Cupra puts a big stop to Audi’s five-cylinder

Anyone in the market for a sporty model with a five-cylinder petrol engine in 2024 will soon end up at Audi. In cars like the RS3, Audi supplies the blown 2.5 TFSI, a five-cylinder petrol engine that produces 400 hp and 500 Nm. Audi does not keep that five-cylinder engine to itself. The Cupra Formentor is also available with that machine in some markets, but not for much longer.

At the beginning of 2021, Cupra launched the Formentor VZ5, the absolute top version of the Formentor that had the heart of the RS3. Although the five-cylinder in the Formentor VZ5 with 390 hp and 480 Nm is slightly less potent than in its Audi cousins, the Formentor VZ5 was more than fast. In just 4.2 seconds, the machine helped the Formentor reach a speed of 100 km/h. In Germany, Cupra is now introducing special versions to kiss the Formentor VZ5 goodbye once and for all. The brand speaks of ‘limited availability’, so the Formentor VZ5 no longer has a long life.

The Cupra Formentor VZ5 has never been available in the Netherlands. The most powerful Formentor here was the variant with a 310 hp 2.0 TSI. So with a four-cylinder. However, that engine version was already removed from the range in 2021. Currently, the Formentor is only available with 204 hp and 245 hp plug-in hybrid powertrains. The Formentor with 150 hp 1.5 TSI without plug-in hybrid hardware is also no longer available in the Netherlands. In order to get a taste of what a Formentor with an RS3 heart tastes like, we will put the Formentor VZ5 in 2023 next to the 245 hp plug-in hybrid Formentor that was part of our endurance test fleet at the time. Audi will stick to the five-cylinder engine for the time being. The Audi A3, which will soon appear in a facelifted form, will simply become an RS3 with a five-cylinder.