Audi Starting to Get Goofy With Horespower

"Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney" (braddelaparker)
01/23/2014 at 17:47 • Filed to: None

Per Autoblog, a new "S3 Plus" could squeeze 375HP out of the 2.0T, and that's supposedly leaving room for an RS3 with potentially 460HP out of the five-cylinder. Bonkers. Love it.

There's a war being waged in Europe for the highest output from the smallest displacement. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! has managed to squeeze 240 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque out of a 1.7-liter turbo four for the 4C. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! has coaxed 355 hp and 332 lb-ft out of a 2.0-liter turbo four to drive the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But not to be outdone, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Group is said to be working on one of its own that will put both to shame.

The engine is reportedly being based on VW's existing 2.0-liter turbo four, only enhanced to produce a massive 375 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. The key to getting there was poaching Friedrich Eichler, the engineer who designed AMG's aforementioned high-output engine, and mandating him to do still better.

That's all well and fine – and perfectly impressive – but just what does VW plan on doing with the new engine? A whole lot, according to reports. It's expected to power the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and a new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! expected to debut at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in April, and you can bet it'll be slotted into another few applications as well. But the first vehicle expected to get it will be the Audi S3 Plus.

S3 Plus? Don't we mean the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ? Not according to the buzz, no. Apparently Audi wants to use the engine to power a hot hatch to slot in between the existing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (where the 2.0-liter turbo four produces 290 hp and 280 lb-ft) and the next RS3. The outgoing RS3 packed a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five with 335 hp and 332 lb-ft. Audi thinks that the turbo five has more potential, and that the high-output turbo four will light a fire under the engineers at Quattro GmbH to find every last drop of it.

If you assume the same differential in power between the three increments of Audi hot hatch, we could be looking at a good 460 hp and just as much torque, which would propel the next RS3 and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! into positively bonkers territory. That would make it an incredible hundred horses more powerful than the 360-hp !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Which might seem outlandish, but with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! concept, Audi has shown that engine can produce as much as 500 hp.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/23/aud…