Has Audi's V6 Now Become The Benchmark For The Industry?

Wards seems to think so. They aren't asking "has" they stated the Audi v6 remains an industry benchmarkf

Benchmark. LOL!!! Any Turbo V6 detroys that thing. We've taken the N/A 6 cylinder engine as far as it could go while still remaining streetable. Not sure how an engine that has reached it's potential and is outperformed by even 4 cylinder turbos can be considered a benchmark. Benchmark of what?

It's supercharged. So my previous rant is somewhat invalid. But that engine is still far from being a benchmark. It needs more power. The Infiniti V6 puts out the same power numbers without a supercharger

I agree this engine is not that impressive, but the Infiniti one has larger displacement. And with my owner experience w/ G, its MPG rating will be lower as well.

Sorry but the VQ is at the end of its rope... part of the reason it fell out of the top 10 engines list. They only way they kept getting out more HP was to increase the displacement every few years. Actually tuners of the VQ run into the same problem, many times they spend big bucks to eek out only 20 to 30 hp.

Overall the efficiency is still under 100hp per liter (.94 in the Nismo trim).

My Cooper is at 1.1 and a JCW sits at 1.3 (yes both are turbo). With that given the VQ if turbo should be around 480 HP. A huge difference.

The Infiniti engine puts out the same hp on paper only. It's down on torque and acceleration. MT tested the new Q50 and S4 (group test last week) and the S4 outperforms by a decent margin with only 5 extra hp. Not all hp are created equally.

I agree that the Audi supercharged V6 is an absolute gem. More importantly, Audi has coupled it with its excellent transmission offerings across the model range for not only superb performance but also impressive fuel economy.

The specs on the Infiniti engine are very good, but its actual performance numbers trail the Audi.

Depends on the metric - - - if is is just HP, or HP/liter, then the latest Porsche GT3 engine puts this to shame. The Porsche engine is a N/A 6 putting out 475HP, or 125HP/liter. The Audi engine is only outputting 111HP/liter from a supercharged version!

V6 vs. flat 6

In 2009, I had the opportunity to thoroughly drive the new Audi S4 with this supercharged V6 engine back to back with the S5 with the then V8 naturally aspirated engine.

I agree with Ward's description of how the supercharged V6 feels, especially with a dual clutch tranny: "Under light throttle," they report, "there is a strong launch followed by a creamy, luxurious trip through the gears. But hit the throttle hard, and there is a big gush of acceleration that takes the driver's breath away.... What makes this engine so special is the way it delivers torque, not how much it makes. It generates V-8-like thrust at very low rpm and then sends it to the wheels with a buttery smoothness that is utterly intoxicating."

Audi should have put the 354 hp version of this engine in the S4 sedan, since there is no RS4 sedan, even in Germany.

Indeed. I have this powertrain in my '13 S5 and the combo of this 3.0SC engine coupled with the s-tronic tranny is no nonsense instant thrust/launch that is addictive. Just love it.

Interesting... if you go to the "top 10 best engines" article (one of those top 10 is this Audi engine) you can vote which one of those ten you think is best. And when you look at the results you'll see the Audi engine as the top of the imported ones (a bit ahead of Subaru's H-4) but still behind 4 domestics (2 from Ford, 1 from GM, 1 from Chrysler).

By the way the Pentastar V-6 is also part of that list so I suppose it depends on what you need from the engine.

lol, i think the rule is that if the top voted engines are domestic ones, you can throw that list out of the window.

the audi sc'd v6 is crap. any other forced induced 6 cylinder is better than this one.

So what's your list of better forced induced 6 cylinders. The only comparable engine is the BMW 6 cylinder and the Audi V6 performs at least equally as strong if not stronger. Mercedes is working on its own V6 turbo that will be comparable.

Also remember "premium gas" prices to make these numbers!!!