"Audi For Life" (audiforlife)
08/12/2013 at 13:26 • Filed to: Audi, Quick Spin, RS 5
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"Audi For Life" (audiforlife)
08/12/2013 at 13:26 • Filed to: Audi, Quick Spin, RS 5 | 2
| 6 |
I had an opportunity to drive an exclusive Audi RS 5 on Saturday. In fact, it was the same exclusive RS 5 that I did a photo shoot of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
The full write-up of the experience is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but below is a snippet of the drive:
For the first few minutes, nervousness and anxiety of driving such an exclusive ‘bahn-burner coupé made me drive quite cautiously and almost grandpa-like. After chatting with Josh while driving, that wore off and I started to have more fun with the car and drove around Wilsonville. I absolutely love the sound of the rev-matching downshift and pop, along with the amazingly quick and crisp shifting that the S Tronic dual-clutch gearbox affords. As much as I love rowing my own gears in my S5, I would not complain about the lack of a stick. Speaking of that pop, the sport exhaust just makes the quick and high-revving V8 sing a near pitch-perfect siren song. The only thing that I would have like a bit more was if more of the exhaust note made it into the cabin; particularly, while putting around or at cruising speeds.
For a car tipping in at just over the 4,000 pound mark (4,009 to be exact), the combination of the quick-revving engine and the S Tronic gearbox helped make it feel a bit lighter than it really is. Around some of the turns, the nose-heavy weight distribution did rear its head; but, the rear-biased quattro setup mutes it while accelerating just out of the turn.
///M3 Track Car
> Audi For Life
08/12/2013 at 20:19 |
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The RS5 was a huge disappointment to me. The dealership was nice enough to bring one to my house for a test drive, but it really didn't blow me away.
Your S5 is so much more value for the money in comparison.
I admit though that the sound of the downshifts is pretty awesome. I still can't see myself in anything but a stick...
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Audi For Life
> ///M3 Track Car
08/12/2013 at 22:10 |
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The price of the RS 5 is a bit of a deal killer for me; but, what I liked about it was that the stock suspension (it didn't have the dynamic suspension control), braking, exhaust and gearbox are enough of an upgrade over the S5's.
The new steering setup isn't quite as nice and lower peak torque are two things that go against it. If Audi could make a freer revving version of the 3.0TFSI, bumped up HP and put in the RS specific suspension, exhaust and gearbox tuning; that would put me closer to making the jump. Audi will have a lot to think about when it comes to the B9 RS 5 to get it closer to being toe-to-toe with the upcoming M4.
Granted, one can do a lot of that with an AWE exhaust, APR tune, various suspension options on an S5 3.0TFSI... but it's still not quite there and that's on top of the cost of an S5.
At the end of the day, I still love my S5 and will be keeping it for a while longer.
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///M3 Track Car
> Audi For Life
08/13/2013 at 10:17 |
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Did you see Chris Harris compare a chipped S4 to an RS4? Same!
The problem is our local Audi dealers have done an about-face on mods of any kind. It makes it sooooooo much less interesting to shop for an Audi. Even though I don't like to make too many changes to my Audis, a short-shifter, spacers, H&R springs, and a tune have gone into every Audi I've ever owned.
Sadly, that seems to have come to an end. Value for the money is in the S5, there's no doubt though.
Now the new RS6 Avant, that's a whole other story! :)
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Audi For Life
> ///M3 Track Car
08/13/2013 at 12:58 |
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Yes, I did see the video. Dealers cracking down on mods of any kind does make me a really sad-panda. And yes, the RS 6 Avant is absolutely worth every thousandth of a Euro/GBP. Just too bad we won't get it here, but an RS 7 is still something to behold.
qflux2001
> Audi For Life
01/18/2014 at 01:56 |
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Funny... Just traded my 08 E92 DCT M3 for a '14 RS5. Prefer the RS5 to the M3 in every possible way. Have owned BMWs since 01 and the build and materials quality has gone steadily downhill. I was shocked at how much better the Audi design, fit and finish is. I expect very little from the M4 in these areas after checking out the horrible (from an interior design and build/materials quality perspective) 435.
I originally went in to look at S5s as I wanted to avoid spending north of $70k again, but was completely underwhelmed. The S5 is a good value, but it falls short of the RS5 the way a 335 falls short of an M3. A bitter pill for some, but take "value" out of the equation (which is honestly a sort of silly argument anyway when discussing $50k+ sport sedans) and there is simply not one area where the lesser car beats the higher model. The RS5 sounded better, looked better, drove better and was noticeably faster. I'm not an Audi guy and hadn't owned one since my 85 4000S 26 years ago, but ended up writing the check for $75k and driving away.
Yes the M3 is more raw, connected, visceral and tail happy... It is also less comfortable, harder to drive fast, lower quality in build and less attractive inside and out.
The RS5 is actually a really impressive car. It came as a shock to me since publications, and forum pundits, all seemed to decide to write the car off. I've now owned the E92, C63 and RS5 and the Audi is by far my favorite. If Audi had stopped the lineup at the S5 I would still be in the ///
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Audi For Life
> qflux2001
01/18/2014 at 22:26 |
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Congrats on getting a 2014 RS 5 and welcome back to the Audi family! Also, really love your write-up detailing how you decided on getting it.
I kind of had the same journey when comparing the 335is, M3 and the S5. While the S5 doesn't have the level of handling nor the low-end torque of the 335is, I wanted something that I could drive day in and day out. The overall ergonomics and design also played a huge role in swaying me away from the 335is and M3 as well. The RS 5 is a brilliant car with the 4.2-litre V8, rear-biased quattro and sport diff definitely make it a car that you can have a lot of fun in and push it without it biting your head off.
To me, the E46 M3 is where BMW peaked in terms of design, ergonomics and overall awesomeness (others can and will argue that it happened before that even). I still want to get one someday as a true weekend, fun car while my S5 can continue to be the grand tourer/coupe that I love about it. That may change depending on what Audi does with the B9 RS 5, as that's the next car for me.