So if you're anything like me, you tend to spend every ounce of free time scouting Facebook marketplace for the next project car.
You spend countless hours searching for some of the early 2000s legendary cars like the e39 m5, lancer evolution, ford Taurus SHO or an E55 AMG if your an aristocrat. Or perhaps you would prefer it if your interior disintegrates before your very eyes so you purchase an e36 m3. Not to exclude any cars from that era, but that list could have continued for hours. There will never be another era for cars like that again. With that said you've got all of those legendary cars to choose from, but there's one that stands out. BI-Turbo, full time Torsen mechanical all wheel drive, 2.7 liter 5 valve per cylinder v6 revving to 6800 rpm and last but not least a 6 speed manual! That's right I'm referring to the legendary Audi B5 S4. Now if you didn't already know that don't worry your not alone. The vast majority of people misidentify this car as a Volkswagen Jetta and hardly give it a second glance. I mean I'd be lying if I claimed I wasn't once one of those individuals who was unaware of what this car is all about. To expound on this I completely accidently discovered the s4 when I was fifteen years old. I was looking up racing videos on YouTube and I remember seeing a race between a BMW e60 m5 and a B5 S4. I remember thinking there's no way this little sedan is seriously lining up with this modified 5.0 liter v10 BMW. The race begins and with the blink of an eye and a cloud of black smoke and fire from the twin tailpipes, the s4 is in the lead. The video continues on and the s4 is leaving this poor m5 behind as if the driver is standing on the brakes. Trying to collect my thoughts with what I just witnessed on my screen, I quickly became hooked. I spent the next several hours, no weeks looking on YouTube for "B5 s4 vs" videos. After watching this car destroy anything from Mitsubishi Evolutions to Lamborghini Murcielagos, I decided I had to have one. Now there was one problem, I had no license or money.
All right you've made it this far, now lets fast forward a little bit. Let me take you to 2018 in a home depot parking lot. Now if you live in anywhere where there's a car scene, you probably have a recurring issue of young car enthusiast loitering at your local business or department store. Now I was at some point one of those kids, but to be completely fair what else was there to do, and it was really fun. I was sixteen years old with my operators license so of course I was on top of the world, wrong. As I was hanging out with my friends in my e90 330xi that I thought was so cool, I decided I was going home after a long day. This was Friday night after all and I hadn't even stopped home after school. As I prepare to leave and say goodbye to everyone I quickly spot a group of cars rolling into the parking lot. There were the same silver mazdaspeed protege's as usual including one with a gigantic front mount intercooler, however there was another sedan amongst them. From between the two mazda's emerged the very Audi s4 pictured above and I was beyond ecstatic. This was my dream spec Nogaro interior and Nogaro exterior. Most importantly it was a 6 speed manual with Stage III software. I stumbled over to the owner and struck up a short conversation. At first glance I smelled burning oil from puking valve covers and a brake light that was out. I was so mad that such a legendary car would dare have a tail light bulb out! Now I want to remind you of my financial struggles being a sixteen year old kid, especially one who just quit his first job at Popeyes Chicken. I knew id never afford an example like this, so discouraged I walked away and didn't see the car after that.
Lets skip to 2019, bear with me I'm almost done skipping timelines I swear! All right its now a few years later, a few pounds heavier and just a tad bit more cash in my pocket. I made the terrible decision of trading a pristine BMW E39 540i 6 speed for this questionable example of a B5 s4. Now don't get me wrong this car was totally savable, but I was a broke unknowledgeable kid with more power then I could handle. It did have its plethora of issues of course. You had common b5 s4 issues such as boost leaks, bad window regulator, worn control arms and suspension components, non working heat due to heater core so on and so forth. But wait that wasn't it! Aside from the various mechanical issues this car looked like it had been used for target practice for cannons. There were cantaloupe sized dents all over the hood, c pillars and quarter panels. And obviously the front bumper was missing which is the hardest part to source on a B5 S4. Guess what though, I could care less. I had roughly 400 wheel horsepower under my right foot coming from the Twin Borg-Warner K04 turbochargers. This car was one of the most fun vehicles I've ever had the pleasure to drive and I rarely lost a race to anything. I'll never forget the time on west dodge road where I found myself on the far left lane next to a Lexus ISF and dodge viper. As I closed my eyes and prepared to be smoked I looked in my rear view mirror and to my surprise both cars were behind me. Judging by the viper fishtailing from the red light and the ISF not being far behind, its safe to say they tried to keep up. Add that to the list of victims the Audi B5 S4 continues to claim. We could talk about this car for hours but ill sum it up. Long story short my abuse and lack of maintenance took out this Santorin blue b5 s4.
The S4 was later parted out and I took the last ever photo of it alive on a flatbed on its way to be crushed. I felt a bit of shame for killing off such a potentially great car due to negligence and lack of knowledge. I vowed to redeem myself with another one in the future. After selling most of the parts and breaking even, a good amount of parts went to live on the next Audi of discussion. Now this silver s4 belongs to my older brother and it is the blueprint for a proper built stage III s4. We sourced this car from Wisconsin with stock tired k03 turbos, stock clutch and to no ones surprise a long list of issues. All right were on the way to Wisconsin in a high mileage jeep grand Cherokee with enough rust on it to give the titanic a run for its money.
Now for some reason the owner of this s4 decided he wanted to trade for the grand
Cherokee and we were of course on board. Now halfway into this trip I get the sinking feeling that something is wrong. As we wait at the kum and go gas station in this unfamiliar part of town we spot a shimmering lowered b5 s4 approaching and enter the parking lot. The car looks great and has a dent free shell which is more then I could say about the fallen santorin. We make the deal and its time to hit the highway for a ten hour one way trip. Ohh man were fueled up and ready to go! After a quick stop at walmart we hit the highway and were met with obstacle number one. The MPH is completely inoperable. Next we discover the fuel gauge is also inoperable. Lastly the exhaust sounds like its unhooked and the car cant go past a few thousand RPM. We were getting home one way or another. Did I mention the radio wasn't working? Yea because of this we had to drown out the obnoxious exhaust leak with the worlds smallest Bluetooth speaker. Several hours later and several unnecessary fuel stops to ensure we had fuel, we made it home. All of these issues and all that hassle and we loved every moment of it. It was roughly three in the morning and we both had a shift at our local jiffy lube bright and early, but we didn't care. We both stared at this absolutely beautiful sedan in the middle of the driveway for a good twenty minutes before heading to bed. Now this car is very important to me for two reasons. Reason one being it has existing parts from my old Santorin s4. The second reason is that its the car we learned everything about the B5 S4 platform on and built properly. After a speed sensor replacement and connecting the bi pipes that were unhooked the whole time, the car finally revved to redline! It was time to do a launch. Clutch in, gas pedal down a quarter and release! I watch my brother launch this beast from the side of the street and I'm excited to say the least. Not even ten seconds later i receive a phone call and he informs me that the shift collars have just let go......
Chapter one billion, back to the drawing board. Now there's one word to describe someone who owns a b5 s4 and maintains them. That word is Masochist. With the shift collars deleting themselves we decided it was time for a proper rebuild. Now it was time to order parts and what better idea then to dump several thousand extra dollars into a car that doesn't drive. With budget completely out of the window my brother promptly ordered the following: k24 rs6 twin turbochargers with tial wastegates, stage 4 clutch and lightweight flywheel, upgraded turbo oil lines, valve cover gaskets, coil packs, spider hose, pcv, f hose, lobster claws and silicone hoses, 90mm maf and intake, side mount intercoolers, catless downpipes, slave cylinder and of course a replacement 01E transmission. The car sat for several weeks like this until all of the appropriate parts arrived. What an overwhelming feeling that was to see the car with parts scattered all over the place. Now remember that word masochist? Ice cream cruise was coming up and I would be damned if we weren't taking the s4. Naturally with the car looking exactly like it does in the photo above we put a game plan to completely assemble everything within less then 24 hours. The show was in the morning so the Gioum brothers went to work. I tackled wiring and helping align subframe and trans along with axle install which was a royal pain in the ass it being our first time. Midnight was around the corner and the coolant reservoir has just been filled with Hella G13 pink coolant so lets tick all the boxes. Turbo charger additive, oil, oil filter, fuel and most importantly priming the system with fuel pump fuse removed. All right lets fire her up! Without any effort the 2.7t roared to life and settled down to a very smooth idle. We made it to ice cream cruise an hour away the very next morning. I was so proud of my brother for getting it accomplished and from here I knew we could do anything on this platform. We took this photo and didn't bother reattaching the hood. We wanted everyone to see this fresh rebuild.
Now sadly I've got to rain on the parade and say everything didn't go as planned. After a fun and successful car show we parked the s4 on the street to clean up the mess we left in the garage. Now any mechanic knows cleanup time is the worst. The last thing you want to do after spending several hours in the garage is put tools away. After reluctantly getting this done it was time to drive the s4 back into the garage. It was here when we noticed a ridiculous amount of oil pouring out of the bellhousing area. Unfortunately the new rear main seal was installed incorrectly meaning it was time to reverse everything we just did. Anyone who knows this platform knows putting this car in service mode and yanking the motor and trans together is much easier then trying to separate them in the car. After pulling the engine again and reassembling, everything was well for a short while. That was until a slave cylinder rod fell in the bell housing so it was now time to remove the engine a third time to correct this. After this the car was all back together. With a quick initial reflash on wastegate pressure to compensate for the new turbos, warlboro 525 and 1000cc injectors the car was happy. That was short lived after the water pump failed..... Now on any other reasonable platform the water pump isn't a huge deal. For example a BMW E39 540i would take three hours at the most. However on the b5 s4 the water pump is driven by the timing belt meaning now timing service needed to be done. After all this turmoil and trail and error, I can proudly say his car has driven for several years at power numbers well over 460 wheel with absolutely zero issues.
Now you may be asking why all of that information was necessary and I have a simple answer. The B5 S4 has a reputation for being a bad or unreliable vehicle and I couldn't disagree more. Now don't get me wrong I've had three b5 s4s and every single one has been on trailers for a lot of their lives. However that's to be expected on tired examples especially those still utilizing the stock components like BorgWarner k03s and stock trans without upgraded collars. A properly built b5 s4 is a car that cannot be compared to anything. Its simple yet understated design has aged beautifully and it has some of the greatest driving dynamics of a sedan I have ever felt. This platform took some discipline to learn how to properly maintain and drive but after spending years on this platform its clear to see why it has such a cult following. From the exhaust note of the 5 valve v6 to the subtle turbo noises, it is the true definition of a sleeper. Since the early 2000s this car has had a reputation for destroying many cars above its class at stock power numbers. There is plenty of data and videos of this car achieving under 12 seconds at the 1/4 mile before its warranty was up. Now those are impressive drag strip times for modern times but this car did it in the early 2000s with chip tuning. Let me guess you don't believe me? Click this link for me and report back. https://youtu.be/BSAbsfziia8?si=iyL6vPG-JyrhK0a4
That grainy footage you just saw was uploaded in 2006 but looks to be recorded years prior. This wasn't the only turbo all wheel drive car from that era and it most certainly is not the most reliable. But that doesn't matter because the s4 did it best. Since someone's bound to mention it lets compare it to a lancer evolution shall we. Interior quality and power potential is on the side of the s4. I mean anyone who's owned an EVO can tell you if you look at it wrong it'll crumple into a pile of rust similar to the Rusteze cars from Cars the movie. To Further prove my point you can put identical single turbo setups on both the s4 and the Evo and the Audi will win every time. Torsen quattro system is also a legendary combination fitted standard to every b5 s4. Torsen is purely mechanical meaning full time all wheel drive with front diff integrated in the bellhousing which sends that power to a driveshaft and into the rear diff. Because of this the S4 has the ability to plow through all kinds of terrain and still put bus lengths on a WRX STI with all of its obnoxious cobb access port tunes. Its very important to understand what this legendary chassis stands for. This car emerged in a time before remote tuning and simple revisions was all it took to make ridiculous power on a car. When this car came out there was no existing data on how to tune the Bosch ECU or any data on what the stock drivetrain components could handle. After countless hours on Nefmoto and other tuning software's, the initial tuners cracked the code and released a wolf in sheep's clothing to the streets. People actually had to work to make decent power numbers on cars when this was new which is much more respectable in my opinion. Regardless of that a proper Stage III s4 will still embarrass a brand new sports car today and look ten times better doing it. Id like to close this very long love letter to the b5 s4 by saying this. If you want a legendary twin turbo sedan that is arguably one of the best cars ever made, I encourage you to find one before its too late. Unfortunately over half of these cars have been parted out, scrapped or stolen with more continuing to disappear everyday. I've Learned a lot about this platform and have grown a great respect for the car its fall backs and most importantly those Pioneers that gave us all the vast knowledge of this chassis. I can proudly say I now own that same Nogaro blue s4 from that Home Depot parking lot many years later.
Photographs by https://www.instagram.com/nellyfitz_photos/
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