With the heavy focus on the B5 Audi RS 4 Sport on the site this week, plus researching it in-depth for the ooooIYKYK Audi Archives, the focus was quite obviously on that generation car. We all know Audi only ever made an Avant version of the B5 RS 4, and while any number of enthusiasts have built sedan versions on their own (with several at this year’s 2025 Essen Motor Show), there were never other body styles.
The juxtaposition with the B3/B4-generation cars. Sure, the RS2 was only ever an Avant too (unless you count one-off prototypes), but that generation B-segment 80/90/S2/RS2 boasted a Coupé, Cabriolet, Sedan and Avant. Later generations from B8 on added the Sportback.
Like today’s B10 generation, Audi had less funs to work with and cut body styles to just sedan and Avant. If you want to see other configurations, well, that’s been largely impossible. Photoshop has been helpful and I even took a stab at just such an imaginary lineup back in the mid 90s when the B5 was new using simple Road & Track sourced line art modified on the earliest photo manipulation software I had to work with.
Today though, things are different. AI design tools, particularly the latest Google Nano Banana rendering tool, is particularly good at rendering highly realistic images of cars. Modifying them just how you want them isn’t always so simple, but practice makes it a whole lot easier.
After building out all of that B5 RS 4 Sport content, I took a stab at revisiting that body style range for the B5. The Sedan was obvious, though I love how it added even little OEM touches like the attached deck lid spoiler. Could it have known that body-color elements were more common than carbon fiber in that period? It’s not clear, but it added the details color-matched just as it likely would have been at the time.
Another obvious body style was a 2-door coupe. Here, I went for something a little more notchback than the fastback B3/B4 Coupe or original ur quattro. This is more of a blend of the fastback, but still with a more pronounced trunk like the A4 given that was such an attractive element of that generation car.
After showing a few coupe images on Instagram earlier Thursday, one commenter suggested a Cabriolet. I’m not normally drawn to the drop top, but adding that in was easy enough and the results are quite attractive.
Perhaps more controversial or eye-opening might be the Sportback. The first rendering was actually an unintentional result as I tried to create a fastback coupe. The final image was a five door and far more bulbous than you’d want for a 2-door coupe. That said, there was something very appealing about it. Shifting to a side view, the car takes on an appearance more akin to that period’s Skoda Octavia sedan. Of course, the Octavia was a hatchback sedan and perhaps ahead of its time as it technically could have been called a Sportback even if it lacked the more coupe-like roofline of most Audi Sportbacks.
In the end, this B5 RS 4 family is quite compelling at making you wonder what could have been. I hope you enjoy them. If you do, please consider giving @4Rings.AI a follow for more Audi-focused renderings and creative.
PHOTO GALLERY
