MERCEDES-AMG C63 S ESTATE v AUDI RS4 AVANT
The Mercedes-amg C63 S Estate and Audi RS4 Avant both combine practical bodies with punchy performance. But which of these junior super-estates is the most entertaining, and does that also make it the best road car?
They make practical look cool, but put very different ingredients into their super-estate recipes. Steve Sutcliffe decides which is most to his taste
SO THERE’S THIS CORNER ON THE West Circuit at the Bedford Autodrome that always separates the wheat from the chaff. It’s not so much a corner as a highspeed chicane, and it comes towards the end of the lap, just when you’re (hopefully) thinking: ‘Right, this has been a good one, so let’s not blow it here – keep it nice and tidy.’ The approach speed is high, as in 100mph-plus in fourth gear, and in most cars you’ll probably want to downshift to third just before you turn in, although in high-torque cars – such as the Audi RS4 and Mercedes-amg C63 S – you’re better off staying in fourth and nailing the throttle as early as possible towards the exit.
Before you can get anywhere near doing this, however, you need to manage the turn-in phase, which is crucial because it’s followed by a serious transfer of weight in the middle of the chicane as you flick decisively from left to right. Get this corner right and it feels delicious. Get it wrong and you’d better hope the ESP system on whatever car you’re pedalling is good, and is on your side. Except, of course, we usually turn such systems off when possible to generate the quickest lap times, meaning you’re very much on your own…
So it’s a key corner, and the way in which the recently revised Audi RS4 Avant and the well-established Mercedesamg C63 S Estate deal with it is intriguing, because here, possibly more than anywhere else, they behave quite differently from one another. The reason why, of course, is because the RS4 is four-wheel drive whereas the C63 S remains rear-wheel drive, and although most of the time – on the public road for example – you’d be hard pushed ever to spot the difference, on track, and especially on this specific corner, they really are like chalk and cheese.
The Audi feels planted, secure and stable but ultimately just understeers a bit when you turn in, then understeers a bit more when you change direction. The AMG, on the other hand, is more responsive and alert on turn in, and during the shift in direction. It feels far lighter on its feet but also like it could get away from you more readily if you do the wrong thing with the throttle at the crucial moment. It dances in a way that the RS4 does not, and is a fair bit faster through this corner sequence as a result, but it also requires more skill to keep in check and more bravery in terms of your commitment to the throttle.
Which is the better car through here? The AMG, no question. Yet for someone who still wants to go quickly without needing to go anywhere near the edge, the RS4 has a lot going for it. So it’s up to the individual behind the wheel which approach, and therefore which car, you might prefer. And this is a theme that pervades throughout this comparison from start to finish.
But before we delve deeper into the dynamic differences between these cars, some brief bits of housekeeping, because there are some crucial elements that separate this pair in the showroom. Like the fact that the Audi costs almost ten grand less than the AMG, despite boasting a pretty much identical amount of kit inside plus a highly sophisticated four-wheel-drive system on top. That said, the RS4 tested here has an on-the-road price of £81,600 with options, many of which you’d surely plump for when specifying an RS4, such as the deeply sexy 20-inch wheels, the full-house sports exhaust system and the various carbonfibre bits and bobs inside. So in reality they are closer to one another on price than they might at first appear.
What separates them more obviously is the engine and transmission specs. The RS4 has a twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 that produces 444bhp and 442lb ft and is mated to an eightspeed dual-clutch gearbox. The AMG uses the ubiquitous 4-litre twin-turbo V8 that also appears in most Astons as well as most AMGS, and it produces 503bhp and 516lb ft. In this case it’s mated to AMG’S new nine-speed dual-clutch ’box – one of the few mechanical things to have changed on the C63 since it was unleashed in 2015.