Shane’s Audi A6 - The Fastest in North America

Many people like to focus on the end result and fast ¼ mile times. While making cars fast and fun is what we all strive for we also think it’s important to highlight some obstacles and how they were overcome. Below we’ll hit on a few obstacles and how Shane overcame them:

Datalogging
Once the tune was installed the car immediately had a misfire. He quickly identified the issue using IE data logging software. After reviewing the data it was clear the stock low pressure fuel pump (LPFP) had insufficient flow. He proceeded to upgrade the LPFP and then the misfire issue was resolved. Upgraded software will often point out weak points such as old coil packs and spark plugs. In Shane’s case the issue was more complex and ended up being the low pressure fuel nearing the end of its life. Following the diagnosis he upgraded the pump. Later down the road the HPFP would need to be upgraded as well to extract the most performance out of the software. The important takeaway here is that data logging is essential for diagnosing issues in high performance builds. Thankfully the IE Powerlink comes with powerful data logging software in place. 

Tires
Shane headed to the Dragstrip where he quickly discovered that proper traction requires a great set of tires. On stock tires he was spinning out of the hole and running 11.1 second times consistently. Using stock tires his 60-foot times were fairly slow. To explain what that means, the 60 foot metric is used to determine how fast the vehicle gets off the line when the dragstrip lights go green. As a rule of thumb one tenth of a second faster on the 60 foot can equate to as much as two tenths of a second faster in the quarter mile. With this information in hand Shane then upgraded from street tires to a set of Hoosier drag tires. His 60 foot time drastically improved and with the addition of performance ZF8 software he was now down to a 10.3 second ¼ mile!  

Intake Air Temperature
Shane discovered that having low intake air temps (IATs) is also very important to having a quick car. He credits a portion of his success to using the IE Powerlink feature to run the heat exchanger fans manually. While this feature has now been copied by other companies it was originally developed by IE.

Vehicle Weight
Lastly, a large part of running fast times at the drag strip involves having a high power to weight ratio. Many enthusiasts like to solely focus on adding more power to achieve better times. However, it’s often easier to do some moderate weight reduction than to continually push the limits of an already tapped out engine. In Shane’s case he reduced the weight of his A6 by about 200 pounds by just removing the seats, spare tire and a few other mods such as installing a lightweight battery.  

Shanes goal for the 2021 season is to push his setup further to set a 10.1 or faster time. The ultimate goal is to run a 9.xx ¼ mile. That may not seem much faster but the faster a car goes the harder it is to improve times.

At the time of writing this article (May, 2021) Shane’s A6 is the fastest in the USA and Canada. IE will continue to support Shane and work with him to get the most out of his A6 3.0T and accomplish his goals. We’re looking forward to what he can do in the 2021 season! Stay tuned for more updates!

SHANE'S MOD LIST:

• IE Stage 2 Dual Pulley E40 ECU Tune
• IE 80mm Throttle Body Kit 
• HPFP Upgrade (Required for E40 and greater ethanol mixes)
• Custom TCU Tune 
• 196.5mm Crank Pulley
• 57.2mm Supercharger Pulley 
• Custom Ported Supercharger 
• 1000cc Methanol Injection Kit 
• Walbro 525 Low Pressure Fuel Pump 
• Upgraded Heat Exchanger 
• Custom Air Intake Using Stock Box
• Hoosier Tires DR2S 245-40-R18 
• Konig 18 inch Hypergram Wheels 
• Resonated Downpipes
• Test Pipes 
• Moderate 200lb Weight Reduction