Ok so if you are familiar with my reviews and why wouldn't you be… you would have read my RS3 report and noticed that I referred to it as the angry hairdresser car, well this one is a little different.
The RS5 coupe is for no angry hairdresser, this thing is some sort of wild child that's just out of university and earning a few bucks and decides that they want to take the world by storm, 350kw of storm for that matter.
When I had the run through of all the bits that this beast has to offer from the team at Continental Cars in Newmarket I was quite excited, this is a brand new style, with some pretty cool features that make the RS5 a car that you can drive really hard or sit back and cruise in, but why would you want to do that….it's a RS5 for goodness sake!
In the RS5 you have several different modes you can drive it in, Auto, comfort, Dynamic and Individual. I of course choose to drive it in dynamic pretty much the whole time but i would say that the suspension is pretty hard in this mode so if you choose the individual setting and then choose auto as the suspension you get the best of both worlds on our harsh NZ roads.
The RS5 operates the new Audi virtual cockpit which allows you to change the dash to suit what you are doing. If its maps you want its maps you can have, if you are more interested in revs then you can have the rev counter as the main feature, the combinations are extensive and really easy to use.
Our test car was fitted with the Bang and Olufsen sound system which brings music to your ears. Apple carplay is standard and this means you can run your favorite tunes off your phone super easily.
Now apart from the performance which I will get onto in a minute there is one feature I have to mention...the seat massager…OMG…this is gold, there are three different settings you can choose and you can sit back relax and drive while the car takes care of your back, glorious is all I can say. If nothing else go in and sit in the car and get the team at Continental Cars to give you a demo, you are going to save a fortune on physio treatment.
Ok now the performance, at first you think six cylinder turbo….so so, not really like a V8, could sound a bit average, but that's about where it stops, fire the RS5 up and you are about to get a serious taste of twin turbo power, 3.9 seconds to 100kph and the sound of an F1 car to boot, this thing crackles on the downshifts and blasts music on the upshifts. You have to hear it to appreciate just how good it sounds, I was a bit sceptical at first but I kid you not this is an absolute animal if you want it to be. That said if you just want to pop up to the shops for a bottle of milk then it's just like any other car super easy to drive and not loud and angry.
Out on the open road you really need to keep an eye on your speed especially if you are overtaking another car, at 90 kph in this you barely have to try and get past another car, this thing pounces past almost before you can even indicate back in front. It would make this car an awesome open road tourer.
Having driven the RS5 for quite a few days I have a new found love the coupe style of car. Yeah sure it might be a little hard to get in the back but hey why would you want to be in the back, you want to be driving. If you do want to get in there though Audi have made it really easy and once you are in there there is plenty of room for two people. I wouldn't say being in the back is a place you would want to be for a long period of time if you were 6 foot plus, but never the less for a coupe there is actually a fair amount of room.
Overall I can't say enough about this car for me it's a perfect blend of fire and finesses - it ticks a lot of boxes. If you are wanting a sports car type performance but also a car you can easily get around the city in then I would take one for a test drive, it delivers a lot of bang even if it is for a few bucks!
Get into Continental Cars and see the team and take one for a test drive.
