What is it about a highly-pressurized Audi five-cylinder that sounds so unholy and violent? They don’t shriek like a four-banger, they don’t bellow like a V8, and they don’t even rasp like a good six. Instead you get this unholy wailing that is usually coupled with heavy turbocharger noise, popping and banging as the revs come down, and the sensation that even though the four wheels driving was designed to keep the driver in control, that the engine is, by design, pure and unadulterated German aggression that is doing everything it can to free itself so that it can go beat up anything in it’s path with willful abandon. For example, take Karl Werner’s Audi S2-R Quattro racing car. Audi wasn’t popular in the U.S. market when this car came out, because they were still reeling from the 60 Minutes report on the Audi 5000’s “unintended acceleration” issue (that was proven to be a dump truck full of fresh manure by the NHTSA) but over in Europe cars like the S2 and the RS Avant were being produced, and they would hustle, packing north of 300 horsepower with all-wheel-drive keeping the car going in the direction the driver wanted. Now…boost the power and lighten the body. Does that sound like fun to you?
They do have a sound thats all their own, unholy and violent. YES!!!