Josh/AWE

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.

DoubleA4

Did I miss the part about the Brembo brakes? Love the wheels. They make the short list for my eventual upgrade in that department. Assume also no wheel spacers necessary due to custom sizing? I'm eating this up, not to be a bother but the more info you can share, the better. Thanks for the effort in making this thread happen.

Josh/AWE

Post on the brakes is coming very, very soon. You are correct in that we are not using any spacers due to the clearance afforded by the wheels. Full specs on the wheels can be found in the post above, and give the car a nice aggressive look.

You are welcome for the thread, it's a shame more of you can't see the car in person!

Josh/AWE

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.

Josh/AWE

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.

DoubleA4

Does it matter if you do the tune first and then install the exhaust (assuming that is in the playbook)? Can you get the tune done on a dyno to be specific to the car with the mods you have? If so, is that common or are most of the tunes done of the "boxed" variety?

Great post, thanks again for sharing this.

Josh/AWE

The order of which the mods are performed isn't super important because aftermarket software will adapt to a certain extent. The only exception to that is Stage 2, when its really designed to be used with an exhaust, an intake and of course, the pulley. Most tunes now are of the canned variety.

Josh/AWE

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.

Josh/AWE

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.

Josh/AWE

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.