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# Audi celebrates 50 years of five cylinders with 80s-style concept
- URL: https://torquecafe.com/audi-news-gt50-concept-imsa-trans-am-tribute/
- Published: 2025-12-18T00:27:09.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-04T06:29:24.000Z
- Description: The five-cylinder Audi RS3 might not be long for this world, but the German brand is still celebrating half a century of the unique engine.
- Author: Jordan Mulach
- Tags: News, Performance

Audi is one of the few brands continuing with production of five-cylinder performance engines, even if it might not be able to for long.

After first debuting a five-cylinder engine in the 1976 Audi 100, the unique powerplant has since been used in everything from the brand’s famous Group B rally cars to its US Trans-Am and IMSA challengers, standing out from the crowd with a growling exhaust note.

Now, 50 years on from the first vehicle being produced, a special concept has been made to pay tribute to the cars it came close to dominating the North American racing scene in the 1980s with.

![](https://torquecafe.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/audi-gt50-concept-3.jpg)

Image credit: Stimme

Posted on social media by German newspaper [Stimme](https://www.instagram.com/p/DSKSqDvEiaP/?ref=torquecafe.com), the Audi GT50 was developed and built by 14 apprentices from Neckarsulm, who took six months to complete the project which involved not only a complete bodywork and interior overhaul of the donor RS3, but also the fitment of an Audi 80 roof.

The design is a modern interpretation of the 1989 Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO, which won seven of the nine races that season in the hands of Hans-Joachim Stuck but missed two rounds, leading to it missing out on the title.

Prominent design features include its chin spoiler, wide guards with aero-disc wheels, a body-exit exhaust and a wrap-around ducktail spoiler which is more akin to that from the 1988 Audi 200 Trans-Am.

![](https://torquecafe.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/audi-gt50-concept-1.jpg)

Image credit: Stimme

There are changes inside too, with the RS3’s interior equipped stripped out and replaced by a roll cage, racing seats and other track parts.

Of course the centrepiece is the RS3’s five-cylinder engine, remaining as a turbocharged 2.5-litre unit, and capable of making similar sounds to its racing predecessors thanks to an identical ‘1-2-4-5-3’ firing order.

Audi is expected to wind up production of the five-cylinder RS3 in coming years, as emissions restrictions and its relatively niche applications make it a harder engine to justify.

![](https://torquecafe.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/audi-quattro-imsa-trans-am.jpg)

Audi’s five-cylinder racing heroes