How does 5 cylinder engine work

At the top of this article, we made reference to an Audi rally car and its famous five-cylinder engine. That car was Audi's Quattro S1, the dominant dirt-road monster which set the pace for the Group B championship and drove every other manufacturer mad trying to chase and beat Audi's mesmerizing off-road performance. The competition was fierce, including such incredible machines as the Ford RS and the Lancia Delta S4 , but no vehicle will ever be an icon of the Group B era quite like the mighty Quattro.

Volvo also did some racing with its five-cylinders, famously entering an R wagon in the British Touring Car Championship in the s. That car would never win a race, but the sight of a big Swedish box bouncing around racetracks cemented that car in the memories of fans for years. That sight was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of a five-cylinder: Volvo's BTCC race-wagon ran a modified version of the R road car's 2. Just about any car, you'll find today with a five-cylinder is bound to be at least moderately interesting, if not searingly hot.

Take the Audi RS2 pictured above. Believed by most to be the watershed moment for fast Audi road cars, the RS2 was a compact wagon with a 2.

Doug Demuro has one. Then there's the Audi TT RS, which had a five-cylinder in at least two generations of the car, as well as the RS3 super-hatch or sedan, for us both past and present. You'll also find a five-cylinder in the Volvo R, as well as just about all of their breathed-on cars until the lates when Volvo moved to twin-charged four-cylinders and hybrid powertrains.

By , Alfa massaged the diesel five some more to horsepower and lb-ft in the compact Ti sedan. The smaller Fiat Croma kept a less powerful version until The first coupe and sedan established their semi-premium status soon after Audi became an official Volkswagen division in Based on the Volkswagen EA four-cylinder, the 2. In , a diesel five rolled out making 70 horsepower.

By , the TDI introduced direct injection, turbocharging, and electronic management, making the diesel good for horsepower. Still, various versions of the five-cylinder wound up on our 10Best Cars list every year from through although a sudden-acceleration scare during these years nearly drove Audi out of the U.

Audi sedan, 2. In Europe, the Audi fives lasted until , in the A6 and S6 the successors to the , , and The first Audi Quattro, in , was powered by a turbocharged 2. Initially, Audi wanted to build just examples to homologate the car for World Rally Championship racing. The U. In , Audi doubled the valve count to four per cylinder, which brought another plus horsepower. The Quattro itself hardly changed until production ended in In the shorter and lighter Sport Quattro, the little five had 20 valves and 17 psi of turbo boost, pushing output to horsepower.

With 10 years of high-output fives under its belt, Audi fitted a 2. Offered for just one year and never sold in the United States, the rare RS2 Avant was a response to the hp Volvo T-5R wagon, then one of the fastest wagons on sale. With horsepower and lb-ft of torque, the four-wheel-drive RS2 not only easily surpassed the Volvo, it also exceeded the voluntary mph top-speed limit among German automakers, with a Vmax of mph.

Built in part by Porsche, the RS2 shared its brakes, wheels, mirrors, and lighting with the and To understand how explosive this five was for its day, consider that, 18 years later, the TT RS delivered horsepower from a larger 2.

These three currently are the only performance cars with a five-cylinder engine. General Motors experimented with a V-5 diesel in ; intended for Oldsmobile, it instead ended up in a museum. Please confirm you agree to the use of tracking cookies as outlined in the Cookies Policy.

Sign in or register. Michael Fernie 5 years ago. Remind me later. Share Tweet Email Whatsapp. A five-cylinder engine with a slightly different firing order of , again finishing with the central cylinder.

A insight into the workings of Audi's latest five-cylinder engine. Sort by Best Sort by Latest. Kyra Sage. Doug F. Engineering brought to you by By. Stevan Kojic. View gallery image. Join In Want to add something? Comments 24 Popular Latest. David Forson. Josh Reynolds. Ben Crowley. Scott Farrar. Richard Houlton. Just Drive. Z Gearbox. Post sponsored by. Tim Rodie All Polls. Alessandro Renesis Electric News.

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