Audi builds 2,0-litre four-cylinder worth 450 kW!

By: CAR magazine

Audi says it has built a 2,0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine churning out a whopping 450 kW for use in the DTM.

For the 2019 season, the Ingolstadt-based firm’s Class 1 race cars in the touring car series will use the new turbocharged four-pot, dropping the old naturally aspirated 4,0-litre V8. In the Audi RS5 DTM, the new powerplant will also feature a “push-to-pass” function, granting the driver an additional short-term 22 kW power boost. Peak torque is “more than 650 N.m”.

Linked to a semi-automatic six-speed transmission with paddle shifters, the engine allows a claimed zero to 100 km/h time of 2,8 seconds and a top speed of around 300 km/h.

Audi says the new engine will debut on May 4 at the Hockenheimring following about two-and-a-half years of development and some 1 000 hours of dynamometer testing.

The switch comes thanks to new Class 1 regulations that challenge manufacturers to extract the maximum from the available fuel through high compression and efficiency. In the DTM, the amount of fuel is now limited to 95 kg per hour.

“That may sound like a lot but, in view of more than 610 horsepower, it really isn’t,” said Ulrich Baretzky, head of Engine Development at Audi Motorsport. “The specific consumption of the DTM engine is extremely low and now within ranges that used to be typical for diesel engines.”

The four-cylinder TFSI engine weighs only 85 kg (or half as much as the V8 it succeeds), allowing the Audi RS5 DTM’s dry weight to drop to less than 1 000 kg.

“Our drivers were totally thrilled right in the first test,” says head of Audi Motorsport, Dieter Gass. “However, the move from the naturally aspirated V8 to the turbo engine is not only important due to the additional output of some 100 horsepower (74 kW). In the DTM, we’re now driving with a high-efficiency engine of the type we’re also using in many production vehicles of the group.”

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