Say Audi and most Indians will think of cricket, Ravi Shastri and winning the World Championship of Cricket in 1985. But to me Audi means Quattro, four-wheel-drive and World Rallying. The Quattro was the ultimate all-weather car of its time and the way it melded practicality and performance, it left the world’s auto industry stunned. It was a car Michele Mouton, the queen of rallying, used to make grown men cry. It was a car that looked great on tarmac, dirt stages, snow and even my bedroom wall.Sadly, Indians never knew this iconic car. It was launched 27 years ago, at a time when all you could buy was an Amby or a Padmini. But now there’s a chance to understand what we missed. Audi has just launched the A5 coupé which Audi says is the spiritual successor to the original Quattro of 1980. The A5’s designers have cleverly taken elements of the R8 and TT sports cars and bolted them onto the next-generation A4 saloon’s platform. The result is a sleek and gorgeous-looking coupé with room for four people and their luggage. Like the Quattro, the A5 is highly desirable yet utterly practical but whether it has the same impact as its legendary predecessor remains to be seen. Walter de’Silva thinks it will. “The Audi A5 is the most beautiful car I have ever designed,” he says.
Strong words from a designer who has several stunning Alfa Romeos on his CV. However, as Audi’s design boss you would expect him to say that but, when you look at the A5 for the first time, you know it’s not just another well thought-out company sound byte. The A5 looks the part from any angle. It may not have the design drama of BMWs that have made them so controversial but then neither is it as dull-looking as some of the coupés from Mercedes. The A5’s styling is typically Audi – restrained and uncluttered. It may not excite everyone but what you get is a car that is exquisitely detailed and beautifully proportioned. The flat, broad and squat stance, accentuated in the range-topping S5, makes it look like it is hugging the road even when it’s parked. The A5 has lots of interesting design highlights, the most distinctive of which is the wavy beltline which runs along the flanks from the car’s headlights to the rear lamps. A superb touch is the strip of LED daytime running lights housed within the slim headlamps. The manner in which they gleam menacingly makes it impossible to mistake the A5 for anything else.
The talking point under the A5’s skin is an all-new Modular Longitudinal Platform (MLP) that promises to dramatically improve the car’s ride and handling. In fact, this new platform will be used for the next A4 saloon and the Q5 compact SUV that’s to be launched next year and its modular design will allow the next A6 and A8 to be built with the same architecture, so it had better be good.The key to this new platform is the way Audi’s engineers have moved the front axle far forward and the longitudinally- mounted engine and transmission as far back from the front axle line as possible. The five-link suspension design is all-new and the steering rack has moved from the bulkhead to just in front of the axle line. Audi says this improves feel and response.
Why all this fuss? It’s all part of the Ingolstadt-versus-Munich tussle that’s been going on for years. And it’s only now that Indian car buyers can relish this fight. The whole idea behind this new chassis, which the A5 is the first Audi to get, is to find the perfect weight distribution and balance (a fundamental reason why BMWs handle so well) and thereby improve the dynamic ability of all Audis to put them on the same plane as their Bavarian rivals and even beyond.I seriously doubt that the typical Audi owner in India will be able to appreciate the finer handling benefits the A5’s new-generation chassis offers, especially since most of them rarely venture out of the city.
What A5 owners will appreciate is the outstanding build quality of the interiors, which is a well-known Audi hallmark. The highlight must surely be a superb Bang & Olufsen system belting out 505 watts from 14 speakers! The front seats are superbly comfortable and come with the full range of power adjustments. The rear seats are cramped for adults — to be expected in a coupé —but a little bit more head and legroom would have made it a proper four-seater. I first jumped into the S5, the most potent variant in the A5 range.
Gone is the typical key which flicks out like a switchblade; what you get is a stubby fob which you plug into its slot on the dash. Better still is the optional advanced key system which is hard to beat for convenience. Merely keep the key in your pocket and within a range of 1.5 metres, sensors recognise it and unlock everything.
Press the silver start button on the transmission tunnel and the 354bhp 4.2-litre V8 bursts into life. The engine has a delightful growl to clearly signal its sporting intent but my enthusiasm is quickly dampened by a heavy clutch and a slightly notchy gearshift. To make matters worse, the clutch has little slip and is jerky and it takes me a while to smoothen out my gearshifts. The narrow roads from our hotel leading up to the even narrower mountain lanes meant that the S5 could only be enjoyed in a point-and-squirt sort of way. Acceleration is fantastic and the S5 simply rockets from corner to corner in a way that belies its porky 1.63-tonne weight. But it’s the way the S5 puts its power down that is truly amazing. Powering out of tight hairpins is a joy. The four-wheel-drive system delivers superb traction, the ESP light momentarily flashing when I floor the throttle pedal mid-corner. Stability under braking is also fantastic and braking hard upto a corner’s apex did little to unsettle the S5. The steering is nicely weighted and the handling pretty neutral, just what you need to thoroughly enjoy an afternoon of winding roads. With every passing corner my confidence rose, allowing me to dig deeper into corners. I was beginning to feel all the hard work of Audi engineers through my fingertips.
I can’t compare the S5 to equivalent BMWs nor can I compare it to the RS4, but what I can say is that handling was so neutral, the turn-in so enthusiastic that the line though the corners could be balanced delicately by using the throttle, even with the ESP switched on. On the autobahn, the S5 feels rock-steady, munching kilometres with such ease to make it a fantastic trans-continental car. If only there was more space in the rear for the family. The diesel A5, which I briefly drove as well, was a good reminder of Audi’s Le Mans victories. This diesel is incredibly quick and refined to boot. It’s not the lack of performance or the noise that gives the game away but the diesel’s characteristically narrow power band. Stay in the engine’s sweet spot and the 3.0-litre V6 delivers a slug of torque that hits you like a tidal wave to waft you, road willing, to 250 clicks. There’s a 3.2-litre petrol V6 as well which comes with an eight-speed automatic. Yes, eight-speed. Talk about auto transmission one-upmanship!
Now to the Rs 60-lakh question. When will the A5 come to India? Audi says there are no plans but it’s likely that this new coupé will follow the launch of the new TT. Our advice to would-be owners is to head for the hills on long weekends and enjoy the hard work the men of Ingolstadt have put into their new baby.
Source: autocarindia
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