Throwback Thursday: How Porsche Helped Audi to Create the Iconic RS2 Avant

Throwback Thursday is a weekly trip down memory lane. We shed light on the cultural significance of hero cars from the past, which paved the way for the machinery we enjoy today.

Audi’s first-ever RS-badged car, the RS2 Avant, created the formula for the brand’s fast wagons and put the “RS” moniker on the map back in 1994. What is more interesting than the car itself is that it is a Porsche story.

It all starts with Ferdinand Piech, Ferry Porsche’s grandson and the CEO of Audi at the time, wanting to create a limited-run, fast station wagon. It was a niche project for the early ‘90s, and all of the engineers were quite busy working on the much more important new-generation A-series cars for the brand–the A4, A6, and A8, which were expected very shortly.

Born in Ingolstadt, Perfected in Zuffenhausen

Having worked there until the ‘70s, Piech turned to Porsche for the project; the two brands were hugely connected after all. Audi built the 924 and 944 for Porsche before this, so the collaboration was not the first. Also, during their financially challenging times, Porsche offered external development services to other manufacturers. 

Audi provided the Audi 80 Avant chassis, body parts, the base engine, and add-on components that could be transferred from their other cars. Then, in Zuffenhausen, where the legendary 959 and Mercedes-Benz 500 E were created, Porsche engineered and developed the fastest station wagon ever at the time, which went on to become the first Audi to surpass the 155 mph top speed. 

The car featured some hints to the keen eye, revealing that it had some “Porsche” in its veins. Some components from the 993- and 964-generation 911s were used, such as the side mirrors or the front indicators on the bumpers. But the biggest exterior giveaway was the wheels; they were 17-inch light alloy Carrera Cup wheels that featured the distinctive Porsche wheel design of the era.

Behind the wheels lay the high-performance red brake calipers with the Porsche lettering. Minor details such as the door handles or the Porsche lettering on the RS logos further made the Porsche associations clear, and all in all, around 20% of the whole car was derived from Porsche.

Faster Than the Fastest?

The RS2 Avant was the first Audi that was not electronically limited, even though it could exceed speeds above the 155-mph mark. The speedo read up to 300 kph (180 mph), and the car was able to hit just over 160 mph. It could accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill, quite impressively for those times, in just 5.4 seconds. But the most eye-catching figure was the car’s 0-30 mph sprint. It only took the Audi RS2 Avant 1.5 seconds to hit 30 mph in British car magazine Autocar’s tests. This meant that until 30, it could out-accelerate the McLaren F1, the fastest production car ever at the time, which did the same sprint in 1.7 seconds!

This blistering performance was made possible by Porsche's tinkering with the powertrain and the drivetrain. Audi’s classic 2.2-liter inline-5 turbocharged engine was modified in Zuffenhausen with a bigger KKK turbocharger, higher boost pressure, and larger air inlet. The result was 315 HP and 300 lb-ft of torque. A six-speed manual transmission delivers the power to the Quattro permanent four-wheel drive system with a manually activated limited-slip differential. Porsche also fitted the car with a stiffer suspension and bigger high-performance brakes to harness all of this turbocharged power.

A Rare Sight

Audi initially set the production numbers at 2,200 units, but after major success, they decided to bump them up to 2,900. Still, it is quite a rare sight to see this bizarre mash up of a supercar and a five-door wagon on the roads today. The RS2 Avant paved the way for the ultra-fast wagons Audi is famous for and many enthusiasts are passionate about today.

Such low production numbers and the history behind made the RS2 Avant a valuable asset, too; a red one sold for over $100,000 on Bring A Trailer back in August 2022.

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Images: Audi Media Center, Porsche Newsroom