The New Petrol-Only Audi SQ5 Actually Wants You To Oversteer

Audi has revealed its new SQ5 in Detroit, which shirks diesel power for petrol and actually encourages oversteer on the limit
The New Petrol-Only Audi SQ5 Actually Wants You To Oversteer

This week, Audi revealed its all-new SQ5 at the Detroit Auto Show, and two particular details stood out.

Firstly, there’s the engine: it’s a 3.0-litre petrol V6 - the same engine as the S4/S5, which is good for 349bhp. The last SQ5 was predominantly powered by a diesel engine, apart from in North America, where it was sold with a V6 petrol.

Now in this post-dieselgate automotive landscape, the whole world gets the V6 petrol, with the 3.0-litre oil burner conspicuously absent.

The New Petrol-Only Audi SQ5 Actually Wants You To Oversteer

Despite switching to unleaded power only though, the SQ5 is still torquey, with a decent 368.8lb ft output. It’s quick too, getting you from 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds and topping out at an electronically limited 155mph.

Interesting item number two is the handling, as the SQ5 has actually been set up to oversteer on the limit - not something you usually expect with a fast Audi. We have heard reports before about the SQ5 being engineered with oversteer in mind, but the car’s Detroit reveal gives us confirmation.

The quattro all-wheel drive system does the obvious thing of lobbing more power to the rear during most driving situations, but also under hard driving it’ll send more torque to the outside rear wheel. In other words, it’ll deliberately make the back want to step out a little. Neat, right? It should hopefully be a feature we see on future fast cars from Ingolstadt.

The New Petrol-Only Audi SQ5 Actually Wants You To Oversteer

In other news, the SQ5 gets Audi’s 8.3-inch screen-based MMI system as standard, with Virtual Cockpit as an option. You also get a bunch of autonomous-ish safety features, including ‘traffic jam assist’, ‘active lane assist’ and ‘Audi pre sense city’. The latter feature warns you of any absent minded pedestrians and - if necessary - brakes to stop you smacking into them.

Order books for the SQ5 will open later this month, with first deliveries happening in summer.

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Comments

into the trash it goes

01/10/2017 - 16:45 |
3 | 0
01/10/2017 - 17:55 |
10 | 0

Is that for real?

01/10/2017 - 19:22 |
1 | 0

Honestly, this thing alone would deter me from buying this car
How stupid is that
Is it really that hard to make normal exhaust tips? Is it so expensive?
I kind of can live with it if they do this on a three-cylinder A1
But on an S model, and not the cheapest one… come on
What next? RS6 with fake exhausts?

01/10/2017 - 22:02 |
6 | 0
Nick danca

So power slides are now part of the audi mantra

01/10/2017 - 18:50 |
0 | 1
Anonymous

Yeah, think it was 5.1 seconds on the old coal roller vs the 5.4 here

01/10/2017 - 21:29 |
0 | 0
That_NSX_Guy

They should use this (or a quattro) for Takumis car in Exotic Stage lol

01/10/2017 - 22:22 |
0 | 0
Mehdi Behira

PRAISE THE GODS

01/11/2017 - 17:30 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

How is this different from the RS5’s torque vectoring?

01/11/2017 - 17:39 |
0 | 0
Ben Anderson 1

Audi, could you shrink your grilles a little bit? K Thanks Bye!

As for the engines; Dieselgate plus the world governments wising up to Diesel being, well, kinda crappy, are pushing them out.

01/11/2017 - 20:56 |
0 | 1
Anonymous

good, but it isnt the excellent

01/11/2017 - 23:39 |
0 | 0
Caro

it makes sense considering if it needs to, AWD can pull out of oversteer.

01/12/2017 - 00:10 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

It wants u to oversteer so it can kick in the electronic nannies and say look how safe it is

01/12/2017 - 00:57 |
0 | 0