A Modded Audi For Him And A Modded Audi For Her: Members’ Rides

In last week’s episode of Members’ Rides, we met T0ast and drooled over his old Exocet, his latest Lotus, and the always great STI. This week, we’re heading down to sunny Florida to meet Angrycat Meowmeow and his family’s his-and-hers Audis. Angrycat Meowmeow has a fun work history. He started out working on cars, then graduated to aircraft with a specialization in A320s before transitioning to a desk job, where he has the exciting task of wrestling with Excel all day. I can relate.

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For the longest time, Audi had a strong reputation for being one of the less dependable brands out there. I’m coming to learn how much the newer ones have improved on that. Having now done two Audi-centric Member rides recently, both lauding the dependability of the cars, I am starting to think I have been too harsh on them and reconsidering my firm anti-VAG stance. Angrycat is not doing my wallet any favors here, but I do thoroughly enjoy the cars, so let’s take a look!

How did you get into cars?

My Dad got me into cars when I was a kid. I started working on cars with him super young. I clearly remember sanding down his ’70 Chevelle and riveting on a hood scoop.

What’s currently in the garage?

• 2018 highly modified Audi S5
• 2017 slightly modified Audi Q7

Another fun German garage! What’s the story behind the S5?

I bought it in 2021. My son and I flew to GA, got a taxi to the BMW dealer, and drove it home a few hours later.

What made you pick this over anything else out there?

A friend of mine is a big VAG fanboy. He suggested I look at S5s to replace my Giulia. I had never considered Audi or anything German at all, really. I wanted a CTS V Sport. At the time, I had no idea what any Audi was aside from the A7. I liked the interior and exterior design more than any Bimmer I could afford, plus the liftback, Quattro, and a platform that loves to be tuned really sold it for me. After all the searching, I had it narrowed down to the S5 or a Stinger, but I couldn’t get over the Kia styling.

Ooh Guilia, How does the S5 compare to the Guilia?

The Alfa was a beautiful car that drew attention everywhere it went, but that’s about it. It was a lease so I didn’t do anything to it but an open-air intake. There’s essentially zero intake/exhaust sound from the factory. So many things bothered me on it … it had undefeatable traction control, it was unreliable, it was slow. Even though mine wasn’t a base model, it still didn’t even have paddle shifters, so if you wanted even a little driver engagement you had to tickle the stupid nub of a shifter. The HK audio system left much to be desired, it was cramped inside, and the interior quality was meh. You can’t get it out of neutral if it won’t start without a special tool that goes into the trans from under the car. So when it broke down, we had to use slides to get it up on the flatbed (the S5 has the same transmission, but there’s a tool in the trunk to put it in neutral from inside the car).

Reliability isn’t super high on my list, so I could’ve put up with that if the rest of the car had actually lived up to the hype. I don’t miss it at all and I jumped at the chance when the dealer offered me an early lease turn-in deal during COVID, and they actually paid me $5k to take it off my hands. The only car that could hold a candle to the S5 (that I’ve actually got experience with) is the CTS V Sport.

You said it has lots of mods, tell me more!

Here we go, I have a spreadsheet, so this will be easy. All of this was done in my garage except for the tint.

• Ceramic tint
• Intake
• Turbo inlet
• Front resonator delete
• Wheel spacers
• RS grille
• Intercooler
• Charge pipes
• Braided brake lines
• Drilled rotors and Hawk pads
• Turbo blanket
• Transmission mount
• Stage 1 ECU and stage 2 TCU tunes
• Sequential mirror signals
• Loads of Kilmat sound deadening
• JL 10w1 in a Basser box, Kicker 500w amp. I replaced all the tweeters with CDT silk tweeters, CDT woofers in the doors, and Faital Pro mids in the doors and center channel (these are very bright).
• Dual dashcam
• Retrofit brake auto hold
• Lots of coding changes including MMI coding
• Paint correction and ceramic coated

What mod made the biggest difference for you?

I feel like answering with the ECU/TCU tune is cheating here. Of course, it made a huge difference when I added 100HP and 130lb-ft with a few keystrokes. Aside from that the random coding mods make a huge difference.

Makes sense, but which one is your favorite?

Probably a tie between the intake for that sweet snail sound, and the resonator delete. The resonator delete gives it just a little boost of bark without any drone or fear of waking the neighbors. I feel like those two are a must for any B9, tuned or not.

Anything you wish you hadn’t changed on it?

I got bored with it at one point and installed a catless downpipe (no emissions here) and a stage 2 tune. Hated it. Exhaust sounded and smelled like ass, the silly pops ‘n bangs tune sounded like gunshots and it added exactly zero horsepower. I put the stock cat back in, tuned it back to stage 1, and sold the downpipe to a buddy who was planning a big turbo build.

Any additional mods planned?

It’s pretty much where I want it, but I’d like to swap out my midranges and woofers for some Audison’s. The stage 1 tune is the sweet spot of driveability and reliability. Plus, it allows me to run E85 for an extra 50HP if I so desire. I could see myself swapping out the MMI screen for one of the bigger Android tablet-style screens available to modernize it a bit and give myself the option of using touch instead of rotary control.

What do you love about this car?

There’s a lot, to be honest. I could spend a lot of time here, but I won’t bore everyone. It looks like normal traffic. But if you really look at it, and admire it as car nerds do, you start seeing really nice details. It doesn’t draw any attention, and it goes like stink. It’ll haul two dogs in the hatch area, 2 kids and 2 adults and get nearly 30MPG on the highway. It’s comfortable in comfort mode and spicy in dynamic mode. It does it all and it puts a smile on my face.

Having said that, I absolutely fell in love with the B8 coupes when they first came out. Everything about them is 100% my vibe. The interior and exterior are just gorgeous, remarkably well put together, and the balance of comfort and performance is better than what you’d get from M or AMG. Hardly a week goes by that I don’t consider selling my B9 S5 for a B8.5. If only we got the B8.5 Sportback here in the States!

Think you would ever actually make that swap?

With a family, a coupe would be rough. Those cars are cheap now though. I could see a B8 S5 as a project. If I sell my S5 I’ll probably end up in an S8 because it’s a huge executive sedan with reclining rear seats that has a twin-turbo V8 which can be tuned to run 11’s. It’s absurd and lovely, yet invisible.

Anything you wish you could change about the S5?

The seats are merely adequate. To be fair, I don’t have the nice diamond-stitched buckets the S5 normally comes with as my car has the warm weather package. I have the regular “comfort” seats as that’s the only way to get ventilated seats, and they are not befitting. Audi saved diamond-stitched ventilated seats only for the A8 lineup until recently. Forcing a choice between good seats and ventilated seats is dumb.

Any fun stories with it?

My family was there when I finally picked up my 11-second timeslip with it and they were ecstatic for me, which is dope. After that my wife decided she wanted to try her hand at drag racing and that was really fun! She ran a 12.2 in it.

How’s the reliability been? I’m starting to realize how overblown the issues on these seem to be if the car is well maintained.

So far it has needed an oil filter housing gasket as far as non-scheduled maintenance or consumables go. Naturally, I turned this $50 job into a $300 job by deciding to upgrade the plastic housing with aluminum while I was in there. There was also this one time the AC compressor fell off the block. Obviously someone had reused torque to yield bolts and they were not happy about it. IDK what happened prior to my ownership but a few bucks in new, properly torqued bolts later and all is well.

Current Audi is not Piech-era Audi and even if you go searching for problems on something as complex as an S8 you won’t find much outside of the usual forum complaints. Keep in mind I’m a DIY guy. Of course, if you take your S5 to the dealer for an oil leak, you’re gonna drive home no less than $2,000 poorer. Hell, all four pads, rotors, and miscellanea on the Q7 cost me $2,000 in parts. Do that at a dealer and it’s a $5,000 brake job. It’s got 15″ semi-floating rotors clamped by 6 pot calipers. Shit’s expensive. If you buy a high mileage Q7 for $15k not knowing any better you’re gonna shit your pants the first time you take it in for service, and immediately drive it to CarMax to trade it in for a Honda. But you won’t have a Q7.

Speaking of the Q7, what led to that one?

We bought this one, also from a BMW dealer, in 2022. We drove SUVs from Mercedes, BMW, Infiniti, and even Honda and Mazda when it came time to replace our SRX. Nothing could touch this car for the price. It’s the 3.0T (where T means supercharged) EA837 Evo which is glorious.

Were there specific options you were looking for with this?

Fully loaded. All the bells and whistles. This one has everything but the cold weather package and Bang & Olufsen sound. It even has leather on the door panel pockets. There’s leather everywhere.

What mods have you done to this one?

Again, all done in my garage with the exception to the tune and tint, APR used to make you go to a dealer.

• APR stage 1 tune
• Wheel spacers
• Adjustable links for the air suspension. About half in inch lower in front and 1 inch in the rear.
• A Kicker hideaway sub under the 3rd row
• I made an intake silencer delete so we could get a bit of S/C whine in the cabin.
• Sequential mirror signals
• Lots of coding changes
• Dual dashcam
• Retrofit brake auto-hold
• Ceramic tint
• Paint correction and ceramic coating
• A Skoda washer fluid cap (Which inspired Thomas to write this. The pics used there are all of my Q7!)

Any additional plans for mods?

I’m probably gonna do a whole bunch of preventative maintenance on it including S/C oil change, PCV, water pump, and crossover tube. While I’m in there I think I’m going to go with the 034 S/C clutch delete and a pulley combined with their ECU and TCU tune. The supercharger clutch is a known weak point on these especially when you start tuning them.

What is your favorite thing about this one?

You know how people talk about older German cars having a solid feel? That’s this car. It feels like it was machined out of a solid ingot of aluminum. I cannot get over how damn comfortable, quiet, and smooth this thing is. It’s incredible. And then you put it in dynamic mode, it hunkers down, and you can have way more fun than you should be allowed to have in a seven-seat 5,000lb SUV that can tow 7,000lbs.

It was a blast in the Blue Ridge Mountains and didn’t skip a beat no matter how hard I beat on it. Even in its spiciest mode, it’s smooth and comfortable. Then it does crazy stuff like using the air suspension to keep squat, dive, and roll at bay when you’re hustling. Every time I drive it, I’m like “Holy shit this is a nice car!” That feeling still hasn’t worn off after nearly 3 years. This platform came out in 2016 and is still in use today (and still competitive!) which is a testament to just how well-engineered and far ahead of the competition these were.

Anything you don’t like?

Not a damn thing to be honest. Force me to find something and I’ll say tires in the stock size are dumb expensive, but that’s easy enough to solve by going with a 305 instead of a 295 width.

Has this one been pretty reliable for you as well?

This one has needed more than the S5 but I wouldn’t consider it bad. I mean it was built in 2016 so it’s a nine-year-old German car that stickered for $82k.

• It has a minuscule coolant leak, probably the crossover tube. Easy fix
• It needed a keyless entry antenna that cost me $25. It would only see the key when it was in the second row.
• I came out one day to find the right front suspension on the bumpstops. That was the air suspension valve block which cost me $300 for an OEM unit.
• One of the DRL segments is burnt out. I bought new LEDs for like $35 but haven’t had the time to fix it yet.

Any plans to swap this at any point?

The poorly maintained ones seem to consume a lot of oil. This car was owned by some CEO prior to us so it was very well maintained and doesn’t drink a drop. If it does start burning through quarts maybe swap for an SQ7 or a Genesis, or even a CX90 PHEV. We love this car though and have no intention of getting rid of it any time soon.

Have you always been an Audi guy?

Not at all. In our time together my wife and I have had two Kias, two Cadillacs, and two Audis side by side purely by luck. We just buy the cars that make us happy. These two just happened to fit the bill. Truthfully, I actively ignored Audi until I got the S5. I won’t say I’m an Audi guy now or have ever been, but I’ll certainly not ignore them when it’s time for new cars. While I don’t owe any corporation a damn thing and I pledge no allegiances, owning these two has certainly been eye-opening.

Also, to please the Autopian masses, let the record show that I recently purchased a 2014 RAV4. It was just too good of a deal to pass up, it’s been well maintained, and it’s a Limited so it’s a fancy RAV4. It will be the perfect first car for my kid once I upgrade the head unit to a Carplay-compatible unit.

Any other fun cars in your history worth mentioning?

Prior to the S5, I had a Giulia Ti, before that a CTS V Sport, and before that a Kia Forte SX. I also had a ’93 Camaro Z28 that was fully built with forged internals, a slightly built T56, and a Moser 9″ with a spool. It was plumbed for nitrous but I never sprayed it. I turned it over to my dad. Without the juice, the S5 is faster. Back in the day, I had an E30 318i and another 93 Z28 that I wish I still had.

What’s in the dream garage?

My dream garage would be fluid. I like so many different cars it would be hard to choose. I want everything from a Celica to an Aston Martin. If I had to choose, probably an RS6, a Chevy SS with a stick, and a Maverick. If I had real fuck it money then a Koenigsegg.

I love that answer too, my dream sheet changes at least weekly, and rarely do I keep a fun car longer than a year, just too many things I want to try!

Exactly. There’s just too much out there to pigeonhole yourself into one brand. I’d love something JDM, and once life settles down a cheap import would be a lot of fun. Your Eunos isn’t doing me any favors here. My dad had an 88 Celica and it was just so cool looking. It was brown on brown. A green, V550 Vantage on the Aston. A V550. Green.

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