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Audi RS 4 to ditch V8
Motoring
Feann Torr
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Turbo V6 expected to replace high-revving V8
The next generation Audi A4 due to break cover in 2015 will be followed by an all-new Audi RS 4 wagon, which is looking increasingly likely to ditch its free-spinning 4.2-litre V8 in favour of a blown V6.
Likely to be shown at the 2015 Geneva motor show, the fifth generation Audi A4 will need to meet increasingly strict emissions regulations, which by 2020 will mean CO2 emissions of less than 95g/km. This will result in much of the A4 range's engine downsizing, including the giant-slaying RS 4.
Heinz Hollerweger, the Managing Director of quattro GmbH – the company that builds and develops Audi's fastest RS and R sports cars – told a group of Australian journalists that the next RS 4 "need not" be a V8.
"There are nice six-cylinder engines with high power," said the quattro boss, but wouldn't be drawn on the exact nature of the RS 4's new engine, which could even make use of the company's electric turbocharger technology previewed earlier in 2014.
Instead he pointed to the RS 4's importance, noting that "we have to continue this success story".
The chief of Audi's performance shop wouldn't be drawn on the fate of V8 engines across the RS range, noting that the next RS 6 "could [still] be" powered by eight-cylinders. However he did confirm the next-gen R8 would be a V10, much like the vehicle with which it will share its underpinnings, the Lamborghini Huracan.
"The next R8 will have to be 10-cylinder," said Hollerweger.
Motoring
Feann Torr
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Turbo V6 expected to replace high-revving V8
The next generation Audi A4 due to break cover in 2015 will be followed by an all-new Audi RS 4 wagon, which is looking increasingly likely to ditch its free-spinning 4.2-litre V8 in favour of a blown V6.
Likely to be shown at the 2015 Geneva motor show, the fifth generation Audi A4 will need to meet increasingly strict emissions regulations, which by 2020 will mean CO2 emissions of less than 95g/km. This will result in much of the A4 range's engine downsizing, including the giant-slaying RS 4.
Heinz Hollerweger, the Managing Director of quattro GmbH – the company that builds and develops Audi's fastest RS and R sports cars – told a group of Australian journalists that the next RS 4 "need not" be a V8.
"There are nice six-cylinder engines with high power," said the quattro boss, but wouldn't be drawn on the exact nature of the RS 4's new engine, which could even make use of the company's electric turbocharger technology previewed earlier in 2014.
Instead he pointed to the RS 4's importance, noting that "we have to continue this success story".
The chief of Audi's performance shop wouldn't be drawn on the fate of V8 engines across the RS range, noting that the next RS 6 "could [still] be" powered by eight-cylinders. However he did confirm the next-gen R8 would be a V10, much like the vehicle with which it will share its underpinnings, the Lamborghini Huracan.
"The next R8 will have to be 10-cylinder," said Hollerweger.