Pros: Convertible fun, drivetrain performance, steering and handling

Cons: Burns gas like a refinery fire, manual shifter’s reverse location

This luxury convertible makes a fiend out of any red-blooded person who drives it. It’s a fire-breathing beast in a conservative suit. It offers stellar performance combined with open-air fun: What more could you ask for?

The powerful V8 engine makes some of the most beautiful noises ever emitted by any motor vehicle. While it is a great engine, it’s relatively small displacement means it doesn’t make a lot of power at low rpm. The engine likes to be above 3,500 rpm where it churns out power. The six-speed manual transmission allows you to keep the revs in a range that has the car motoring quickly along, with the engine singing a beautiful tune. But, we don’t like the location of reverse on the manual transmission, left and forward of first gear. In that location, we found ourselves inadvertently going into the reverse gate when doing heavy downshifting to help slow the car on a highway off-ramp.

The all-wheel drive, which sends more power to the rear wheels, mimics some of the dynamics of a rear-wheel drive car, with the added stability and control of AWD. The system is almost too good when trying to accelerate from a stop quickly. There’s so much traction that the engine bogs when you give it some revs and quickly release the clutch. In fact, we smelled evidence of the clutch burning slightly after such maneuvers. The S4’s clutch relegates the car to being a road warrior, not a drag racer.

But, that is only a minor disappointment on a car full of superlatives. Steering is firm at high speeds and light when puttering around. Road holding is superb with a slight four-wheel drift at the limit, which is exceedingly high. All this happens with the stability control switched off. Leave it on and it will take slick road or really stupid driving to make this car bite you. Outstanding antilock brakes slow you down from high speeds quickly, and with lots of control.

Handling on this convertible is aided by an extremely stiff body structure. Removing a car’s roof can often lead to severe weakening of the chassis that allows it to flex, and, ever so-slightly, alter the geometry of the suspension. This can lead to sloppy handling. No such problem on this beast. Want to know what makes it strong? Look at the weight. No doubt there’s lots of extra steel, or some exotic material, to help keep the body strong. More weight means fewer mpg, which is a problem with the S4. Driven sedately, fuel economy improves. But, if you buy a $60,000 car, presumably, you can afford the gas it will burn.

The canvas top folds quickly and takes up only a scant amount of room in the trunk, leaving lots of room left over for cargo. Folding hard tops are nice, but they severely limit what you can carry in the concealed area when the top is down.

The satellite navigation screen is too low for easy viewing (if watching the road somehow became secondary in this performance machine) but prompts from a soft, mellifluous female voice help mitigate the problem.

As with most Audis, comfort is first rate. The interior, along with the rest of the car, is well built, tight and good looking.

With lots of good points and only a couple bad ones, the S4 Convertible, uh, sorry, Cabriolet, ranks as an excellent car for someone who enjoys top-down motoring with a lot of gusto.