Audi celebrated 20 years of high performance RS cars in an appropriate way – take a bunch of them to a private track in NSW and let them loose.
There on the straight in brilliant north-of-Sydney sunshine were an R8 V10 Plus, RS 7 Sportback, RS 6 Avant, RS 5 Coupe, RS 4 Avant, TT RS and RS Q3 – throw-in a few optional extra on some of them and that’s over $1.5 million worth of cars according to Audi.
For those of us who love high-performance German cars this was indeed an early Christmas present.
It all started back in 1994 with the very first Audi RS 2 Avant. None were officially imported to Australia but a couple of examples of the 232kW/410Nm turbocharged 2.2-litre five-cylinder wagon have been secured by private enthusiasts.
Now Audi Sport is a sub-brand of Audi and the top of the totem pole is of course the R8 LMS Ultra GT racer – that would be two wins in the Bathurst 12-Hour race (2011-2012) and they’re back on ‘The Mountain’ next year with two German-crewed entries from Team Phoenix as well as four privately-entered cars.
But talking road cars, the next level down from the R8 LMS Ultra is the stunning R8 LMX which we’ve seen in Europe – three of these supercars are heading to eager Australian customers next year.
Then there’s the Audi R8 V10 Plus (as we tested at that private facility on Monday), the regular R8 V10 and V8, the various RS and S models, all the way to the S-Line packages optionally available on many Audi models.
Every one of those you’d file under ‘D’ for ‘Desirable’.
And sales are, well, more than spectacular to be honest – according to Audi Australia chief Andrew Doyle, more S, RS and R8 models were sold locally in the first six months of this year than in the full 12 months of 2013. A rise of 188 per-cent in fact which Andrew reckons is running ahead of those rival ‘AMG’ and ‘M’-badged rivals.
The best-selling RS model is the RS Q3 compact SUV – the first RS model in Australia to wear a ‘sub-$100,000’ price sticker ($81,900).
We were reacquainted with the Audi RS Q3 on Monday and while the test track will never be the best venue for a four-door compact SUV, in no way was the 228kW/420Nm 2.5-litre TFSI turbocharged five-cylinder petrol engine and seven-speed S tronic automatic transmission outclassed…we wished we’d been driving the RS Q3 for the return trip on the Central Coast back roads and Pacific Highway when one of Sydney’s tremendous summer afternoon thunderstorms rolled-in.
In fact we drove a gorgeous Audi RS 5 Coupe through the worst of the storm – a $172,000 high-performance coupe thanks to optional extras such as 20-in 5-V-spoke titanium look alloy wheels, a sport exhaust system with black tailpipes and sports suspension with Dynamic Ride Control.
Around the track, the Audi RS 5 Coupe rewarded with a sonorous soundtrack from the 331kW/430Nm 4.2-litre FSI V8 engine, rapid-fire shifts from the seven-speed S tronic transmission and zero to 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds.
Talking performance, the accepted ‘Supercar’ benchmark is zero to 100km/h in under 4.0 seconds and as the Audi R8 V10 Plus delivers that sprint in just 3.4 seconds…well it’s well-and-truly in the hallowed few.
We’d driven the regular 316kW/430Nm V8-powered Audi R8 on the road, but this was our first ‘seat-time’ in the 404kW/540Nm V10 model and it treated us to some memorable laps of the circuit – even though Audi was keeping us on a tight reign due to overnight weather.
Like all V10s, Audi’s 5.2-litre provides a staggering exhaust note, delivering its 404kW of power at 8000rpm and its peak torque of 540Nm at 6500rpm and the push in the back as you whip through the cogs in the seven-speed tiptronic is astonishing.
And of course like all Audi RS vehicles, the driving environment in the R8 V10 plus is superb with glorious sports seats (mostly trimmed in leather) and perfect driving positions with which to grab the equally perfect sports steering wheels.
But for us, what reigns supreme over the Audi R8 and RS lineup are those magic seven letters – Q-U-A-T-T-R-O.
There are now almost mystical qualities surrounding Audi’s highly-developed all-wheel-drive system – the cumulative result is what separates Audi products (and not just the high-performance versions we’ve just driven) from their rivals.
Pushed hard like we did at the track on Monday the front or rear tyres of two-wheel-drive vehicles would have cried ‘enough’ very early on but the Quattro-equipped Audis delivered the sort of phenomenal grip and balance we expect and of course much less punishment on the rubber.
And you’ll be hearing a lot more of the Audi Sport sub-brand in the future as the German giant expands the in-dealership presence for its performance cars.
The $25 million Audi Centre Melbourne opened recently with an entire floor dedicated to Audi Sport (the cars, the merchandise and even the ‘barista’ coffee and there’s more to come.
And look for Audi on ‘Wild Oates 11’- the favourite again for this years Sydney-Hobart yachting classic.
Audi has a 10-year relationship with the Oatley family and will be back on the family-owned Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays in August for the next chapter of the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week yachting regatta.
And in July next year, sporting attention will be focused on the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Audi International Champions Cup which will see soccer teams Real Madrid, Manchester City and a third as yet un-named side do battle.
