Rocket Ship Stage V – Audi-RS5

This car can sing baritone and tenor, unlike many other cars with eight cylinders under their hood or rear panels. When you’re in the city, stick to sub 3,000 revs, and the motor burbles away unperturbed doing city-legal speeds. Put your foot down a little and it bellows like a big V8 should. But more of its character is revealed when you stomp your foot down. The revs climb with an intensity of a more than half-decent sportsbike, the exhaust clears its throat and the bellows suddenly turn into a high-pitched whine which makes your heart’s BPM climb almost as fast as the engine’s RPM, while getting my hair to stand on end. The car grunts and clunks its way through the seven gears using the twin clutches, which is something rarely achieved because it shifts almost at the red line; so you never really get past fourth on any normal stretch of road on the city’s outskirts. The quattro all-wheel drive system also feels extremely able and actually seems to consider 80 km/h around a corner a doddle. There is so much grip on offer, and the optional 275/30 R20 rubber we had on with the optional titanium-finish five-arm rotor deep-dish like wheels stick to the road as if the treads had superglue. The ride quality too is pleasantly surprising. For 20” wheels with low-profile tyres, the ride wasn’t half bad, and that’s with the Audi DriveSelect in ‘Dynamic’ mode, the car grunting, snorting and shivering with every downshift. Move to ‘Comfort’ mode, and the whole experience is toned down. Upshifts occur at 6,000 revolutions per minute and what would otherwise be imperceptible gear shifts are only given away by the ‘brrum’ that accompanies each downshift.

There’s another thing. While other executive cars with powerful engines will show you a cup of coffee in your information display to warn you to focus or take a break from driving, the RS5 simply drops a gear, takes a swig of petrol and lets out a growl with a shiver – more than enough to get your attention, with a few hairs standing on end for good measure. Needless to say, that got my undivided attention better than any ‘ding’ or ‘beep’ has ever managed to.

Then you have to consider the handling and the overall dynamic ability of the car. Taking corners goes like a breeze in the RS5, and the levels of grip and the power on offer give you an assured feeling in the back of your mind that getting out of a tight situation, if it were to present itself, would not be a problem. Another huge positive is the ride height and layout of the car’s aero bits and underbody. It can tackle speed bumps, and, as we found out the hard way, it can handle ditches in the country roads created by tractors; three wheels on the ground and one high in the air. It’s not a pleasant thing to do, but it is indeed reassuring that the car is capable of it. And that gives you peace of mind that no piece of paper with a stamp on it can.

The RS5, then, is a proper everyday car, if you don’t mind the petrol bills. The 4.2-litre V8 is a BSIV-compliant engine with extremely good CO² and emission ratings for its class, but it is still a V8 and it loves to drink petrol! And if you do, not literally, of course, you’re going to just adore this number from Ingolstadt.

Once you manage to get past the sheer performance aspect, you realise just how much more the RS5 has to offer. You get a good dose of luxury, a heavy dose of performance and a more than adequate dose of everyday practicality as well. And we’re serious about that. Don’t consider the five km/litre overall efficiency figure and it’s a great package. Consider that it can deliver up to seven km/l on the highway and reason begins to see eye-to-eye with you, well, sort of. This is a car which can turn any drive into an experience to be enjoyed. That’s not to say there aren’t better options out there. But most of those are in a much higher price bracket, and you can blame our beloved import duty structure for that. For what it’s worth, the Audi RS5 is a complete package and given the pockets it calls for, I would love to pick one up, no questions asked.

This car can sing baritone and tenor, unlike many other cars with eight cylinders under their hood or rear panels

Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar