Most of this character, of course, comes from what hides beneath that long and muscular (yet classily understated) bonnet — a three-litre supercharged V6 petrol engine with 333 galloping Pferde (horses, in German) available at the tap of your right foot. Of course, one should not ignore the 440 Nm of peak torque either, which kicks in at a fairly low 2,900 revs and stays with you till 5,300 RPM. Transmission to all four wheels (remember the S5 gets the benefit of Audi’s quattro permanent AWD) is via a seven-speed S tronic dual-clutch gearbox. Claimed 0-100 km/h acceleration time is 5.1 seconds with the car being electronically limited to a top speed of 250 km/h.
But as I keep saying, numbers only tell half the story. What they cannot tell you is how they are arrived at, and in the case of the S5 you will quickly realise that the numbers can be achieved in totally divergent ways. The S5 is, in many ways, a dual-purpose car — one that you can take to work or for your weekend picnic as well as one that you can tear up tarmac with. Naturally, the power delivery complements this duality of purpose. Be gentle with the throttle and that plateau of a torque curve ensures that cruising on highways or crawling through traffic is done effortlessly without emptying out the 61-litre petrol-tank. Everything remains calm and collected. Be enthusiastic with the throttle pedal, on the other hand, and you’ll be richly rewarded with the kind of brisk acceleration that will inevitably result in that tingle of excitement at the base of your spine. The exhaust note, too, changes from a dull thrum to a smile-inducing snarl as the vehicle shoots for the horizon.
