The Driver's Seat: Kai

Kai. You may remember him as the kid from high school that everyone warned you not to drive with because he's crazy. That's somewhat true. I mean, hey, with a 250-horsepower Audi S4 and a fearless attitude, who wouldn't do 160 mph on Ocean Parkway?



Kai is the proud owner of a year 2000 model Audi S4 (this is the predecessor of the RS4 featured a few weeks ago). This car uses advanced Audi 4-wheel drive technology to slam all 250 horses to the pavement. Because this car is the top-of-the-line A4, everything has been tuned to perform. This is part of the reason why the ride was extremely firm and actually quite bumpy at times. I guess German cars really were designed primarily for smooth, endless Autobahn driving. On the other hand, the tightness of the steering and suspension components create an immense amount of confidence within the driver. The accuracy of every input is what allows Kai to cruise at triple digit speeds comfortably and certainly more often than the average driver.



Our test area was down by the beaches, and Ocean Parkway is famous for its endless miles of straightaways. At one point, Kai slowed the car to a stop and then brake-torqued his way from zero to way-more-than-60 mph. The power delivered to all four wheels came from a V6 with TWO turbos, and every single one of those horses accelerated the car so hard that it actually whiplashed my head back into the headrest with more force than I expected. The S4 did not show any signs whatsoever of letting up until the moment Kai backed off of the gas. It pulled very strongly--5.4 seconds, according to Audi. Since Kai's car is over 5 years old, however, those numbers were probably a few tenths of a second higher.



As expected from an auto enthusiast, Kai has personalized his car in many ways to distinguish it from other S4s on the road. His vanity plates in front and back read "S4ORCE," a perfect plate for this car hinting at the amazing amount of force underneath the hood. In my opinion, the front plate really is not necessary since all that most people will ever see of Kai's car is from the back and growing smaller and smaller. Other modifications include a custom BMW M3 lip spoiler attached to the edge of the trunk lid. This generates a little more downforce at high speeds, but is there mostly for looks. Kai's S4 comes with xenon headlamps (those really bright, purplish headlights you see on the road), so to create a nice looking contrast, he applied a yellow film to his fog lights similar to those on the roads in Europe.



Another thing he has added to customize is ride is S4 emblem stickers on the seats. Last but definitely not least, a driver as fast as Kai would obviously have installed a state of the art radar/laser detector. He is currently using a K40 dashboard mounted system, but is planning on upgrading to a Valentine One stealth set up in the near future.



Kai takes care of his car like a singer takes care of his voice. When I met up with him for this article, he was actually pulled over on the side of the road wiping down last minute dust from local driving. When we got to the site of the photo shoot, he told me to wait a minute and busted out tire shine and applied it diligently to all four corners. It's a good feeling to see that there are still people out there who treat their cars well, but would you expect anything less from the owner of an S4?



Remember to visit Kai's website at
http://www.S4ORCE.com