2018 Audi A5 S-Line - Stage 2, Air Suspension, and a 50-Shot of NOS

Barry DeGeorge

Bagged Audi S-Line Premium Plus

Instagram: @bd_s_line 

Performance Stats: Currently, this is a stage 2 ecu tune, stage 1 tcu 2.0 single turbo, close to 400hp /w50 shot of nos

From Dirt Bikes to Daily Drivers

Barry grew up in Houston, Texas, and the through-line in his life has always been the same: anything with a motor, anything with a bit of edge to it. Dirt bikes, BMX, skateboards - if it moved fast and required some nerve to ride, he was on it. Cars came into the picture early but took a back seat for a while as stunt riding on sport bikes took over. Eight years of that, all time and money going into bikes, building something just to push it hard.

"That lasted about 8 years - all my time and money dumped on bikes, constantly building something just to clap it out."

As he got older the appetite shifted. The bikes gave way to cars again, which is how these things tend to go. It's a cycle, as Barry puts it, and an endless one. Houston helped shape the passion early - Saturday nights on Rankin Road, watching street races from the passenger seat of a cousin's car before he was old enough to drive, the police arriving, everyone scattering, the meet relocating down the road and carrying on somewhere else.

Knight Rider, Cannonball, Fast and Furious. Need for Speed on a games console. Older cousins building muscle cars. JDM builds showing up through the community. All of it stacked up over the years into something that was always going to result in a car like this.

The Audi That Wasn't the Plan

Barry walked into the dealership looking at something else entirely. The 2018 Audi A5 S-Line caught his eye, one conversation led to another, and he drove home in a German four-cylinder with a turbo and a sunroof.

The original thinking was practical - good on fuel, comfortable, a daily commuter with a bit of factory punch from the 2.0T. A sensible car for a grown adult. That lasted about five minutes after he got it home.

"Once I got it, the ideas just kept coming. Upgrades were simple with this one - starting with the basics like cold air, coil packs and plugs, exhaust, new wheels - then the rest of the performance parts and all the carbon fibre started stacking up."

It started, as it always does, with the obvious stuff. And then one thing led to another, as it always does. A face-lift B9.5 bumper conversion. Air suspension. A livery wrap. A 50-shot of nitrous. What began as a daily commuter is now running close to 400hp through a Stage 2 ECU tune, with a custom interior, a carbon fibre roof and more in the pipeline.

Nobody plans for this. It just happens.

Performance - Making a 2.0T Embarrass Supercars

The heart of the performance build is a 034Motorsport Stage 2 ECU tune paired with a Stage 1 TCU tune - a combination that extracts serious performance from the 2.0T without touching the internals. Supplementary breathing modifications back it up: an APR carbon fibre intake, APR coil packs paired with NGK plugs, an APR turbo muffler delete, CTS charge pipes, and an APR turbo boost tap. A CAP downpipe runs into a quad-tip exhaust system that makes all the right noises.

Then there's the nitrous. A Nitrous Express 50-shot setup with a carbon fibre solenoid gives the A5 an extra punch that drops in exactly when you want it. That combination of Stage 2 tune, supporting mods, and a 50-shot of NOS puts the car close to 400 wheel horsepower from what is nominally a 2.0-litre four-cylinder.

"When a Lambo drives by and takes off and I'm right there on his bumper keeping up no problem, and the driver looks over smiling giving me props - it's crazy. This isn't an RS build or even an S build, it's just an A5 S-Line."

Barry is clear about what this car is and isn't - no pretence of being a factory performance model, just a well-built A5 that goes considerably harder than it has any right to.

Exterior - Carbon, Bodywork, and a Wrap That Turns Heads

The exterior has been reshaped around a Elite German Parts B9.5 face-lift bumper conversion at the front, bringing the car's nose in line with the later-generation styling. Maxton Design splitters sit below it, and a carbon fibre duck bill spoiler and carbon fibre roof spoiler clean up the rear. VIS Racing carbon fibre DTM-style bonnet adds visual aggression and keeps weight out of the nose.

Carbon fibre mirror caps, carbon fibre engine cover, and a carbon fibre ECU cover carry the theme through every visible surface. A rear diffuser from the same Elite German Parts conversion kit ties the back end together.

The livery wrap was designed and applied by Barry himself - vinyl cut and shaped by hand, third iteration of a design he'll probably change again at some point. That level of commitment to doing it yourself runs through the entire build.

Suspension and Wheels

Ride height is handled by Slammed Specialties manifold paired with MaxLoad air suspension - a proper air management setup that lets Barry run the car at show height when he wants to and raise it back up for the real world without compromise. On a daily driver that sees actual road use, that balance between stance and usability matters.

Rolling stock is a set of ESR CZ11 wheels in 19 inches - a multi-spoke design that fills the arches without fighting the rest of the build for attention. Drilled and slotted rotors sit behind them, upgrading the stock braking hardware to match the increased performance.

Interior

The interior is mid-build but already well beyond stock. Modified street racing seats are in place, and billet caps from ECS Tuning and a VVT billet oil cap carry the detail work into the engine bay. Audio is coming - Barry has a 12,500-watt monoblock amplifier and a pair of 12-inch subwoofers waiting to go in, with plans for a rear seat delete, a full trunk build, and supporting mids and highs to match.

"It's a simple setup now. Planning on making it a bit more show quality in the future."

Spec Sheet

Engine and Performance

• 2.0T TFSI engine
• 034Motorsport Stage 2 ECU tune / Stage 1 TCU tune
• APR carbon fibre cold air intake
• APR coil packs
• NGK spark plugs
• APR turbo muffler delete
• APR turbo boost tap
• CTS charge pipes
• CAP downpipe
• Quad-tip exhaust system
• Nitrous Express 50-shot kit with carbon fibre solenoid
• VVT billet oil cap
• Carbon fibre engine cover
• Carbon fibre ECU cover
• Billet caps - ECS Tuning

Suspension

• Slammed Specialties air manifold
• MaxLoad air suspension

Wheels and Brakes

• ESR CZ11 19-inch wheels
• Drilled and slotted rotors

Exterior

• Elite German Parts B9.5 face-lift bumper conversion
• Maxton Design splitters
• Rear diffuser
• VIS Racing carbon fibre DTM-style bonnet
• Carbon fibre duck bill spoiler
• Carbon fibre roof spoiler
• Carbon fibre mirror caps
• Livery wrap - designed and applied by owner

Interior

• Modified street racing seats
• 12,500W monoblock amplifier (pending install)
• 2x 12-inch subwoofers (pending install)

What It's Like to Drive

Barry drives this car. Not occasionally, not carefully, not just to shows. He drives it in anger, uses the acceleration, listens to the blow-off valve hiss on shifts, and isn't shy about what happens when something faster pulls up alongside.

"I'm driving with the acceleration and pops when shifting, the blow-off valve hissing, making all the right noises."

That's what this build is actually about. The compliments at the red lights and the gas pumps are a bonus. The Lamborghini keeping pace story is a good one. But the core of it is a man from Houston who has always built things to actually use them, who took a sensible daily commuter and turned it into something that goes hard, sounds incredible, and is entirely his own.

"It's my car that I built. I enjoy the drive."

What's Next

The audio install is coming - a proper trunk build around those 12s with mids and highs to match, and a rear seat delete to give the system room to breathe. Beyond that, Barry is open about the fact that more performance upgrades are sitting in the wings. The 50-shot and Stage 2 tune are not the end of the story.

The dream car is a Porsche GT3 RS. In the meantime, the 2018 Audi A5 S-Line is doing a very reasonable impression of a car that costs five times as much.

More builds like this over at Stance Auto Magazine Featured - check out the 2014 VW Golf GTI MK7 with Audi S3 engine swap and the 2015 Dodge Challenger SXT custom build for more performance-first builds done the right way.