aren’t even any other cars out here.

No, it’s just me, and a 2007 Audi RS4. Alone, with the RS4’s speedo indicating 190, the tach showing 7,800 rpm, barreling down Calabogie Motorsports Park’s main straightway.

As if this were a real race, I tap the Audi’s steering wand where I guess the start-finish line would be. This is to initiate the RS 4’s digital laptimer for my final timed tour before I run out of fuel and rubber.

The new-for-2007 RS 4 is arguably the purest synthesis to date of Audi’s race on Sunday, sell on Monday strategy.

Based on the four-door, five-passenger A4 sedan, the hotter RS 4 shuns Audi’s usually understated design themes. Wider bodywork; steamroller 255/35R19 Pirelli PZero rubberbands; air-sucking front fascia grilles—all obvious visual deviances. To some it’s the equivalent of automotive lingerie.

The RS 4 looks like a high-strung animal, ready to claw at any available pavement. But on the drive up to the track on public roads, the Audi was a pussycat.

All the driver’s controls—steering, foot pedals, and shifter—are well damped from any vibrations or shock. Yet are immediate enough to justify the vaunted RS badge on the super sedan’s rump.



But on a racetrack, on this somewhat drizzly, early morning, I’ll need all of the RS 4’s Vorsprung durch Technik troops to be on full alert and on patrol.

Accelerating down Calabogie’s front straight, even with the console mounted “S” button depressed (it remaps the RS 4’s throttle control for snappier response, tightens the shocks and opens valves in the muffler to change the tone from burbly cruiser to screaming Valkyrie), I don’t get anywhere near the RS 4’s 250 km/h limited top speed before Turn 1 needs to be dealt with.

A sweeping lefthander, Turn 1’s oversteer-inducing nature could easily have me, and someone else’s $94,200 Audi, pirouetting into the tall, concrete paddock wall.

With the wall avoided, the forthcoming, back-to-back righthanders need all the braking power from the RS 4’s 14.4-inch cross-drilled rotors up front and 12.8-inch discs out back stolen from Lamborghini’s Gallardo. But I only need to tap the stoppers lightly to set up the Audi wide for the left kink that follows, leading to the fastest part of the track: Rocky Road.



Named for the rugged Ottawa Valley geology the track’s been carved out of—not the ice cream—it’s here that the RS 4’s 420 horsepower, 317 pound-feet of torque 4.2-litre V8 earns its keep.

The V8’s glassy smooth trip around the tach will enthrall the rev-hungry. But Audi’s engineers have also managed low-end pull as well; 1,500 revs in sixth gear, if you must.

As Rocky Road blurs by, I glance down and see 200 km/h glaring back at me right before I need to brake for the triple-apex series of rights at Turns 5-7.

Considering 58 percent of the RS 4’s 1,795-kilogram curb weight sits towards the front of the car, ploughing off into the grassy outside runoff area is a bit of a concern. A backwards-911, but with indomitable understeer replacing the Porsche’s unpredictable oversteer, comes to mind.

Thankfully, Audi shares my concerns that the RS 4 will end up as an understeering pig on the track. To help rectify, the car’s steel front fenders have been swapped out for aluminum versions, and the battery’s been moved to the trunk for better weight distribution.

But more importantly, in a break from Audi practice, under normal conditions the RS 4’s Quattro all-wheel-drive system’s centre torque-sensing differential sends 60 percent of the engine’s power to the rear wheels. The reason is to provide for a more rear-wheel-drive attitude. If necessary, all of the V8’s torque can be directed to either the front or the rear tires. Which, in some of the track’s slower, more technical corners, like the now fast approaching (and tricky!) Turn 8, being able to modulate the throttle for either rear- or front-axle traction makes the RS 4 not only easier to drive, but also faster.

It’s also a driving dynamic seriously missing from previous Audi performance models.

Exiting Turn 8 with a titch of four-wheel drift allows me to nail the RS 4’s throttle one more time with confidence for the next short straight.

I won’t see 200 km/h for the rest of the lap. Yet I’m only half way through Calabogie’s 5.05 km outer loop, and there’s still the upcoming Duck’s Head portion of the track to successfully maneuver.

With 20 corners to master, it will take a while for even experienced drivers to get a feel for the new racetrack, located 45 minutes west of Ottawa, Ont.

Those who can link corners together in a smooth fashion will be rewarded. Duck’s Head, with six linked turns of its own, is a good example of the momentum a driver needs to keep to be fast here.



With the last of those six turns completed, driving tidiness needs to be swapped out for the courage required for Turn 15.

A seemingly never-ending concave righthander, known as The Spoon, Turn 15 drops and then suddenly rises, compressing the RS 4’s suspension and testing yet another clever anti-understeer device from Audi: their new dynamic ride control.

Dynamic ride control pacifies roll and pitch by linking diagonally opposed shocks to a centrally valved reservoir. The system fundamentally lessens wayward ride motions and maintains a neutral stance so one can lay the all the power from that prodigious V8 down properly.

Considering the track’s moist conditions, this is also not the time to be playing around with the RS 4’s Electronic Stability Program (ESP). It can be dialed down, removing the traction control first, then completely off by pressing the button twice. But not this driver; not this morning.

At this point in the lap, the trees that at times seemed to kiss my Audi’s bright yellow doors become less claustrophobic as the last five turns to complete a lap at Calabogie open up like an oval track’s infield.

Leading to the main straight, the two final turns—19 and 20—are right-to-left esses that climb back up to the main front straight.



With no TV cameras, no cheering fans, and no chequered flag being waved, I guessed again where the start-finish might be and tapped the timer.

Two minutes and forty seconds, flat. The track record for a 2007 Audi RS 4 at Calabogie. For now, at least…

The RS 4-Calabogie combo means I’ve nearly drained the Audi’s gas tank—and the life out of the supersedan’s Pirellis—trying to become familiar with both a new car and a new racetrack all at once.

Beyond ego-boosting lap times, the way the RS 4 goes about its racy business garners respect. At times, defying the physics that have stopped Audi’s in the past from becoming true driver’s cars.

Nonetheless, for some purists, the only RS 4 bone to pick would be that the car achieves these results via its many e-nannies. Merely overcoming the car’s unnatural setup with computer chips.

Whatever. Because, the 2007 Audi RS 4 can rightfully be considered as a four-door, five-seat, all-weather track weapon with no rivals. Its boundless power, precise handling, tenacious grip and unflappable chassis will make even a journalist drive like Audi DTM ace Tom Kristensen.

At least in my dreams on an intermittently rainy Sunday morning on a race track in The Valley.

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com

This article originally appeared in The Toronto Star's Wheels.