2013 Audi S5 3.0T Coupe - First Drive Review - Car and Driver (blog)
Until now, the Audi S5 coupe had a V-8, and the S5 cabriolet was the one with the blown V-6. For 2013, though, the S5 coupe will trade its 4. 2-liter V-8 for the same 3. 0-liter supercharged V-6 that the S5 cabriolet has had all along. The soundtrack has traded bwahs for various bvvvms , the latter being most prevalent when paired with the S tronic dual-clutch automatic. And the V-6—also shared with the S4 sedan, among others—has slightly lower output: 333 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque compared with the eight’s 354 hp and, well, 325 lb-ft. In trade for that offering to the power gods, the super’d six provides its full complement of torque earlier in the rev range, at 2900 rpm versus 3500 for the V-8. The engines, both of them nice pieces that rarely inspire complaint, are... The smaller engine somehow makes the car seem smaller than did the V-8, less like a muscle car and more, well, German. In ditching two cylinders, Audi was nice enough to retain the V-8’s manual option for us, which is one way the twins remain different. The S tronic is the only transmission available in the cabrio here, and in Germany it’s the only one in both S5s. We drove a coupe equipped with the automatic and found the transmission to be well matched to the V-6 in drive or sport, although... Calls for lower gears occasionally elicited delayed responses, and the transmission didn’t like multiple downshift requests at once. Source: www.caranddriver.com
