An Audi Cult Classic Is About To Turn 50
Audi will mark a milestone in 2026: half a century of the five-cylinder. Few engine layouts are as closely tied to a single brand, and Audi is leaning into that legacy as it gets ready to celebrate 50 years since the first inline-five went into the second-generation Audi 100 back in 1976.
What started as a creative solution to packaging limits has become one of the company’s most recognizable engineering signatures, powering everything from family sedans to rally legends and, today, the RS 3.
50 Years of the Audi Five-Cylinder: All The Details
The original idea came from necessity. Audi wanted to push the 100 upmarket in the mid-1970s but couldn’t fit an inline-six and wasn’t satisfied with the performance of existing four-cylinders. Engineers instead stretched the VW Group’s EA827 design into a five-cylinder, creating a 2.1-liter fuel-injected engine that made 136 hp. It arrived in 1977 as the Audi 100 5E and quickly proved the concept had legs.
Diesel versions followed, then turbocharged models, and by 1980 the five-cylinder had become a performance symbol thanks to the original quattro. With turbo power, intercooling, and permanent all-wheel drive, it delivered 200 hp—serious output for its day—and cemented Audi’s place in rallying. Group B development only pushed things further, ultimately yielding the wild Sport quattro and the S1 Pikes Peak car that Walter Röhrl drove to the summit in 1987.
Even after Audi moved much of its lineup to V6 power in the ’90s, the five-cylinder lived on in motorsport and returned to the street in dramatic fashion in 2009 with the TT RS. That modern 2.5-liter turbo engine laid the groundwork for the current EA855 Evo Sport used in the RS 3, a compact, lightweight powerplant that now delivers 400 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque while retaining the unmistakable 1-2-4-5-3 firing order that gives the engine its off-beat, charismatic sound.
Audi’s engineers have leaned heavily into efficiency and durability, pairing aluminum construction with plasma-coated cylinder liners, a magnesium oil pan, and a dual-injection system to keep the big turbo fed and the response sharp.
Today, each five-cylinder is hand-built at Audi’s Győr plant in Hungary at a dedicated 1,000-square-meter facility known internally as the Bock line. Twenty-one stations and a roster of specialists assemble every engine by hand—from installing the hollow-bored crankshaft and magnesium-topped oil pan to torquing down the cylinder head and bolting on the turbocharger. Every unit undergoes cold and hot testing before being shipped to Ingolstadt, where it meets the RS 3 on the assembly line.
After 50 years, Audi’s five-cylinder remains a bridge between the brand’s past and present. It’s a mechanical link to the company’s most formative era and a reminder that character still matters even in an age of downsizing, electrification, and software-defined performance. In a lineup that’s rapidly changing, the continued presence of this engine in the RS 3 feels less like nostalgia and more like a statement that some traditions are worth keeping.
This article was co-written using AI and was then heavily edited and optimized by our editorial team.
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