LONG-TERM ER S

The RS5 has been on a road trip, the Alfa needs more tyres, and the 106 Rallye continues to surprise and delight in equal measure

IT’S NOT UNCOMMON FOR A TEST car to suggest to me where I should drive it: the hot hatch that gravitates towards nadgety B-roads; the convertible that steers itself to a coastal route on a summery evening. But I’ve never before had a car tell me where I would be going on holiday. Yet back in June, just a couple of days into custodianship of the RS5, I knew exactly where it would be taking me: on a big drive to some big scenery, specifically to the Scottish Highlands.

I figured that the car’s GT capabilities would be perfect for the long journeys there and back, and for touring the area, too, where its 442lb ft of torque would allow it to breeze past view-blocking camper vans, while its four-wheel drive would be welcome during and after the inevitable rain showers. Fortunately my wife concurred, and so recently we found ourselves embarking on a 500-mile trip from Cambridgeshire to the heart of the Highlands.

To say the RS5 made light work of the run north would be an understatement. The sports seats proved remarkably comfortable and capable of keeping aches and pains at bay, meaning the massage function only got an outing for novelty purposes. The twin-turbo V6, meanwhile, was pleasingly frugal given its 444bhp potential, averaging just shy of 34mpg. And with Drive Select set to Comfort mode, conversation never required a raised voice and the ride was smooth and calm without the exaggerated looseness that afflicts such modes in many other cars. After ten hours we arrived at our destination feeling no worse for wear than after a three-hour flight to Europe with all its associated energy-sapping tedium of long-stay car parks, security checks and hire-car desks.

So big miles are clearly an RS5 forte, and once in the Highlands the car had a week to demonstrate that it covers plenty of other bases, too. Perhaps the most revealing drive was the 50 miles of single-track road negotiated to get to the end of the delightful Ardnamurchan peninsula (the most westerly point of mainland Britain) and back. With the tarmac endlessly undulating and flicking left and right, speed always either rising or falling, and the driver permanently prepared to duck into a passing place upon sighting oncoming traffic, it would have been an arduous drive in many a car, and you might reasonably expect a near-1800kg coupe to feel cumbersome under such conditions, but the RS5 couldn’t have made it any easier.

The suspension – still in Comfort – again shone, offering perfect control at passengerfriendly speeds by never getting floaty over crests or bottoming out in harsh dips where other cars had scarred the tarmac. It didn’t induce carsickness, either. The automatic gearbox was a godsend, as not only did it save hundreds of gearchanges that even the most dedicated fan of three pedals would have found tiresome, but it was also so telepathic that it wasn’t necessary to touch the paddles – not even once. It’s hard to imagine even the very best DCT operating so consistently smoothly, too. The engine’s torque, meanwhile, meant gaining speed never felt like a strain, and the brakes – standard cast-iron items, not ceramics – scrubbed off speed so effortlessly that the car’s weight never even crossed my mind. More strings to the RS5’S bow, then, and further proof that it properly nails its ‘high everyday usability’ promise.

The highlight of the week, however, was when the Audi got to demonstrate the other extreme of its ability spectrum, on a solo run along 20-or-so miles of the A830 from just west of Glenfinnan to the port of Mallaig. Fast and fabulously smooth and sweeping, not to mention eerily quiet at the time I’d chosen, it could have been made for the RS5 set to its Dynamic mode. The car monstered every single yard of it, with precision aplenty, astonishing

‘The RS5 monstered every single yard, with astonishing pace and no shortage of engagement‘

pace and no shortage of engagement. It was one of those magic car-plus-road-plus-timing combos that instantly vies for a place in your all-time top ten.

Bad bits from those eight days and 1600 miles? The passenger-door trim developed a quiet rattle when driving on grainier tarmac, and the 5ft 4in Mrs Eveleigh found the seatbelt rubbed irritatingly on her neck when she was behind the wheel – a frequent snag for her in two-door, four-seat cars due to them having the B-pillar, and thus the upper seatbelt mounting point, further back.

Other that that the RS5 was flawless. In fact, on the drive home I genuinely couldn’t think of another car I would rather have spent the week in. Sure, the 599 GTO I glimpsed on the Mallaig road would have been even more epic on that run, and the handful of modern Astons I spotted all looked and sounded tailor-made for that breathtaking scenery. But they – and, I very much suspect, all of the Audi’s direct peers – would have come with compromises: lower wet-weather traction, poorer ride quality, a less polished gearbox… Whereas for the many challenges of that week as a whole, the RS5 was simply perfect. Dateacquired June 2017 Totalmileage 7695 Mileagethismonth 2894 Coststhismonth £0 mpgthismonth 28.1