superswiss

The S8 Plus is built by Audi Sport, too, and comes with ceramic brakes, the transmission from the RS 7 etc. I don't think you get the point. The new RS 5's objective was to make it softer, more GT. Not sure why. Here's what Randy Pobst had to say about the old RS 5. He is one of my favorite car reviewers. Honest and knows what he is talking about.

Full article here: http://www.motortrend.com/cars/merce...07-comparison/

So, in his opinion the B8.5 RS5 was more bad *** than the supercar R8. I have driven the gen 2 R8 a couple of times now for about 500 miles, and the above still holds. I like driving the R8 because supercar, but they still haven't gotten it right this time around. I liked the coupe better, because I had about an inch more legroom, so my driving position wasn't as crappy, but that initial push is still very frustrating. It's controllable, but not very confidence inspiring. If you try to push through, you end up sideways with very little warning. Happened twice. Went completely sideways on two hairpins with no warning and ESP in Sport mode.

Why not build on that and address the short comings of the B8.5. Make it lighter, put in an engine and exhaust note like the Jag X-Type V6 and make it a real competitor to the M4 and C63. I've never heard anybody say the RS 5 needs to be more GT.

kostas_os

Now that's an excellent article, thanks for sharing! I would like to see something similar with the new RS5, and I have to admit, I might be a "more GT" person myself (p.s. I thought the old RS5 was too loud for long trips), but comments like in the previous article about the new RS5:
"It doesn’t even feel fast, which is a remarkable thing to say for a car that recorded easily the fastest 0–60mph time (3.5secs in our hands)" really get on my nerves , so what? when I go downhill do 50kph on my bicycle it feels faster than doing 150kph in my car

superswiss

I did European Delivery with mine. Almost four weeks across Europe for a total of 4000 miles. Yes, I'll be the first to admit that going triple digit speeds at 7000+ rpm in the old RS 5 probably would get old after a while. It's like somebody is screaming at you constantly. However, it was hilariously fun for the honeymoon period and as my first road trip across the Netherlands proved, driven at the more moderate speeds allowed there it's a wonderful road trip car and that was further proved over the last four years doing road trips in the US. I'm known to get up at 4am on a Sunday, drive down to SoCal for some runs in the canyons and then back to NorCal all in a single day. It's something like 800 miles and 12 hours of driving. My RS 5 has adaptive cruise control and honestly I love it on road trips like that. This also means that it has the optional dynamic steering, which is a boon for daily driving and long trips. Makes for effortless tracking on the highway. In Comfort mode with ACC engaged it's super relaxing on the highway, but then once I hit up the canyon roads, unleash the beast for a couple of hours and then back to comfort mode on the ride home and relax.

So, for people in Germany I can certainly see the appeal of the new RS 5. You can go 155+ mph, w/o being screamed at the entire time.

Actually, that's kind of the point. The new RS 5 is so isolated and muted that you can't actually feel how fast you are going and that's generally a bad thing. A) it easily leads to speeding tickets, because you don't realize how fast you are going, and B) it generally makes for a more boring car, because it doesn't feel exciting until you drive at crazy illegal speeds.

kostas_os

Well, we will have to drive it to see if that's really the case, I don't accept anything these TopGear guys say in that article, they are so negative about the new RS5 it sounds fake (they call the Merc "magnificently garish", give me a break).
You are really lucky you have mountain roads to drive on, around here it is all flat, but we do have a blast driving on snow in the winter, hence "land of quattro"

superswiss

You can kinda approximate based on the current models. There is much more sound insulation in the B9. The A4/5 are very quiet cars and so is the S4/5. That's insulation right there. It won't be any different in the RS5. Additionally, the exhaust note is muted, because the turbos take away a lot of energy. Engine/exhaust noise while perhaps undesired on long trips adds to the feeling of speed. So, that's where my muted comment comes from.

Here in the SF Bay Area we have a car sharing service called Audi on Demand, which has anything from an A3 to the R8 in their fleet, so I drive a lot of different Audis. I took the Allroad on a 1300 mile road trip to Oregon, the S3 on a recent road trip to Mammoth Lakes and the TT RS and R8 for fun canyon runs on the weekend. The TT RS while a fun car was an example of how exhaust sound is muted in these turbo engines. It was often drowned out by road noise, so things like downshifting wasn't accompanied by a nice bark like it is on the RS5 and R8. But because the TT platform is otherwise low riding and not as noise insulated, you could experience the speed flying through the canyon roads. It is a rather fun car to drive. Then there is the R8, which needs no explanation as far as drama is concerned. From the moment of starting the engine to just driving around town, you are constantly reminded that you are driving a super car. Not something I would want to daily drive as it is quite clunky at slow speeds, but it is an experience on its own. Perhaps I'm a bit jaded, because I get to drive all these cars including exotics, so the B8.5 RS5 has been a great package for me as a GT with Motorsport inspired high revving engine. In some way an R8 in a more practical package and much more comfortable for daily driving and road trips.