superswiss

Yes, the RWS would be the R8 I'd want. Audi Sport tuned the quattro system in the gen 2 R8 with way too much initial understeer. On canyon roads where you don't exactly have the room and generally don't reach the necessary speed to push through that initial understeer and get some rear axle action, it ends up being a rather frustrating experience. However, I have not yet convinced myself that owning an R8, which I would end up driving maybe one or two weekends a month during the summer is a wise move. That's why the old RS5 checks so many boxes for me. Same engine philosophy as the R8, responsive S-tronic, but practical enough for daily driving and a weekend out of town, and to me it's more fun in the canyons than the R8 as it has virtually no understeer thanks to the sport diff and torque vectoring and lets you do controlled drifts and 4 wheel slides around hairpins and corners at lower speeds.

Glisse

I haven't driven the B9 RS5 yet, but it will handle well - the chassis is a distinct step up from the B8. The issue for you is going to be the engine and transmission - particularly the latter, which I think you will hate. It would seem completely at the other end of the spectrum from your RS5. As noted in the review Stankia posted, there will definitely be an RS5 Performance version coming down the line - planned at the outset. Hopefully they will put the ZF8HP-90 in that one, and spend a bit more time getting the maps right.

Other point to note is that Stephan Reil has left Audi Sport this month, after 17+ years there. Basically since the beginning of quattro GmbH. He is very much the purist engineer, and feels the drift modes (defined traction control slip angles) that both BMW and Mercedes are using so that journalists and drivers can drift without crashing are stupid - traction=speed. It was Winkelmann who pushed through the rear wheel drive R8, so Audi Sport might lighten up on throttle steering in future.

Stankia

Winkelmann sadly left to Bugatti , great guy.

superswiss

I'm not too concerned about the handling, although I've read that they softened the DRC and tamed the sport differential, so it sounds like it might be less rear pronounced than the current one and have more roll in the name of comfort. Not optimistic on the engine/transmission, you are right. The Motor Trend review was kinda telling when the best they had to say about the transmission was that it is good enough. That's not a very endorsing comment for an RS, IMO.

Glisse

What is disturbing, in the sense of Audi Sport / quattro heritage, is that he has been replaced by a sales guy - not sure I understand that fit. Politics, I guess. Don't know much about the new AS head of development that is replacing Reil (who hasn't left Audi, they're just not saying where he is going).

I assume Winkelmann is being parked at Bugatti to do some short term work, rumour is he will be at Bentley soon. I think he is being groomed - highly regarded for the management job he did at Lamborghini.

N8!

News here:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/ins...ey-and-bugatti

N8!

More vids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpRL...ature=youtu.be

N8!

"What is an Audi RS car? What differentiates an RS to other cars in the range? These are fundamental questions..."

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/big...-vs-its-rivals

superswiss

Pretty much sums it up. Unclear what role the RS5 was supposed to play is probably the biggest one. The lack of Sporty is where it starts. It's the little things. The RS3, TT RS and R8 have all moved the engine start/stop to the steering wheel along with the Drive Select button, but not the RS5. All those other cars mean business the moment to step in them. The RS 5 is more GT you say? Why? There's the S5 for that. The longer I think about this RS5, the more I feel Audi should have badged this the S5 Plus. Maybe they have something in store for the RS5 Performance.

kostas_os

Come on people be serious, the RS5 is not sporty, seriously? For starters, RS5s have nothing to do with S5s, different engine, brakes, suspension, they are built by a different division. 0-100kph in 3.7 sec (that's what real tests show, Audi's 3.9 sec figure, which also very fast, is basically what your grandma will do ), that's more than 1/2 sec faster than the first R8! You get 1.1g acceleration, the others are just spinning their wheels! And one more thing, most of the so called automotive journalists don't even know how to drive a quattro let alone one with a torque vectoring differential, and they're trying to hide their incompetence in smoke