---
title: "Audi’s 420-Horsepower Turbo 4-Cylinder Is Dead"
description: "Blame the existing turbocharged inline-five. And maybe Dieselgate."
date: "2016-09-26"
modified: "2016-09-26"
authors:
  - name: "Aaron Brown"
    job_title: "Staff Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/aaron-brown"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/5333/audis-420-horsepower-turbo-4-cylinder-is-dead"
categories:
  - "Audi News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
tags:
  - "Audi"
  - "Turbo"
---

# Audi’s 420-Horsepower Turbo 4-Cylinder Is Dead

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/2014_tt_quattro_sport_concept_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

The sorrow brought about by Volkswagen's Dieselgate scandal may have stripped the automotive world of another amazing piece of engineering. [Audi's 400-plus-horsepower 2.0-liter four-cylinder](<https://www.autoblog.com/2016/09/23/audi-kills-concept-four-cylinder-engine-project/>) motor will reportedly never live under the hood of a production car.

At the media launch for the upcoming TT RS, Audi Quattro engineering head [Stephen Reil said Volkswagen would not be going](<https://www.autoblog.com/2016/09/23/audi-kills-concept-four-cylinder-engine-project/>) forward with the immensely-powerful 2.0-liter four-cylinder motor seen in the 2014 TT Quattro Sport concept (pictured above) and the Golf R400 concept, *Autoblog* reports.

"The 400-horsepower EA888 engine is dead," Reil said, referring to the four-pot by its internal code name.

The EA888 engine was brought to life by Friedrich Eichler, the man who built and designed AMG's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder found in the likes of the CLA45. When the 420-horsepower Quattro Sport concept was revealed, the company claimed that with the EA888 motor, the car would be capable of doing zero to 62 miles-per-hour in a spritely 3.7 seconds—the same as today's production TT RS, which uses Audi's turbo 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine.

While the VW Group's post-Dieselgate shift towards electric vehicles and financial realignment may have played a role in the death of the EA888, it's also possible that engineering on the engine was halted because the existing five-cylinder, which is roughly as capable, is believed to be a [better value than the freshly-engineered four-cylinder](<https://www.autoblog.com/2016/09/23/audi-kills-concept-four-cylinder-engine-project/>).

"If we go for the four, to have that specific power output from a 2.0-liter, the engine is unbelievably expensive and then we still have only a four-cylinder engine," Reil said. *Autoblog* notes that the EA888 required newly engineered parts like an ultra-high-strength crankshaft, a special heavy-duty cast-alloy crankcase, and uniquely-engineered aluminum pistons with integrated cooling channels.

Still, we would have loved to have it find its way to the streets. Rest in peace, little EA888.

## Author
Aaron was previously a contributing writer with Jalopnik and has also written for Business Insider covering cars. When he's not in the office writing the news, you'll probably find him thrashing a beater car around a RallyCross.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/aaronmaxb>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/aaronmaxb>)