Chances are if you own, or have looked at buying, an Audi with the V6T badge you'll have questioned what the T stands for.

On top of that, you'll have definitely had someone look at you gone out when you tell them your car's supercharged not turbocharged.



Audi V6T Badge


The V6T badge is probably one of the most confusing badges ever to grace the body panels of an Audi - if you ignore their new power based numbering system that is...

So what the heck does it mean?



Let's start with what it doesn't mean. It definitely can't stand for turbo for obvious reasons, despite that it actually does stand for turbo in TFSI. Here's the quote direct from Audi's glossary website:

"Turbo fuel stratified injection or TFSI combines petrol direct injection with turbocharging."

Clear as mud right?

Logically, you might think the T is some German word for supercharger, but as we know from 00's Mercedes, the German word for supercharger is kompressor.

Although wrong, the following 'fact' did make me chuckle, probably more than it should have. It's believed that the guy who designed the V6T logo had a lisp, and actually the T stands for Thupercharged.


A more sensible, yet tenuous link, might be that the T stands for TVS Supercharger, or Twin Vortices Series Supercharger in full.





T Stands For Forced Induction


In reality, the T stands for forced induction, be that turbocharging or supercharging. A bit of a cop out on Audi's part in my opinion.

If you had a blank canvas, you'd probably come up with V6S or 3.0S right? Well, the designers (being designers) wanted the only S on the car to be that of the S in the S4 / S5 badge.

Audi S5 Sportback Meteor Grey boot lid trunk badge

As someone who works in the automotive industry I can wholly believe this impasse went on and on..., until a decision was made at the expense of the customer rather than the ego of a senior manager.

In the end they went with the T as it was 'familiar' to the customer, having been used in the 1.8T and 2.0T badges.


Audi Supercharged Badge


Fortunately, if the V6T badge really bugs you, there was a supercharged badge produced for the later face-lifted B8.5 S4 and S5 as an option. It was available with a carbon fibre insert or plain red insert to match the S4 / S5 badge, Audi part numbers: 4F0853601 and 4F08536012AZZ respectively.




I believe you can still get these from the dealers, if not you can also pick them up from ECS Tuning, which is where I've pinched the images above from. Watch out for cheap copies on eBay and Amazon though, they are significantly lower quality.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, have you removed / replaced your badge? Do you actually prefer the V6T to the Supercharged badge?

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