As you all know by now, our B8 S4 development car has gone to a new home and a 2013 Audi S5 has taken its place. We have been long admirers of the S5, and now with the 3.0T in the coupe version, it was the ideal choice to fill the void in our fleet.

We ordered the car from our good friend Tommy at Winner Audi in Wilmington, Delaware and checked the boxes for common options like Bang and Olufsen Sound and Sports Differential, as well as one that is not so common - Audi Individual Paint. After a history of White, Black, Red and Silver, it was time for something a bit off the grid.



Boom.

Samoa Orange was largely used by Audi on many cars at the key Auto Shows such as Geneva and Tokyo in recent years and is currently available on the R8 GT and TT models.

So that’s where our tale begins. Stay tuned for ongoing chapters as we keep you in the loop on how AWE Tuning has unlocked performance on this beauty, while maintaining perfect daily driving manners. The build will also be placed on our blog, which can be found right here.

 

Let’s work on the corners.



With wheels in transit (more on this shortly), we needed to get the car to sit more aggressively. Enter H&R’s Street Performance Coilovers. The H&R System offers the ride characteristics that we were after, and the adjustability to achieve the look that we were after. H&R Street Performance Coilovers and Sway Bars arrived, and the S5 went on the lift for install.



The stock suspension came off the car, and the new components began to come together.



The front struts were then attached to the suspension assembly, and re-installed on the car.



While the car was apart, we also installed H&R Sway Bars to keep the S5 a bit more composed in the bends.









Once this was all completed, we aligned the car using our Hunter PA100 ProAlign Laser alignment system.



Unfortunately at the height that the car was, we couldn’t quite get the front camber to where we wanted it. This is a problem, but luckily one that will be resolved in an upcoming segment of the build.



Now the car started to look properly aggressive, but we were anxious to receive our new wheels and put them on the AWE Tuning S5.

 

The wheels are ready to go on.

We actively searched for a company to work with for wheels that were lightweight, functional, and offered the concave look. Enter Forgeline. Their motorsports background coupled with elegant yet aggressive design standard made the brand a solid match for the project. Once the manufacturing teaser shots started rolling in, we began to get excited.







When the Forgeline VX3C’s finally arrived, we knew that we had made the right choice, and the wheels would really set the car off.



Our Forgeline VX3C’s are finished in what Forgeline calls “Transparent Smoke,” and specs come in at 20x10” ET30 with a 1.5” lip up front, and 20x10” ET22 with a 2” lip out back. This subtle difference in sizing gives the car a staggered lip and the concave look that we were after. With each corner coming in at 24.5lbs, this Forgeline set is very light for its size. The wheels were then wrapped in Falken Azenis 453 Ultra High Performance rubber measuring 275/30/20 all the way around.

Also, this is probably a good time to introduce Forgeline as a new AWE Tuning wheel partner. We’re thrilled to have them on board. They are amazing to work with, completely professional, and make phenomenal wheels. Check out some of their other offerings and learn more about Forgeline, here.



Onward: At the same time, we also added the Audi Black Optics Grille to keep with the theme of darker trim and wheels. This will also eventually blend with our striping package.


Next stop – taking the show on the road.

 

Time to hit the first event with the car. A warm up with Cars and Coffee, in the Lehigh Valley. This particular date was not only the first of the year, but also an informal gathering of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware Audi owners who had been shacked up all winter.



Making the turn into the parking lot, I spotted Fourtitude’s Four Season test TT S Competition Package, being driven by Fourtitude staffer Bill Cho and finished in Samoa Orange just like our S5. Photo time.



Shoot was cut short, as I had to roll to the Audi Driving Experience to test the latest and greatest in the four rings line up (What a tough job. More on that, here). Bill and I cut our photo shoot short, promising to properly shoot both cars in the coming months.

Overall, a good first debut of our Samoa member of the family.

 

Time to breathe.



The S-FLO Intake line of AWE Tuning products has been proven successful across many applications – and is a must for those trying to get the most out of their 3.0T. Airflow has been shown to increase by 34% over a stock paper filter, and max gains of 15hp were seen on our dyno.



When commencing intake R&D on the S5, we felt that the engine bay could use a little face lift. AWE Tuning’s Engineering team set out to come up with an elegant solution to this problem. Enter the S-FLO Carbon Kit. With the S-FLO Carbon Kit, ambient air is drawn into the inlet in a ram-air fashion and fed into the S-FLO Carbon, feeding the airbox with constant cold air, compared to an air intake that draws air from the hot engine bay.



The S-FLO Carbon is constructed from 2×2 high-grade carbon fiber and includes a full carbon fiber air inlet and lid, both of which mount directly to stock locations to guarantee perfect, tight fitment.



Better breathing: Check.

 

Special sauce exhaust time. The AWE Tuning 3.0T S5 Performance Exhaust.



The AWE Tuning 3.0T S5 Performance Exhaust is made from 2.5” T304 Stainless Steel and contributes an additional 8hp/9tq to our build. For this one, we chose to go with our Diamond Black tips to add some contrast to the brightly colored car.

Since the AWE Tuning S5 is an S-Tronic car, we also fitted the AWE Tuning Resonated Downpipes to ensure perfect tone all around at all RPMs.



As always, a simple bolt on that doesn’t affect or alter emissions devices.



By the way, if you’ve ever tried to remove / install downpipes on an S4 or S5, you know how difficult it can be to reach those downpipe bolts. We got so tired of it ourselves that we designed and now retail the AWE Tuning Downpipe Removal Tool, allowing simple access to the bolts. Ahh.





To cap things off, we also removed the Soundaktor fuse, and burned it in a private ceremony. You know, to keep it real.

 

Keeping the spirit of the build chronology, next up was G.I.A.C. Stage 1 software. While we’ll cover the power when we get to Stage II in a bit, let’s just say that Stage 1 made solid increases, enough so that it was time for our next upgrade, the AWE Tuning Boost Gauge (as we say, with great power comes great responsibility. Ok, that was from Spider Man. But we adopted it.).

Below is an original CAD rendering of the gauge concept for the S5:



And the final result:



With this new power, we’re gonna need some help slowing down. Next up- Brakes.

 

Now that we have more power on tap, we need a more aggressive brake setup to help the car come to a stop. Enter Brembo’s 6 Piston 380mm GT kit.

For those looking for something a bit different, be sure to hit us up, because custom looks are available, like this one.



The S5 went back to the lift. After the rotors and calipers were removed, it’s apparent just how “large” of an upgrade the 6 Piston set up would be.



As you can see, the calipers are notably larger than the stock units, and the comparison shot below shows that the Rotors are also quite a bit larger. Despite being larger, the Brembo GT kit would help to lower rotational mass due to its 2-piece rotor. Every bit counts when you are trying to get the most out of your car.



Due to the larger caliper and rotor sizes, Brembo supplies a new caliper carrier which makes installation that much easier. After some DIY-level trimming of the heat shield, the carrier was installed and the car started to come back together. The Brakes were tightened, the new Stainless lines were bled, and the wheels were reinstalled.



Up next, I'm on the road again.

 

It’s time for another installment from the road. This time, my trusted navigator Carl and I hit the road to participate in the West Chester Cars and Coffee Spring Drive through many of the back roads that straddle the Mason-Dixon line.



In our particular run group, we were in good company with a Ferrari 430 Scuderia, 575M, and 308GTS, AWE Tuning’s development TT RS, a Nismo 370Z, Porsche Carrera S, WRX STI and last but not least, Carl and I in the S5.



The route was twisty and open which allowed for some spirited driving. The S5 performed flawlessly with more than enough power on tap and the handling prowess to keep up with nearly anything outside of an Elise in the bends. Once again, the H&R suspension was paying dividends.



Around every turn, the S5′s aggressive looks caught stares from passers-by (the S5 sticks out way too much to push the speed limits) while remaining comfortable to drive. In fact, the most remarkable thing about the S5 is just how good of a highway cruiser it is. The exhaust is the perfect tone for long part-throttle cruises. Not a bad day at the office.

 

While it may not have been a rough day at the office, it did prove to be a learning experience. Part way through our journey, we found that the S5 had some camber “challenges” in the form of occasional rubbing on large dips. When lowering a car, the front camber increases, and Audi’s factory upper control arms are not adjustable to dial it out. In order to correct the extreme camber caused by lowering, adjustable upper control arms are needed. In this case, we needed to adjust the camber as to allow for fender clearance rather than optimum tire wear. The cure for our issues came in the form of SPC Adjustable Upper Control Arms.



The SPC units are a direct replacement for the OEM upper control arms and provide adjustment from +1.5 to -1.5 degrees of camber and caster. This was a welcomed change. These Control Arms are made out of 6061-T6 Aluminum and feature 18mm adjuster links making them extremely strong and a bit lighter than the factory units, and most importantly did not affect the ride quality of our S5. The arms went on without struggle and worked so well that they are now a part of AWE Tuning’s trusted retail catalog, right here.