2019 Audi RS 5 SportbackPeter Bleakney / Driving OVERVIEW Absolutely lovely sports sedan PROSHandling, powertrain, interior CONSWhy do I have to pay extra for RS suspension when I bought an RS model? Ditto the 20-inch wheels and sport exhaust? VALUE FOR MONEYIt aint cheap WHAT TO CHANGE?Audi’s option strategy HOW TO SPEC IT?Well, if I want a real RS, it seems I have to actually buy RS options David Booth: Not so very long ago at all, the only truly sophisticated six-cylinder engine in the luxury segment belonged to BMW. Thanks to having all six of its pistons in a row, BMW’s inline-six is perfectly balanced — both primary and secondary vibrations cancelled out, as the engineers say — revving in harmony, and though a few fans of big-inch V8s may beg to differ, producing exhaust music more alluring than anything this side of a V12. It was, for quite some time — like, about 25 years — my favourite powertrain. V6s, by comparison, were ill-mannered and coarse-sounding affairs, the kind of engine you deliberately put in a lesser trim, hoping the customers got the message and optioned up to the smoother-running (read: more expensive)V8 automakers really wanted to sell them. Always an afterthought, some were merely 90-degree V8s with two cylinders lopped off — I’m looking at you, Mercedes — the resultant bastardization a cacophony of ill-timed internal combustion and clattery vibration. Throw in today’s propensity for turbocharging, which may help power but does nothing to add character to the exhaust, and it’s little wonder that, until recently, V6s were simply second rate. Jaguar started the rebirth of the V6 with its F-Type, all supercharged power and biting exhaust. More followed, even Cadillac managing to make the V6 sound soulful in the ATS-V. But no one has been more successful than Audi, the 2.9-litre V6 in the RS 5 Sportback we tested the perfect witness. Never mind its 444 horsepower or its 443 pound-feet of torque. What I truly appreciated — the reason I’d buy an RS 5 — was the absolutely delightful noise emanating from its quad pipes. “Ripping silk” is a too-oft used metaphor for a sweet-sounding engine, but few internal combustion engine — certainly no V6 — deserves that descriptor more than the RS 5’s 2.9L. Peter Bleakney: I concur. It’s a sweet-sounding mill (as long as you have Dynamic mode selected), generating a deep-chested purr plus all the requisite anti-social woofs, pops and farts on upshifts and overrun. It also does a fine job of hauling this fetching five-door Sportback around with eye-widening gusto. Sure, 444 horsepower doesn’t sound like a whole lot these days, but really, who needs any more than this? And turbo lag? Nary a whiff, as far as I can tell. But you know what really slays me about this special hi-po Audi, besides it sexy swollen fenders, big black grill and red paint? It’s a freakin’ hatchback. And that means my upright bass and I can blast from zero to 100 km/h in under four seconds, slice up a winding road with all the precision Audi Sport has baked into this rakish missile, and arrive at a gig in high style. Okay, that would be the case if I had the $84,350 to buy this RS 5 Sportback, but I’m assuming this one has a pile of options as well. How much are we talking? DB: You’re right, Peter. By the time you’re out the door with the RS 5 we drove, you’d be looking at close to $120,000. You’d have to go back to having a “real” job, which, fortunately for you, would be playing that bass, upright or not, for Anne Murray. Aside for me working overly hard on the name-dropping, though, the one thing that kills me about high-end Audis — and I suspect this is a lesson learned from Porsche — is that everything worthwhile is always a high-cost option, no matter how stratospheric the base MSRP. Twenty-inch wheels, for instance cost $2,500. What’s the point of buying the sportiest of Audis — that would be anything wearing an RS badge — if you’re not getting the biggest tires right off the bat? I get the carbon-ceramic brakes; they’re mondo expensive and not everyone needs ‘em. But $4,800 for a “sport package” that “adds” RS sports suspension, RS sport exhaust and RS Dynamic steering? What’s an RS car if it doesn’t come with big wheels, sports suspension, and dynamic steering? OK, that’s my rant for today. I will say, Peter, the thing handles a dream, edging ever closer to BMW’s full-on M products in terms of outright road-holding. PB: Yep, this RS 5 certainly exhibits all the classic handling characteristics of any just about any overachieving Audi — with the exception of the more organic V10-powered R8. And by that I mean a somewhat cold and clinical, but devastatingly effective demeanour that, if you were to look up “point and shoot” in the Webster’s dictionary, you’d see a picture of the RS 5 Sportback. Lean into this thing and it just grips and goes, and the back end almost gets a bit playful in Dynamic mode — hey, it was raining — but
Origin: Car Review: 2019 Audi RS 5 Sportback