Today I discuss if the 4.2L V8 S5 is right for you, or if you’re better off with a 3.0T. I briefly discuss why I sold mine. I thank everyone for the support and views over these last few years, and I hope that in a few months I’ll be back with a new 4-ringed toy for new content!
So here i am in my garage sitting next to my 2009 audi s5 a b8 s5 with the 4.2 liter v8 today i’ll talk about why i think you might want to buy one the things i’ve loved about it the things that some people might not like about it and ultimately why i’m selling mine so let’s get into it first and foremost if you’re looking at any s5s if you are considering
An automatic you probably want to go with the supercharged v6 the v8 is very hard to make as fast for as cheap as the v6s i mean the v6 is just in performance per dollar for tunability they have this beat but what they don’t have necessarily is the same character so to say i worked at a dealership where i drove tons and tons of modded in stock supercharged
V6 s5s and v8 s5s worked at an audi dealership i ended up choosing the slower s5 because i felt that it had a little bit more soul you know it um just kind of the way it responded the sound of the car it especially when you pair it with a manual gearbox it really to me it’s a little bit more special than the supercharged v6 the supercharged v6 is a fantastic
Car fantastic engine one of audi’s best but to me buying this car the v8 was the way to go i’m living at a new place now back at home in connecticut at sea level this car was pretty damn quick a lot of people say that it can’t be tuned much the v8s there’s no point in tuning them or trying to mod them that’s simply not true if you look at one of my old videos
It dynoed around 350 all-wheel horsepower with really not too many mods and it’s still naturally aspirated that’s pretty good for these cars and that was before taking off the catalytic converters and before putting on an x-pipe so after that it was probably closer to 370 all-wheel horsepower maybe a little bit more it really is just a great cruising gt car
Especially with the six speed i can’t stress that enough i’ve had problems solely because of the transmission the clutch hydraulics with the six speed but if you’re going to buy an s5 and you’re not buying a manual you’re probably better off just getting the supercharged v6 but if you want a more classic experience you don’t mind trading off some ease of tune
Ability or some performance per dollar so to say the v8 is where it was at for me the sound itself is just the supercharger v6 sounds good and i’m not a big fan of v6 notes but the supercharged v6 does sound good but the sound of this thing i mean the sound of it is just always exciting no matter if you’re cruising around at low speeds no matter when you’re just
Gently taking off at a light no matter if you’re just sitting there at idle at a stoplight it just it has this rumble to it not only that you hear but just the gentle rumble the gentle shake in the car of the eight cylinders versus the six cylinders it’s it’s just a very different visceral experience it is a reliable engine for the most part i really haven’t had
Too too many issues with it that weren’t clutch hydraulics but the supercharged v6 is definitely more reliable it’s a great car with a timeless look i think this version the preface lift with the v8 looks better than the facelift personally i like how the headlights are a bit more chunkier a bit more square i like how the grille is more of a uniform shape too
Which is part of the reason why i got this over an rs5 because i wanted the manual and here in america we didn’t get the rs5 for the v8 only the b8.5 some drawbacks are the interior the infotainment system itself is a little dated the gps works but even with the most up-to-date maps it doesn’t always show the right things on the screen so to say or there’s weird
Quirks like you have bluetooth for calling but you need adapters to get bluetooth to play your music it’s not a big deal but it’s a timeless look with a sound you’ll never get bored of throwing your own gears especially with the right mods that i’ve done a lightweight flywheel a better clutch upgraded clutch hydraulics um you know a solid shifter linkage with a
Short throw shifter and a weighted shift knob it just the way the car interacts with you it’s comfortable yet it’s tight and precise it’s it’s really i mean people that aren’t even manual nuts sit in this car and they feel the shifter and they just say wow this must be a blast to drive and people that aren’t even fans of audi that i’ve had come in my car before
Or people that aren’t big into cars i mean they just there’s a smile on their face whenever they’re in that passenger seat it really is just a special car to drive the best part is you can have all of that you can have performance you can have excellent handling you can have the all-wheel drive you can have the six speed for the fun and the excitement and the
Engagement but at the end of the day it has so much low end torque where you could just comfortably cruise at low speeds comfortably cruise at low rpms and if you build the car right as i have you can really have a car that wakes up in the twisties or when you put your foot down it just puts you back in your seat and you just go and it wakes up and it’s loud
And then when you let off the throttle and you just go back into a higher gear you’re just back in a comfortable cruising experience it truly has been more than i could have asked for the v8 s5 really can be a great everyday car something you can get into be comfortable going to and from work but if you want to go fly down the highway like a cruise missile or
You want to go hammer some back roads with some nice long twisty curves what a gt car is great for it’s it really does it very very well and as i said it’s been pretty good to me as far as actual necessary repairs aside from some problems i go over in another video about the clutch hydraulics and um a thermostat here and there i really haven’t had that many
Problems with it that weren’t self-inflicted weren’t because you know i didn’t do something here or i didn’t do something there when i should have you know overall it’s been pretty good if you have to pay someone to maintain it it will be a little expensive especially if you’re paying dealership price for labor and parts but if you are half decent with a wrench
You don’t mind reading forums and you know how to smart shop online it’s really not that bad to maintain so all that being said why am i selling it especially when i think in previous videos i’ve mentioned i never intended on selling it well i guess things in life change sometimes right so we’ve moved we were living in connecticut which is at about sea level and
Now we’re living in colorado we’re living close to the denver area and up here the altitude in our new house is somewhere around i think 5500 feet now it’s no fault of the audi because any naturally aspirated engine will feel this effect but for every it’s about every 1000 feet of elevation you go up a naturally aspirated engine will lose about three percent of
Its horsepower so here at 5500 feet you’re looking at something like 16 and a half 17 percent horsepower loss the reason that happens is because when you’re at elevation like this the air isn’t as dense so the engine can’t put in as much fuel because it can’t maintain the same air-to-fuel ratio so therefore your engine has to decrease its timing a little bit and
You lose horsepower it’s just the nature of things forced induction cars have this problem too you know with a turbo or supercharger it’s just not as bad they don’t feel the loss from altitude as bad so up here especially in the roads that i like to actually drive kind of more up in the mountains you’re looking at things more like 20 to 25 percent power loss and
Sometimes more depending on exactly how high up i go there’s some places where i can drive the car over 10 000 feet and you’re looking at more than 30 percent horsepower loss on top of that the car handles great especially for its weight and i would say it’s kind of class it’s competition a lot of people would maybe classify this in the same realm as you know
Camaros mustangs and i would say as it is it really does handle very well but the roads in the mountains have sometimes much more tighter turns and such and more back to back turns and though this car will handle it great especially as it’s built the coilovers the sway bar the way i have my camber and tow and alignment dialed in it really would still handle it
Great for its weight but i want something lighter i’m going to be very sad to see this car go i do still love it i every time i’m out here and i drive it it still puts a smile on my face even though it’s definitely slower than it was at home but again that’s any naturally aspirated car it’s definitely still a great everyday car and the person who will be buying
It from me i think she’s going to be very very happy with it long term it’s made a lot of memories over the past few years i’ve made a lot of friends online who’ve reached out to me asking for help or just making discussions about the cars i know most of my followers right now are all s5 or a5 owners and i’m hoping you guys will stick around because i’m still
Going to have plenty of audi content i’m also going to have more car content in general hoping to uh branch out we have a track i think it’s to the east about 30 minutes away we have a drag strip to the west about 30 minutes away so it leaves a lot on the table as far as content that i’ll be able to put up so hopefully you guys have liked what you’ve seen over
The past couple years and hopefully you’ll stick around thank you very much
Transcribed from video
Should You Buy a 4.2L V8 Audi S5? And Why I'm Sold Mine… By Justin Bone