Series III coupe Performance Comparisons

[rob hod]

    There's an article in the Nov/Dec issue of Audi Driver on the Series III
coupe.

    As a fan of the In-line 5 it was interesting to see how the 2.3 10V
stood up against some of the other NA engines fitted during the cars life
(2.0, 2.0 16V, 2.3 20vq, 2.6E, 2.8q All euro-spec cars)

    Well even I was surprised that it in two useful measures it was the
fastest of the lot; 30-50 in 3rd gear(4.4 secs), and 30-50 in 4th(6.5). and
only beaten by 0.1 second in the 50-70 range by the V6 2.6E(9.7).

    Admittedly the 2.3 was FWD and had a weight saving over the two q's but
I was still surprised that it was well ahead of the 2.8q in all those
measures.

    Even on the standing stars it did pretty well being equal to the 2.6E
and 2.3 20vq up to 50mph(6.5) and only about half a second slower to 60(9.3)
although the grunt factor of the 20vq and v6's leads to it being nearly 2
sec slower to 70.

    Once you throw in the fact that this engine will give you 30mpg easily
whereas the 20vq and v6's struggle to make 25 you begin to remember why you
liked the I5 in the first place; - Good economy , good power for the weight,
easier maintenance than a 20V or V6 and that off-beat thrum.

    So when are they gonna start making them again?

rob