GoKawiilAudi provided flights from Washington, DC, to Munich, Germany, and accommodation so Ars could drive the RS5. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
SAALFELDEN, Austria—Audi may have built a reputation for technology over the years, either pioneering or early-adopting things like all-wheel drive, direct-injection engines, and so on. But it’s also true that along the way it has earned a bit of a reputation for cars that look good inside and out but maybe aren’t the most exciting things on four wheels. Not so for the models reworked by Audi Sport, the company’s motorsports division, which now also spends its time building the company’s new Formula 1 power units.
And like those latest F1 cars, its newest RS5 road car also marries together a turbocharged V6 and an electric motor. How convenient.
The underlying chassis of the new RS5 is shared with the A5 that we first drove last summer, but the only common body panels between the lesser A5 and this car is the hood; everything else is RS5-specific. Aggressive wheel arch blisters add more than 3.5 inches (90 mm) of width compared to the A5, and massive air intakes dominate the front fascia. At the rear, a pair of large oval exhaust pipes are set into a diffuser. Oh, and you don’t get those kinds of carbon-fiber accents on a regular A5. Perhaps my favorite styling detail? The rear OLED tail lights have a checkered flag pattern (as do the daylight running lights up front).
Tobias Sagmeister/Audi Wider and lower than the A5 it’s derived from, the RS5 is a true all-weather five-seat performance car. Wider and lower than the A5 it’s derived from, the RS5 is a true all-weather five-seat performance car. Tobias Sagmeister/Audi Tobias Sagmeister/Audi I did wonder if the oval exhausts had been borrowed from Bentley. I did wonder if the oval exhausts had been borrowed from Bentley. Tobias Sagmeister/Audi Wider and lower than the A5 it’s derived from, the RS5 is a true all-weather five-seat performance car. Tobias Sagmeister/Audi I did wonder if the oval exhausts had been borrowed from Bentley. Tobias Sagmeister/Audi
The car looks good—although not as good as the RS5 Avant station wagon that we aren’t getting—but it’s what’s under the aluminum and carbon-fiber bodywork that’s more interesting. Audi’s lineup has been pretty sparse when it comes to plug-in hybrids, but Audi Sport decided that there were some tantalizing possibilities to unlock were it to leverage a high-voltage electrical system alongside a powerful internal combustion engine.