Audi RS5: Power And Performance

The Audi RS5 Sportback has a very take-no-prisoners approach to high-performance motoring

- Sameer Kumar

Audi is making a bunch of truly phenomenal cars these days. And that’s causing me some grief. No, not the cars themselves, of course. The problem is with the reviews I end up writing, which tend to go a bit overboard with praise for the cars’ performance. Take the last Audi I drove — the S5 — which made me fall deeply in love with its screaming, rasping, turbocharged V6, intense acceleration, and terrific handling. Predictably enough, I wrote a rather glowing review, which was subsequently accused by the editor of being ‘gushing’ and ‘breathless.’ Oh, the shame.

Suitably chastised, I made a mental note at that time to be more critical in the future. How the Gods must have laughed, though, because the very next Audi that I’ve ended up writing about is the new RS5 Sportback, which is considerably faster and much more powerful than the S5. Like the S5, the RS5 is powered by a 2.9-litre turbocharged V6, but instead of the former’s 354bhp and 500Nm of torque, the latter packs 450 horsepower and 600Nm of torque, making it one of the heaviest hitters in the Audi line-up. For those who might be wondering about the big difference in power output between the two cars, given that they have the same engine capacity, the S5’s V6 is a twin-scroll, single-turbo unit, while the RS5 has a twin-turbo V6.