Audi pulled the wraps off the RS5 Coupe earlier this year and Audi Sport’s Head of Technical Development has revealed the car is even faster than previously reported.

In an interview with Car Advice, Stephan Reil said the company’s claimed 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 3.9 seconds is conservative. As he explained, “I’ve been in this job for nearly 20 years, and with all the cars I’ve worked on, the performance numbers we published were conservative. And it’s no different with the latest RS5.”

Reil went on to say that the car could accelerate from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in as little as 3.7 seconds under ideal conditions. The executive added that “even under the worst conditions, you’ll do it in 3.9 seconds. But you will not find a 4.0.”

While it would be nice to know exactly how fast the car can accelerate, a number of different factors can affect its performance. This is part of the reason why Audi uses conservative figures and Reil says another factor is that he doesn’t want to read about a publication achieving a slower acceleration time than what the company claims.

The RS5 Coupe went on sale in Germany last month and it is powered by a twin-turbo 2.9-liter V6 TFSI engine that develops 450 PS (331 kW) and 600 Nm (443 lb-ft) of torque. It enables the car to hit a top speed of up to 280 km/h (174 mph) when equipped with the optional dynamic package.

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