We keep a running list of the world’s great engines, and the Audi and VW megopolis seems to have an unnaturally high number of them. Bugatti’s mind-boggling W16, for one. Then there’s this here thing.

This review was first published in MOTOR Magazine’s February 2006 issue.

The S4 has always been a car to like – full of character in a most un-Audi way – but we always craved something with a harder edge. Something to take on the M3 or even the C55.

Well, it’s here. And then some. The same-sized V8 now puts out 309kW at an atmospheric 7800rpm to cut a second off the S4’s 0-100km/h time, down to 4.8 seconds and heading into properly fast country. That’s a 56kW leap – and there’s not a turbo- or super-charger in sight.

Instead, Audi dug into its Le Mans program to give the RS4 FSI direct-injection technology to get what they needed out of the same block. It also let them boost the compression ratio and punch the redline to the roof.

But it’s the sound! It’s glorious and angry; it promises violence and delivers in triplicate. The thing picks up and drops revs so quickly and accurately that if feels like it runs no flywheel, and the rumbling snarl is something to behold. Get it past 4000rpm with the taps cranked to the stoppers and it becomes a race engine; ripping at the air and flinging the RS4 at the horizon.

All this and it’s got a proper six-speed manual. No wussy DSG technology here (that’s from the engineers, not us!). It’s a proper, man’s car, and this is how it should be driven.

MORE classic MOTOR

The 365mm front brakes are astonishingly potent, the Torsen centre diff normally punches 60 percent of the drive to the rear wheels and those two facts alone scream its intent. It’s chuckable and it’s even fun. In an Audi?

Then there’s the way you can disable the safety nets. You can ditch traction control without turning off the ESP, but when you flick off the second stage, you’re on your own to play with the car’s awesome abilities as you’d like.

And you will like. A lot.

ENGINE: 4.2-litre DOHC 32-valve direct-injection V8 POWER: 309kW @ 7800rpm TORQUE: 430Nm @ 5500rpm WEIGHT: 1650kg DRIVE: all-wheel