Audi RS5 Review – Vorsprung Wonder Coupe

The latest RS5 has landed, and much like last month's RS4 Avant, it's a blown V6 powerhouse.

Big power is the German way after all and the RS5 doesn't suffer the loss of two cylinders in the slightest. This while aesthetics can best be described as a product of each new generation looking similar to the one that preceded it ala Audi's lazy period. Albeit chiselled more sharply than ever before, rolled out with the marque's latest firmware like five metres of next generation smartphone.

But the A5/S5 series of coupe is still relatively young, only spanning two iterations. This at a time when Audi styling can best be termed as familiar - unlike the aforementioned wagon that is a longstanding redistillation of the Ingolstadt marque's most iconic bodyshell, indeed its profile.

Instead, the greatest departures and indeed improvements can be found on the inside with a heavily revised cabin - minimalistic and digitised with a clever instrument panel that cycles through gauges and navigation seamlessly and a streamlined dashboard dominating the cockpit. Multimedia, infotainment, connectivity and audio options are gratuitous. But we've already covered this in detail, haven't we?

This looks very familiar...

We've even given you a pretty elaborate impression of what it goes like too, thanks to our well documented time in the RS4 (over here, Audi RS4 Avant Review – We Tune Into Rage Station 4). That's the default all-wheel drive Quattro setup with 'angels descending on a cloud amidst a cacophony of trumpets and harps' handling. And it is good.

The bonnet is red, the road is clear...

And just like that the RS5 pounces. It makes rapid progress just about anywhere you take it. Highway, rural, farmlands, winding passes - one lane, two or three, you only have to think of a gap and before you can say Dynamic, you're already occupying it. It does this with infectious rapture and a soundtrack loaded with pyrotechnics for effect.

If you're curious about how the driving experience differs to the RS4 wagon I'm here to tell you that it doesn't. Not in a meaningful way, at least. The controls are identical, its demeanour the same. The physics and geometry make for a barely discernible difference in engagement and feedback, but that's because one is a two-box wagon and the other a slippery Sportback.

Verdict

I'm going to get flack for this, but I've always considered the A5/S5 coupes as nice. Just nice. A softer A4 conceived at an exciting period in Audi's life - despite its designer Walter de Silva allegedly crying upon first seeing it in the metal.

Born when the TT and R8 were in their respective heydays, the 5 seems like a mere style car more than a sports car. Some entertainment on a challenging bit of tarmac - upper thigh sensations as opposed to the hand down your pants variety. Perhaps it can thank its sensible sibling, the RS4 for some of its inherited good standing in the sports saloon fraternity. That and the parity between it and similar products in BMW and AMG's stables - the M4 and C63 Coupe being direct competition. 

Pharrell Williams once crooned, "cool can only be killed, never absorbed". I think he was onto something. The RS5 can't replace the RS4. It's just trying too hard.

Audi RS5 Sportback Spec: