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Originally Posted by footie
It is foolish to fit a V8 engine at the moment. Regardless of how much of an improvement they have made the emission would still be high than what will be achieved with either a smaller turbo or supercharged engine.
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Well I guess we'll have to wait and see. By your logic here it seems that no car in existence should be using a naturally aspirated motor, instead favoring a smaller turbo'd motor instead. While the recent trend is toward forced induction I think it is much too early to say that naturally aspirated motors will or should go away. I'll bet that the folks at Audi know what they are doing and have a lot more tricks up their sleeves.
Like any other performance car the success of the RS5 will be measured in performance compared to rivals and previous generations as well as sales numbers. I strongly doubt the performance part will be an issue. And I don't think emissions will be a factor to most folks in this market. As long as Audi can meet emissions regulations (which I am sure they can) and produce it at the right price-point, it will sell.
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Another thing, they have already the right engine for the RS5 being used in another model and that is the new 2.5L 5cyl unit of the TT-RS, it's seriously de-tuned for the TT-RS (this I know) and it's not only light but tuneful to listen to. They also have the technology to dual-charge it if required with an additional supercharger to reduce lag further while still keeping weight down. Some say that such a small capacity engine would hurt potential sales but then surely the same should be said for the 911turbo compared to it's key rivals, competing in a world where 8 or 10 cylinders and larger capacities are the norm and it's been doing this for as long as I have known and consistently out selling the competition. The reason I think it's been so successful mainly because the performance hasn't ever suffered.
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By that same token the S4/S5 could or should also use this motor which again I don't think would necessarily be a better choice. The smaller displacement motor will have to work harder to produce similar performance. Clearly Audi developed the supercharged V6 for a reason, and it appears to be a success given the reviews (not sure how sales are). I don't know why they would not choose this motor over the I5 if they wanted a smaller turborcharged motor in the upcoming RS4/RS5. Also, the very fact that the S4/S5 already use this supercharged V6, mean putting the I5 in the RS4/RS5 would almost surely be a marketing mis-step.