The RS2 story

The RS2 is born out of the Audi Avant S2 (make 1993), Audi had made too much Audi 80 Avants, they had a lot of them in stock. The sales department of the VAG Group wanted to find a solution to solve this bad situation (because in 1993 the Avant model wasn't the great success as they had expected). But at the same time the Porsche Engineering Service finished the Mercedes 500 E, that they were building and improving (I believe that AMG wasn't bought yet bij MB). This let Audi make the very good decision to design a special car with the Porsche assistance. (This action saved in the same time the very bad situation of Porsche, they gave them something to do. They had made enough 911's that weren't sold and still have financial problems, also because of the 928 which should have been the new line, Porsche thought that the 911 concept was dead). And only because Audi gave this mission to Porsche, is the reason that Porsche is here today (because during this time Porsche could work and design the new Boxster and the fabulous 993). Audi saved Porsche life, remember that when you pass a Porsche... Not everyone will agree with this... But hey, it's a good story.

Audi and Porsche worked on this project together, Audi gave the all information and the vision of this project, and Porsche looked what they could improve, in fact to change the Audi S2 Avant in a very special car. Porsche has a lot of problems during this action, because main goal wasn't to place some Porsche parts and finished. It had to be the fastest estate/avant/break/stationwagon, with the souplesse, comfort and balance of an Audi Quattro. And that wasn't the first vision of the Porsche engineers. They were used to design a little rougher and more brutal when the word "Turbo" was heard in the Porsche buildings. But after a great cooperation between the Audi and Porsche people the RS2 come real.

The S2 was already equipped with the Quattro system (all wheels drive) like all Audi serial " S " had, also the 6 gears box is on the basic S2 car. These S2 leaves the factory in Salzgitter without the front bumper, without the seats, without the laterals mirrors, and then the S2 was brought to the Porsche factory in Zuffenhausen where the S2 received the new front and rear bumper, new laterals mirrors (from Porsche 993). The interior was a little bit modified by Porsche (speed indicator indicate 300 km/h before only 280 km/h, white instead of grey look), doorhandles were changed for black chrome ones and full options was installed on basic RS2. The Casting aluminium wheels in 16" were replaced by a Porsche design in 7,5 x 17". The suspension were changed by Bilstein pistons, the rotor brakes were bigger (front 300 mm, or as a option 320 mm) on 4 corner the brake callipers were also changed by the same one of the Porsche 928 Club-Sport. These are not all the parts that were changed.

The engine is the same as the S2 ( 2,2L / 20 valves Turbocharger with 230 BHP), but Porsche gave a magic up-grade with the replacement of the crank-shaft, injectors, fuel pump, bigger Turbocharger, air box, cams, electronic data, body admission fixed after the throddle body, bigger intercooler, bigger turbocharger with pressure up-grade from 0,8 bar to 1,4 bars (1,4 bars in continue and 1,5 bars in overboost), 2 metallic sport catalysers, new design of the exhaustmanifold, and a higher flowing exhaust. Some internal bearings and the con-rods were also stronger on the RS2.

The result is wonderfull, the RS2 arrive on the market (1994) after the first prototype was exposed at the Frankfurt salon in 1993. Nothing on the road is better like this car! When a Porsche normally is the (logical) reference of a sport car, a Porsche don't have the same performance of 143,2 BHP for each liter. A real "Porsche-Killer".

Now in 2003 when we have a RS4, RS6 and some Japanese cars, which I can't remember the names of, the hard digits aren't changed much. It is not that the newer cars win 2 or 3 seconds in a 0 - 100 km/h (0 - 60 mph) sprint. The RS2 is still one of the most annoying cars for expensive new BMW-s, Mercedes' , GTI-s and V6-24v-s.

Nero