The Problem With Brats

Audi’s next-generation A5 brings together great design and, through the S5, bonkers performance. But is it worth it?

- Kushan Mitra

THE REASON WE ARE TALKING ABOUT BRATS and all that is because of Audi India’s helpful social media hashtag for the new A5 family, calling it the ‘Brat Pack’. First things first - do not confuse the ‘Brat Pack’ with the ‘Rat Pack’, which was a group of legendary, boozing, womanising superstars in primordial Las Vegas - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. The ‘Brat Pack’ was a name given to a bunch of 20-somethings from the mid-80s, who were big in Hollywood. Chances are that if you are under 30, you haven’t heard of most of them other than one, but we will come to that guy later.

The group was led by Emilio Estevez, who starred in one of the biggest 1980s cowboy movies, Young Guns and its sequel Young Guns 2, now more famous because of the Bon Jovi soundtrack. Estevez and the rest of the crew were a bunch of hard-partying animals (it was the 1980s after all, and Colombian cocaine was flooding America). Back to the member that even those of you too young to remember would have heard of - Robert Downey Jr. (who drives an Audi as Iron Man, incidentally). Many of these guys spiralled a bit out of control, their careers went a bit south, most ended up in rehab, and Downey Jr’s return to the primetime is possibly one of the most remarkable stories of the Brat Pack. Estevez, whose father Ramon Antonio Estevez is also a famous actor, did happen to inspire his younger brother. You see, his father’s stage name is Martin Sheen, and his brother is, well, Mr. Tiger Blood himself — Charlie Sheen. Maybe they got their line-up wrong.