Strength in numbers for Audi RS
Audi used to make just one RS model at a time. Those days are gone with the RS 5 Sportback, writes David Linklater.
Is this the ultimate family hatchback? You can now buy the extreme-performance Audi RS 5 in Sportback five-door form.
So what’s new?
If we may digress from the RS 5 Sportback for a moment, Audi is celebrating 25 years of RS models. The very first, the RS 2 Avant with lots of Porsche bits, made its grand entrance back in 1994.
That does actually kind of bring us back to the RS 5 Sportback, because it shows how times have changed.
The core of RS used to be supercar performance in a very practical package: that original RS 2 was of course an Avant (wagon) and those two magic letters are very much still associated with estate cars in the hearts and minds of enthusiasts.
The other thing about RS is that for a long time, Audi was insistent that it was a very special brand and it would only make one such model at a time.
All of the above got a bit blurry around 2008, when there was an RS 6 on sale at the same time as the first RS TT. And from there the RS has expanded into multiple models covering all body types.
There have been 25 RS models in 25 years and there will be six on sale by the end of this year; two will be completely new.
Performance brands are now big business – have to give the people what they want.
Hence the RS 5 Sportback. Platform sharing is a wonderful thing, because from the RS 4 Avant (a wagon of the classic RS kind) we can also have an RS 5 coupe and RS 5 Sportback five-door. They’re all basically versions of the same thing.
You could argue this makes the RS brand a bit less special. But New Zealand has the highest per-capita uptake of RS models in the world, so you could also say it’s about consumer choice.
How does it all come together?
Key to the appeal of RS models is scary-fast performance with ease of use. It’s hard to think of another car that combines such astonishing acceleration with all-wheel traction and effortless dynamic character.
Zero to 100kmh in under four seconds is serious performance by any measure. Yet you could give the RS 5 to your grandparent to drive to the shops.
And they could drive it really fast to the shops. Probably without realising.
For the true petrolhead, the RS 5 is probably not as exciting or engaging as some models from BMW M or Mercedes-AMG. But that’s not the point.
This is no-compromise superSporthatch driving, with the same exquisite level of build quality you get in any high-end Audi (and the lower-end ones as well, come to think of it).
There’s also that heritage and in fact a Porsche connection, just like the 1994 RS Avant: the RS 5’s twinturbo engine is actually based on a Porsche Panamera powerplant.
Any other cars I should consider?
Lots of competition between Audi RS (or Audi Sport to give the division its proper name), BMW M and Mercedes-AMG.
But in terms of a sleek five-door hatchback, there’s nothing from BMW to match the RS 5 Sportback (you’d need a 4-series M-car) and Mercedes-AMG does make a C 63 S wagon, but nothing quite like the Sportback.
Maybe when we see the new, upsized Mercedes-AMG CLA S shooting brake – all 310kW of it – we’ll have a closer match.