Audi RS5 Sportback 2020 UK first drive

Audi might just have worked out that the smartest thing to do right now with some of its RS performance models is simply to sit tight. The Mercedes-AMG C-Class range is shortly to lose its character-defining V8 engines, after all; and have you seen the grille on the next-generation BMW 4 Series? Like it or not, I suspect you won’t be able to miss it on the M4 replacement.

One way or another, German performance car aficionados who haven’t owned or driven an RS5 before might feel quite inclined to do so these next couple of years. For those who do, taking on a known quantity might even make the Audi appeal all the more.

There are some styling and interior revisions to this car, bringing something that was looking and feeling a bit tired and old up to date fairly effectively; but there really is very little to report about the powertrain and running gear. The same Porsche-co-developed, 2.9-litre, 444bhp twin-turbo V6 does the grunt work as it did before, hooked up to the same eight-speed automatic gearbox and torque-vectoring quattro four-wheel drive transmission. And the same five-link steel coil suspension (adaptively damped as standard, with a diagonally interlinked ‘DRC’ set-up optional) serves for suspension. Variable-ratio dynamic steering (previously a little-taken option) has now apparently been removed from the UK order book completely.

The RS5 comes in a choice of three trim levels, and in coupé or sportback five-door hatchback bodystyles. Two-doors are 35kg lighter than sportbacks, and can be made slightly lighter still if you go for a roof panel made from carbonfibre-reinforced plastic. Meanwhile, both RS5 bodystyles continue to be priced identically.

The sportback we tested had a slightly high-set driving position and was a little short on outright head room up front – but if you like your performance-car cabins super-smart, stylistically restrained and meticulously constructed, you’ll find little else not to your liking inside. 

Audi’s latest MMI Touch infotainment system is higher-mounted than in other applications, and the deletion of the old rotary input device means you have to operate it via the screen, at arm’s length, or lump it. A good job the system’s pretty slick and easy to navigate, then. 

Elsewhere you get Virtual Cockpit digital instruments as standard, which still set the standard for display clarity and configurability of layout. Most importantly, if you want to – let’s say you’ve got a long night drive ahead of you – Audi makes it easy to turn off the central display completely, and to switch the instrument screen into ‘minimal’ mode, in order to reduce that glare you can get from so many sources of artificial light. That can make a big difference to how quickly you tire on a long journey, and how easy it is to keep your eyes on the road – and other manufacturers would do well to follow Audi’s lead on it.

You can make up your own mind about the exterior styling changes. They’re pretty subtle – by far the easiest way to spot one of these new RS5s is likely to be via one of a pair of new paint colours, which are Turbo Blue and Tango Red. The radiator grille’s been made lower and wider, the precise shape and location of various frontal air intakes (both real and, yup, ‘implied’) have been tweaked, and there are new tail-lights and a diffuser panel at the rear. Quite why Audi bothers with so many styling references to the Ur-Quattro here, though – and yet doesn’t bother offering the iconic Nogaro Blue paint of the original RS2 – is somewhat puzzling (to me at least).