RS4³
RS4³
It all started back in 1994 with the RS2. Porsche blew away all doubts with the Audi 80 Avant and 315 turbo HP. The idea of a sports car with an estate car look was born. Since 1999 those models are called RS4 and lead to be the perfect base for ABT Sportsline’s very own ideas, as these three splendid specimen from different generations prove.
Glorious times started for the automobile manufacturing branch with the launch of the RS2. Amongst all, drifting icon Walter Röhrl was full of praise for these kinds of cars. “In this day and age I think one of the biggest advantages of this model is hidden in the look of it as a normal family car combined with the mileage of a purebred sports car.” 2891 cars are being produced within two years, about 700 more than planned. But in 1996, the RS2 chapter was closed. It took three years, until a new car of that kind was launched: the RS4. Instead of five, there are six cylinders built in with an additional turbo loader. This also had an impact on the performance: a raise in horse power from 315 to 381. Yet it was not Porsche that was responsible for the raise in performance but former Audi subsidiary Cosworth. Hans-Jürgen Abt remembers: “The vehicle used to be some kind of dream car, the motor power was stunning.” But there was a snag: Audi shut down the production of the super estate car after two years again. Abt came up with a simple idea: “we put the motor back in A4 estate cars and mobilized an additional 19 HP, even managed to put in up to 450 HP if desired”. The auto, motor und sport also published an article concerning the launch of the ABT AS400, as it was called back then: “just like the original, the imitated RS based on the latest A4 generation also is a, you could say, bungee-estate car for extreme sports loving fathers. As soon as the 500 nm get together and the six cylinders start running, the driver can feel a cold shiver running down his spine.” This is what a car refiner loves to hear about his work.
ABT sticks to the biturbo
In 2005, Audi singlehandedly continued the RS story by also switching the engine from the biturbo V6 to the high-rev V8 engine. “Just like a lot of fans, we’ve been sad about the omission of the Cosworth unit as well. But we came up with the idea of maintaining the well-tried engine by simply building it into the new car”, Abt says. The now called AS4R additionally received a performance increase onto 480 HP. Auto Bild tested both kinds of cars on the race circuit in Oschersleben and lo and behold: the ABT edition was about 1,3 seconds faster than the serial vehicle. A great win.
In fall 2017, Audi went back to the V6 biturbo for the fourth generation of the RS4. Just a little later Abt presented its own interpretation of the vehicle during the Geneva Motor Show: the RS4-R with 530 instead of 450 serial fitting HP.
Agony of choice?
When asked which of the three models Hans-Jürgen likes the most, he says: all three of them are wonderful cars and every model was absolutely state-of-the-art in due course. Yet you can’t deny the progress once you switch from the RS4-R into its predecessor. But surely every car is appealing in its own kind of way.” It definitely is a privilege for him as the CEO of ABT Sportsline for not having to decide. The red one for today, the bright grey for tomorrow and the anthracite one for the day after tomorrow – the trio is ready to perform anytime.