Recently, we published an article discussing five of the most interesting five-cylinder engines ever produced. However, there was a glaring omission from both the video and article, and that was Audi’s legendary five-cylinder engine. To say the Audi five-cylinder is iconic wouldn’t be giving it enough credit, as for almost half a decade, the automaker has had a pentacylinder powerplant filling a variety of roles.

Starting off as a naturally aspirated gasoline engine in 1976, it was a compromise between the desire for more displacement and physically limited space in the engine bay of the Audi 100. Based on the EA 827 four-cylinder engine concept, a 2.1-liter single-overhead-camshaft inline-five-cylinder design was created, which made 136 horsepower thanks to a “modern” fuel injection system.

The engine design soon branched off into a diesel version as well. But, where it really made a name for itself was on the World Rally Championship circuit in the 1980s. Starting off with 200 horsepower in turbocharged competition form, the engine soon received a second overhead camshaft and double the number of valves. The street variant soon produced 225 horsepower and the competition variant took home a WRC title.

Audi’s first inline-five-cylinder engine was released in 1976, and the automaker has continued to produce an inline-five since. Starting with 136 horsepower, the current production engines produce over 400 horsepower in their production form.

Then, possibly the most famous iteration of the engine was created in the mid-1980s, in the form of the unlimited Group-B powerplant which doubled the engine’s previous output. Various other forms of motorsport in the 1980s saw the engine produce a peak rating of 720 horsepower from just over two liters of displacement — no small feat with ’80s technology.

While the next thirty years would see Audi continually refine the five-cylinder engine design into the current 400-plus-horsepower, 2.5-liter variant powering the TT RS and RS3, it’s our humble opinion that the most iconic form of the Audi inline-five existed in the days of neon colors and New Wave music.