Audi RS2 Avant

The Audi RS2 Avant was a limited edition, high performance Audi estate car / station wagon, sold from 1994 to 1996. Collaboratively designed by Audi and Porsche, and built on Audi's 80 Avant, it was the company's first "RS" vehicle,[1] and the first of their high performance Avants; it used the most powerful and most thoroughly developed version of the company's turbocharged inline-5 cylinder engine.

Although it was never exported outside of Europe, except for a few to Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil and New Zealand, the RS2 has amassed an impressive cult following worldwide, and it is often regarded as being the vehicle that finally firmly established Audi as a producer of practical high performance vehicles; its estate body, and standard quattro permanent four-wheel-drive system made it usable as a comfortable daily driver even in poor weather conditions.

History

The RS2 was the product of a co-development project between Audi and Porsche, based on Audi's 80 Avant, and powered by a modified version of their 2.2 litre, 20-valve turbocharged 5-cylinder engine producing 315PS (311hp/232kW) at 6500rpm. Although much of the car's underpinnings were manufactured by Audi, assembly was handled by Porsche at their plant in Zuffenhausen, Germany which had become available after discontinuation of the Mercedes-Benz E500, which Porsche had manufactured under contract.

Like the rest of the vehicle, the RS2's 5-cylinder engine was based on a unit that Audi already produced, although Porsche considerably modified the engine; the standard KKK turbocharger was switched for a larger unit, along with a heavy-duty intercooler and higher flow fuel injectors, a newly designed camshaft, a more efficient induction system, and a low-pressure exhaust system replaced the standard fare; a new Bosch-supplied engine management system (ECU) controlled the engine.

With so much power available, the RS2 could run from 0 to 62mph (100km/h) in 4.8seconds, and achieve a maximum speed of 163mph (262km/h) (electronically restricted), despite weighing over 1600kg (3527lb). In a road test conducted in 1995, British car magazine Autocar timed the RS2 from 0 to 30mph (48km/h) at just 1.5 seconds, which they confirmed was faster than both the McLaren F1 road car, and also Jacque Villeneuve's Formula 1 car of that time. Even by more modern standards, its performance is exceptional; it could accelerate on-par with the C5 generation Chevrolet Corvette, and was only a tenth of a second slower to 60 than a 996 generation Porsche 911.