5 Turbocharged Sedans That Leave V8-Powered Rivals In The Dust

While some enthusiasts still consider owning a V8-powered performance car a rite of passage, there’s no way to avoid the fact that the V8 engine isn’t nearly as popular as it used to be. One of the main reasons is the industry push toward engine downsizing, with smaller-displacement, turbocharged engines replacing larger, naturally aspirated engines across many types of vehicles. Not surprisingly, this has caused an ongoing debate over the merits of V8s versus turbocharged engines. 

In many cases, manufacturers moved to these smaller turbo engines to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy. That’s not the only way to use a turbo four- or six-cylinder engine, though, and there are many modern turbocharged performance cars that are about far more than hitting stricter emissions targets. 

Below, we’ve gathered up five late-model turbocharged performance sedans that aren’t just capable of hanging with V8 performance cars but, in many cases, can leave them behind at the drag strip. Sure, these cars might not make the exhaust sounds that V8 purists love, but as we’re about to see, their performance could very well make up for that.

The modern Alfa Romeo Giulia has always offered a unique take on the four-door sports sedan, with distinct styling and Italian heritage that stand out from the more common German and Japanese models which dominate this segment.  Most versions of the Giulia are powered by a capable, if not exciting, four-cylinder turbocharged engine, but the Quadrifoglio variant turns this car into something akin to a four-door Italian supercar. 

At the heart of the Giulia Quadrifoglio is its powerful and unique twin-turbo V6 engine, which, at 2.9 liters, is fairly small by modern V6 standards. Despite that, it’s rated at 505 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque. The engine isn’t just praised for its output, though, but for its vivacious, free-revving nature — and it all starts to make sense when you realize that it’s derived from the 3.9-liter Ferrari F154 V8 that powered models like the California T.

Car and Driver got the Giulia Quadrifoglio to hit 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and run the quarter-mile in 11.9 seconds, which is enough to easily take down something like the 500-hp V8 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at the drags. Amazingly, the Alfa nearly matches the drag strip performance of the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat, based on Car and Driver’s 11.7-second quarter-mile ET.

If you want a good example of how engine downsizing can work in a modern performance car, just look at the BMW M3. In the late 2000s, the E90 M3 was powered by a high-revving, naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V8, but that made way for a smaller, turbocharged inline-6 engine in 2014. While some still lament the loss of the V8, the new turbo engine quickly proved itself a capable replacement, and the current G80 generation M3 has pushed the performance envelope even further.

In its current form, this turbocharged BMW isn’t just a fast sport sedan: it’s a legitimate supercar-killer that should beat many modern V8s at the drag strip regardless of the variant. That said, the top-dog M3 CS takes the performance to another level. Its twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 is rated at 543 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque; in Car and Driver’s testing, that’s good enough to take the M3 CS to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds, with the quarter-mile coming in a scorching 10.7 seconds.

Needless to say, those numbers put the M3 CS well ahead of many modern V8 performance cars. Among the V8 cars that would be left staring at the BMW’s taillights at the drag strip are the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 and Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, both of which pack supercharged power. It’s even slightly quicker than the very fast, mid-engined C8 Corvette Sting Ray.

In an Audi lineup that’s increasingly full of SUVs and electric vehicles, the RS 3 sedan is old-school Audi in all the right ways. This rally-inspired machine also stands out from other modern sport sedans — and those differences begin under the hood. The RS 3 doesn’t have a turbocharged four- or six-cylinder engine like you’ll so often see these days. Instead, it splits the difference with Audi’s signature five-cylinder engine. 

Fed by a single turbocharger, the RS 3’s 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine is rated at 394 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. By modern performance car standards, those numbers aren’t particularly notable, but in a compact sedan with a grippy all-wheel-drive system, you’ve got the recipe to scare off some V8s.

Car and Driver recorded a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds from a 2025 RS 3, with the quarter-mile ET coming in at 11.7 seconds. This makes the Audi quick enough to take down V8 cars like the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, as well as the 472-hp Lexus RC F. The RS 3 will even beat the drag-strip-focused Dodge Challenger Scat Pack 1320 up to 60 mph. As an added consolation, while it might not make traditional V8 noises, its unique engine gives it one of the most distinct exhaust notes on the market today. 

For better or for worse, the latest iteration of the Mercedes C-Class AMG is a textbook example of the modern high-performance sport sedan. Formerly powered by a twin-turbocharged V8 engine, the current model, officially called the AMG C63 S E Performance, replaced its old V8 with a plug-in hybrid powertrain built around a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

Our experience with this high-tech super sedan showed the AMG C63 to be extremely impressive from a technical standpoint, with lots of Mercedes’ Formula 1 DNA coursing through the car. There’s also no arguing with the car’s performance. Rated at 671 hp and 752 lb-ft of torque, Car and Driver testing showed the C63’s combination of turbo and electric power can take the sedan to a 2.9-second 0-60 time and a quarter-mile run of 11.2 seconds.

Not only is that enough to handily beat the old V8-powered C63 at the drag strip, but this hybrid would also take down plenty of other modern V8 machines, including the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye and the Mustang Shelby GT500. And while it might not sound as good to most ears, this four-cylinder Mercedes is even quick enough to beat the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and its 6.2-liter supercharged V8 over the quarter mile.

When you think of high-performance, rear-drive American cars, a V8 engine is almost certainly the first thing that comes to mind. Cadillac, however, has done some very impressive things with turbocharged V6 engines over the last decade, and the pinnacle of all that effort is the current CT4-V Blackwing. Powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 engine, the CT4-V Blackwing is rated at a V8-rivaling 472 hp and 445 lb-ft of torque.

As our review found, the highly enjoyable CT4-V Blackwing is one of those cars with a driving experience that goes beyond its performance numbers — not that those numbers are anything to be ashamed of, either. In Car and Driver testing, the CT4-V Blackwing hit 60 mph in 4.0 seconds flat, with the quarter-mile coming in 12.4 seconds. Better yet, it did all that with a six-speed manual transmission, an extremely rare option on modern sport sedans. 

While other turbocharged sedans are quicker, those numbers are still enough for the Blackwing to earn the edge over V8 cars like the Ford Mustang GT and the Lexus GS F sedan, both of which have 5.0-liter V8s. As a sign of how far things have come, the CT4-V Blackwing’s performance numbers are even comparable to the old supercharged, V8-powered Cadillac CTS-V of the 2010s.

For this list, we limited our selection to sport sedans released after 2020 and powered by turbocharged, non-V8 engines. We relied on instrumented 0-60 and quarter-mile times as the primary performance metrics and compared them to V8-powered sports cars, coupes, and sport sedans from the mid-2010s onward, both currently in production and discontinued.