Super-TT’s ive-pot to power new RS generation

A 500bhp ive-cylinder with electric turbocharging! A 650bhp V8! Fully electric models! Georg Kacher reveals Audi Sport’s next three years

AUDI SPORT – home of high-performance RS cars and customer racers spun off the mid-engined R8 – is under new management. Michael-Julius Renz, previously Audi China sales boss, took over the sporty subsidiary on 1 January. He’s inherited a division on a strong growth curve, but also one wrestling with how to future-proof its ballistic petrol engines, introduce electrification to RS drivetrains, and overhaul the model line-up. Quite a full in-tray then.

Renz will be heartened by news that the charismatic five-cylinder engine, whose heritage goes all the way back to the first Quattro in 1980, will be reborn for another model cycle. The original engine displaced 2.1 litres, was fed by 10 valves and produced 197bhp. The latest incarnation, to start rolling out in cars this year, will more than double that power output. Codenamed EA855, the all-aluminium straight five is a 2.5-litre 20-valve unit, and the big news is an electrically driven compressor. Powered by a 48-volt electrical system, the e-compressor works at low revs to eliminate lag, with conventional turbocharging kicking in when sufficient exhaust pressure has built up.

Five cylinders for RS3 and TT RS

In base form, the five-cylinder will kick out around 420bhp. In phase II tune, the engine gets an enticing 7500rpm redline and produces 440bhp. And Audi’s engineers are considering an RS Plus version, potentially hitting the magic 500bhp mark. Although Audi has shown TT Clubsport concepts (left) with up to 592bhp, such awesome peak power remains off-limits for durability and emissions reasons. Final power outputs may vary a little: tightening emissions regulations will require particulate filters on new petrol engines, which may corral up to 30 horses.

The five-cylinder is set to make its debut in this year’s second-gen RS Q3. It then powers the next RS3 Sportback in 2019, the RS Q4 – a new if somewhat predictable model, featuring a coupe-cum-SUV bodyshell on a Q3 chassis – the following4

year, and ultimately the RS version of the next TT, expected in 2021.

V8 power – but no hybrids yet

The new A7 Sportback arrives in showrooms this year, and the A6 saloon and Avant versions will go public soon too. RS Quattro versions of all three cars will be rolled out: the RS7 has been spied winter testing (right), with tackedon wheelarches drawing attention to its wider tracks, and the trademark oval tailpipes.

Power comes from an uprated version of the biturbo 4.0-litre V8 used by Porsche as well as Audi. Today’s RS6 is available in 552bhp normal and 596bhp ‘Performance’ states of tune; the stock RS6 Avant and RS7 Sportback will kick out 600bhp. An even punchier, 630bhp version of the V8 will be plumbed into Audi Sport’s RS makeover of the Q8 luxury SUV, another new model line which begins rolling out this year. And if you’re not confused enough already, Audi has signed off a seven-seat Q9 luxury SUV-coupe, which in RS guise will deploy the 650bhp of the 4.0-litre V8 used in the Lamborghini Urus.

Don’t hold your breath for plug-in hybrid RS models though. Despite Porsche having coupled the same V8 to a 134bhp electric motor to create the Panamera Turbo S-E hybrid, Audi Sport has not begun to work on a high-performance V8 PHEV. Hybrid isn’t slated for the next-generation version of the 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 that motivates the new RS4 Avant (driven, p38) either.

Full electric RS – with Porsche’s help

Ruling out the performance hybrid option fits with the powertrain strategy mooted by previous boss Stephan Winkelmann. Last summer he told CAR: ‘I see two ways: one halfway step – hybridisation – and one full step: electric vehicles. We are still deciding if we can take both steps or if we can be better off by [keeping today’s] engines as long as possible, then going for electric vehicles. We have a lot of customer feedback which supports not to go halfway but to keep [engines] as long as possible then immediately [switch to full EV].’

As a result, Audi Sport is plotting RS versions of full electric Audis. Not an R8 e-tron: despite discussions, Audi has scotched a full EV version of its mid-engined supercar. Indeed the R8 itself is unlikely to be replaced, with retirement looming after 2020: that’s when Lamborghini’s Huracan replacement switches to a carbonfibre mono-fuselage, eliminating the economies of scale on today’s aluminium architecture.

Changing times call for a new kind of flagship – with a little help from Porsche. The underpinnings of its four-door Mission E coupe will be adopted and rebodied by Audi, for Ingolstadt’s own full EV coupe – the E GT – in late 2019. Think of it as a five-seater five-door Audi Quattro recreation, with 400 or 530bhp motors

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and a unique Audi interior. A 660bhp output is in the works, which would be right up Audi Sport’s RS strasse.

Audi and Porsche are jointly developing three versions of a new all-electric components set dubbed PPE. Insiders expect this innovative chassis to include S and RS versions of E5 (another five-door coupé, A5 Sportback-sized), E7 (four-door coupe, A7 Sportback-sized) and EQ5/6/7/8/9 (all crossovers). The power boost that’s essential for every RS comes from high-performance batteries and more potent e-motors.

What about an all-electric sports car? Such a derivative would have to adopt the SAZ platform, the sports car architecture of the future, which Porsche is cooking up in Weissach for the next-butone 911. SAZ is a ‘convergence platform’ capable of full electric, hybrid and internal combustion applications, sources say.

Its first jointly conceived, truly sporty battery electric vehicle could be a compact two-seater set to eventually replace both the TT and the 718 Boxster/Cayman. But would the layout be frontor mid-engined, given the divergence of today’s Audi and Porsche sports cars? Sources suggest revolutionary times for the TT: the powerplant is earmarked for just ahead of the rear axle to optimise handling. The timing of this project is still unclear. Fans of the status quo can expect one more redesign of the conventional models, before the silent sports cars put in an appearance in 2025/26.