Diesels are typically slower than their gasoline counterparts, but leave it to Audi to turn that notion on its head. After dominating Le Mans and the international endurance racing scene under diesel power for the better part of a decade, the German automaker toyed with the idea of an oil-burning R8 for the road and ultimately made its first performance crossover a diesel. It's made the letters TDI a battle cry, and now it's yelling even louder with the RS5 TDI concept.

Set to be unveiled in a couple of days at the Leipzig Auto Show to celebrate 25 years of the TDI engine, the concept ditches the gasoline-burning 4.2-liter V8 in the production RS5 in favor of a 3.0-liter V6 twin-turbo-diesel with an electric supercharger added on to combat turbo lag. Output comes in at 385 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque, which means that while it has 65 fewer horses than the gasoline model, it packs a staggering 236 lb-ft more torque.

The result of the triple-charged madness is a 0-62 time around four seconds flat, trumping the 4.6 seconds for the road-going model. Top speed, of course, is electronically limited to 155 miles per hour

With 380 instant horsepower and 750 Nm (553 lb-ft) on tap, Audi’s RS5 TDI concept sounds like a proper sports car. No, really, it actually does, with an engine note that you’d not normally associated with a V6 oil burner.

It’s Audi’s attempt at eliminating turbo lag completely, using an electric supercharger system similar to what Jay Leno tried out on that Ford Focus he drove a while back. It works really simply, putting extra pressure into the intake so that the turbochargers are active and don’t need to spool up.

Judging by the way the car drives/sounds in the Autocar video posted below, we say it could be the sporty diesel alternative you’ve been waiting for, if you’re into that sort of thing.

No word on when it will hit a production car, but it stands a strong chance of being a revelation in the sector.