the 968’s tyres and, underneath, the
Porsche’s big 322mm Brembo brakes.
Borrowing more philosophically from
Porsche, the RS2 didn’t mess about,
either. It was fast – 0-100km/h in 5.4
seconds – and back in 1994, the five-
second bracket was equivalent to today’s
fours (an original NSX did 5.1). But
the RS2 would max out at 262km/h at
6600rpm, though according to lore, the
engineers said 275km/h was possible if
you unplugged the limiter.
Like Stuttgart’s products, the RS2
wasn’t exactly cheap, either. In the UK,
at launch, it cost £39,500. Later you’ll
read about the failed plan to bring the
RS2 to Australia for $145,000. In today’s
money, adjusted for inflation, that’s more
like $240K. Add on modern-day taxes,
and you’re staring down the barrel of
around $300,000. So for a first product
from a new brand, you needed the
folding stuff, and a lot of it.
But it did buy you some impressive
hardware. Audi shipped S2 body-in-white estate shells (in fact, a tiny
handful of RS2 sedans were built as
well) to Porsche’s Zuffenhausen facility
in Stuttgart where Porsche plonked a
2.2-litre turbocharged donk under the
bonnet. It had 20 valves but, of course,
four valves per cylinder – and five of
those, fed a not insignificant 1.4 bar of
boost, or 20psi, by a KKK turbocharger
that was 20 per cent larger than that of
the Audi S2. While Porsche was at it,
the five-cylinder mill copped bigger
injectors and intercooler, angrier cams
and revised intake and exhaust systems,
as well as a retuned Bosch ECU.
Built at VW’s Salzgitter plant, every
RS2 engine was tested at full load for
90 minutes to guarantee full power.
The cam cover read “powered by
PORSCHE”. Porsche also fitted branded
badges to its front and back, while the
brake calipers, too, boasted “Porsche”.
Meanwhile, a six-speed manual sent
power to every wheel via a Torsen centre
diff, able to send 75 per cent of thrust toone axle as needed. The RS2 even came
with a manually-activated locking rear
diff, although this function was disabled
above 24km/h (15mph).
The end result was 232kW at 6500rpm
and peak torque of 410Nm at 3000rpm,
though 400Nm was available from 2400-
4900rpm. Again, these were supercar
outputs in 1994 and enough to shift the
1595kg RS2 to 100km/h in 5.4 seconds.
Twenty one years ago, not many cars
could catch it. And 0-50km/h in just
1.5 seconds was explosive at the time- indeed, famously quicker than the
mighty McLaren F1.
You couldn’t put skis, a dog and three
kids in the McLaren, blast down the
autobahn then fang up an unsealed
alpine pass. (Then again, maybe you
could.)
A trade-off for this acceleration was, as
we found recently, turbo lag. Lots of it.
Presented with an immaculate RS2,
and its keys, in Germany recently, after
driving modern cars you immediately
112 march 2015 motormag.com.au