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The Audi S4 is the high performance variant of Audi's compact executive car A4. The original Audi S4, built from 1991 until 1994, was a performance-oriented version of Audi's 100 saloon/sedan. All subsequent S4s since 1997 have been based on the Audi A4; and as the A4 has evolved from one generation to the next, so has the S4.A more powerful internal combustion engine, larger upgraded brakes, firmer suspension, larger roadwheels, and distinctive sheetmetal,[citation needed] styling clues and badging have always been amongst the many upgrades the S4 receives over its mainstream 100 and A4 siblings. In markets where the even higher-performance Audi RS4 is not offered, the S4 is the top-of-the-line trim of the A4 family.

ike its regular A4 counterpart, all S4 variants have had longitudinally oriented, front-mounted engines. A single turbocharged 2.2 litre inline five-cylinder powered the original C4 version, and a 2.7 litre 'biturbo' V6 engine was found in the B5 generation. The B6 and B7 versions shared a common 4.2 litre V8 engine, the first time that a V8 engine was placed in a compact executive car, placing it in direct competition with the BMW M3 which at the time had a 3.2 L inline 6. The recently introduced B8 generation uses a supercharged 3.0 litre V6 TFSI engine and competes with the BMW 335i, particularly the 2011 BMW 335is.

All versions of the S4 have their transmission mounted immediately at the rear of the engine in a longitudinal orientation, in the form of a transaxle, and like all Audi "S" cars, are only available as standard with Audi's quattro four-wheel drive (4WD) system, using a Torsen-based centre diff system.

All versions of the S4 have been manufactured at Audi's plant in Ingolstadt, Germany; they are, or have been available as a four-door five-seat saloon and a five-door five-seat Avant (Audi's name for an estate car/station wagon) body styles since the model's inception in 1991. A two-door four-seat Cabriolet (convertible) S4 variant was introduced as part of the B6 and B7 generation A4 lineups. The B8 Cabriolet has now been built off the A5 coupe body style and the "S" variant is marketed under the Audi S5 nameplate.

Factory production of the original Audi S4 (Typ 4A) began in August 1991 to serve as the performance version of the newly updated C4 platform 100 four-door, five-seat saloon. It was designed to replace the outgoing C3 based Audi 200 quattro turbo, which had been Audi's first true sports-saloon and had been discontinued at the end of 1990. Being the first S4 model from Audi, it is commonly referred to as the Ur-S4, derrived from the German: Ursprünglich augmentive word (meaning: original).

Audi mildly updated the C4-based model line in 1994 and dropped the 100 nomenclature; all variants of the former Audi 100 line were now re-badged as the Audi A6. In line with the switch in model name, Audi temporarily discontinued the use of the S4 name and began selling an updated but fundamentally identical version of the car, based on the "new" A6 and badged as S6. Despite the change in name, differences between the outgoing S4 and incoming S6 were primarily cosmetic.

A more powerful, more expensive and more exclusive variant known first as the S4 Plus and later as the S6 Plus was available from October 1992 through to July 1994. Built in very small numbers, the "Plus" models featured numerous performance enhancing upgrades; including the use of Audi's 4.2 litre V8 engine in place of the then current inline-five engine.An all-new C5-based Audi A6 debuted for 1997, after which the S4 and S6 became distinctly separate models based on very different platforms.The C4 variant S4 ended factory production after less than three years in July 1994.

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