I5 now....

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

On Wed, 15 Nov 1995, Daniel Hussey wrote:
>>  the I5 is dead and buried.  live with it.  after 20 years of development it
>>  has reached it's logical end.
> 
>      I disagree here.  Read...the Audi RS2 Avant (Performance Car of the Year
>).  Although the I5 is being fased out in the US, I believe they will continue
>to use them in european models.

did you look at the A4's engine bay?  no room for an I5, and no announcement
of an I5 model either.. there's a turbo and atmospheric 20V 4 in addition
to the v6.  that's it.  as for the rs2, it is a very limited production
model with a very limited production run.  after this and the current s6
are done, the 5 is dead.

>  And, this doesn't mean Audi will not use them
> again in the future. 

audi spokespeople have said many times that the 5 is dead.

> I consider the 20V turbo
> charged 5cyl engine perfection!

yes, it took 20 years of development to make a 5 as good as anybody's first
attempt as a 6.  as a triumph of engineering over concept it is indeed
impressive.  but they have taken it as far as it can go.
 
>> the I5 is easily outdone by most sixes.  it is not going to defy any laws of
>> physics.  odd number of cylinders is never going to be as smooth as even.
> 
>Again, I disagree here.  
>The Audi turbo fives are much nicer than the new V6s.
>  They have a lot more spunk, and have more character.  The new Audi V6'
>s aint got no soul, man! 

i agree that the current 12 valve v6 is characterless and i would take
a 20v turbo anytime.  however, it is far less difficult to make a 6
that would handily beat the 5 in its current state,  conceptually
speaking.  power output aside, i consider the vr6 much sweeter and
smoother and every bit as characterful as the 5.  in fact some of the
5's character disappeared when they went to the 20v turbo to make it
smoother.  like i said in an earlier post, perfection ain't nirvana.

>at the moment, the current Audi V6 didn't really do anything for me.

and that is why i would prefer the vr6 over the audi v6 for the passat.
if the passat is a tad underpowered with a vr6, sticking in an audi v6
is not going to transform it into a 911 or a rs2 either.  it will just
make the car even more dull.


eliot