Here's What Makes Audi's Five-Cylinder Engines A Thing Of Beauty

Most automobile engines have an even number of cylinders, from the light and efficient I4 motors found in most economy cars to the more powerful V6 and V8 powerplants under the hoods of typical trucks and SUVs. Some manufacturers, however, have bucked the trend and gone with five-cylinder motors. Volkswagen, Volvo, Fiat, Acura, and Alfa Romeo have all, at some point, used inline or even V5 engines in their vehicles. Still, Audi is probably the automaker that has most frequently used the five-cylinder engine. 

Audi was actually the five-cylinder pioneer, developing the first I5 engine in 1976 as a reaction to German laws mandating the distance between cylinders. Unable to increase the bore in existing four-cylinder engines, Audi engineers simply added another chamber. The first Audi 2.1 liter five-banger put out 136 horsepower, and adding a turbocharger boosted that output to 170 horsepower. Audi used that turbocharged 2.1 liter I5 in the 1980 Quattro and dropped a slightly larger version into the RS2 Avant, which was sold only in Europe in the 1994 model year.

Audi currently offers a 2.5-liter inline five-cylinder turbo in two models: the RS3 and the TTRS. The "RS" denotes the German language label Renn Sport, which translates to "racing sport." It's a fitting term for an engine capable of 401 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, delivering both of those whopping benchmarks across a vast sweep of the tachometer's needle. The torque maximum is sustained from 1,750 to 5,850 rpm, and drivers can expect peak horsepower delivery from 5,850 rpm to the 7,000 rpm redline.

Ezra Dyer of Car and Driver drove an RS3 outfitted with Audi's latest five-cylinder offering and was thrilled with the motor, calling it "a very special engine" and adding, "RS3 at full throttle sounds like a pod of enraged narwhals and that's a sound as rare as a pod of enraged narwhals."

That very special engine can catapult the RS3 from zero to 60 in a spleen-flattening 3.3 seconds, faster than the Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition and the 2024 Toyota GR Supra 3.0.

Arthur St. Antoine of Motor Trend tested a 2.5 liter inline equipped TT RS and was thrilled with the car's performance. "This is one hellacious little machine," he wrote. "The turbo-five simply flings the RS at the horizon—without so much as a dab of wheelspin. Audi claims a zero-to-60-mph time of just 3.6 seconds, but I'm betting the sub-3,300-pound car is even quicker than that. It just goes." Sadly, Audi will discontinue the TT after the current model year, but hopefully, the five-cylinder engine will provide adrenaline rushes for many more years.