The C5 was the first RS6 and sported a 4.2 litre V8 from the Audi S6, of which the RS6 is very much derived from. Audi took this engine and added two turbochargers to give out 444 horsepower. The RS6 as only available with Audi's permanent Torsen-based four wheel drive system.
During the 90s, Audi engineers wanted to create a niche product. They looked around for what car to modify before settling on the stock Audi 80, a run of the mill estate/saloon car which was the equivalent to todays Audi A4/A6. Little did the engineers know that this project would still be going strong more than 20 years later, with at least one powerful form of almost every model.
Audi collaborated with Porsche on the RS2, who supplied some of the parts of the RS2, such as the brakes and suspension. The engine was a modified version of Audi's 2.2 litre turbocharged inline five producing around 311 BHP. Despite the car being mainly built off of Audi components, Porsche dealt with the manufacturing and assembly in their Rossie-Bae plant in Germany. Their creation was an unbelievably quick estate car which would become a legend in the future.
The Audi RS2 was incredibly quick, and Autocar magazine conducted a 0-30 mp/h (48 km/h) test and recorded a 1.5 second time, which beat the McLaren F1 and Jacques Villenueve's F1 racing car to that speed. Even by todays standards it is by no means slow, with its acceleration on-par with the C5 Chevrolet Corvette and the 996 gen Porsche 911.
