Back to the future

A futuristic, minimalist design that draws heavily on the IMSA monsters of the past, the Audi GT50 concept is a one-off creation built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Audi’s iconic five-cylinder powerplant.

The handiwork of a team of 14 apprentices at Audi’s Neckarsulm training centre in Germany, inspiration for the GT50 is obviously the brand’s IMSA and Trans-Am race machines, most notably the likes of the Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO and Audi 200 quattro Trans Am, albeit a stripped down, minimalist interpretation.

Its stylised exterior is at once an historical tribute while also a futuristic vision, and while its the sort of creation that would lend itself to the fully electrified treatment, as a tribute to the fine-cylinder engine, it features at its heart the current interaction of the iconic powerplant, currently available in the the RS3 Sedan and Sportback models. Indeed the GT50 is in fact built around a current RS3 Sportback, though over the six month production period, the RS3 Sportback was systematically stripped back to bare bones by the apprentices before its was completely reimagined in its new retro-futuristic form.

The interior is likewise stripped right back to basics and features a custom made roll cage in keeping with its racing inspiration, while the powerplant, the sweet 2.5-litre five cylinder that is the reason for the GT50’s existence, remains untouched.

With its unique firing order – 1-2-4-5-3 – the five-cylinder is immediately recognisable from its distinctive, sonorous exhaust note that is considered automotive music by performance enthusiasts the world over.

Audi presented the first five-cylinder petrol engine in 1976 (50 years ago next year) in the second-generation Audi 100 – the then 2.1-litre five-cylinder engine produced 100kW and a modern injection system increased efficiency and power development.

In 1978 Audi also developed the first diesel version, with a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated producing 51kW. A year later, the first turbocharged five-cylinder petrol engine made its debut in the Audi 200 5T – another pioneering feat from Audi with an output of 125kW and 265 newton meters of torque.

Then in 1980 then Audi ‘Ur-quattro’ arrived on the scene with turbocharging, an intercooler and permanent four-wheel drive – a compelling performance proposition that delivered 147kW, it was driven to victory in the 1983 World Rally Championship by Hannu Mikkola.

That same year Audi introduced the wide-track Sport quattro powered by a newly developed four-valve five-cylinder unit made of aluminium. With an output of 225kW, it made the Sport quattro the most powerful car built to date by a German company for use on public roads. 

The model formed the basis for a new Group B rally car, with the four-valve powerplant delivering 331kW from the outset, although subsequent rounds of the championship contested by the Stig Blomqvist in the Group B Audi quattro A2 ran a slightly less powerful version at 265kW. Nevertheless, driving that car, The Stiq won the drivers’ title and Audi took the manufacturers’ title.

Many other milestones have followed, all powered by various iterations of the five-cylinder. In 1987, Walter Röhrl won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb (USA) in the Audi Sport quattro S1 (440kW version) and the IMSA GTO excelled on the US touring car scene in 1989, producing 530kW from little more than two litres of displacement.

Audi continued to refine its range of five-cylinder petrol engines with the RS 2 in 1994 – the performance Avant with its 232kW of power that started the RS family.

Fast forward to 2009 and the TT RS erupted onto the scene with a 250kW transverse-mounted engine that featured turbocharging and direct injection. This output was upped to 265kW in the TT RS plus version of 2012, before the five-cylinder performance powerplant found its way into the SUV ranks the following year in the first RS Q3 model. 

The current Audi five-cylinder powering the RS3 and underpinning the GT50 delivers 294 kW of power between 5600 and 7000rpm and 500Nm of torque between 2250rpm and 5600rpm. From standstill it will hit 100km/h in 3.8 seconds and of course it still sounds quite unlike anything else on the road.

There are no plans to produce the Audi GT50 concept, and it will remain a one-off tribute to the brand’s outstanding five-cylinder technology and achievements over the past half century. But that technology remains available, at least for now, in the current Audi RS3 Sportback and Sedan models, which, for performance enthusiasts, is very good news.