Audi s5 3.0t quattro

[DriveAfrica.info]

AUDI S5 3.0T QUATTRO



TopCar recently invited one of Cape Town’s premiere DJs (and Good Hope FM radio personality) to test Audi’s new sport saloon-coupe. This is what Ty had to say

MAN HAS ALWAYS had this wild fascination with that wonderful invention called the wheel - and why not? It has allowed us to go much further than before and more importantly it beats the hell out of walking. One thing we have always tried to do is go faster, so adding a few horses and later virtual horses with the use of the combustion engine has made this possible.

From that need came the sports car, which looked great, was quick but was always uncomfortable. Added to our grief is the fact that we all grow older and our families are constantly expanding leaving us unable to keep our small, fast, good-looking noise makers. We end up buying family saloons which lack all the proverbial gees of a sports car. But alas some of the motoring manufacturers have caught on making some really fast, good looking comfortable saloons. So when TopCar’s Calvin Fisher invited me to see and test another new evolution of sporty saloon I was very excited.

Low and behold it was the new Audi S5 Sportback, yes it’s a mouth full and I was a little shocked at its appearance, as I wasn’t too sure what to make of it. Why you wonder? Well simply put Audi has an S4 Quattro already and they have the S6, so where does this car fit in? I was even more confused as the lines made it look like a sedan, but in actual fact it wasn’t. It has a boot that opens like a coupe but it wasn’t - making it therefore a… Coudan. Maybe.

Okay so don’t worry, you’ll get no technical jargon from me here - simply put this car looks like a normal car for us family men, but it also has that wolf in sheep clothing feel to it. It has racing seats that can be electronically adjusted to fit even the horizontally challenged individuals like me, big 18inch wheels, a front grille that looks like it can swallow a lamb, a dashboard that is designed around the drivers point of view, has a DSG gearbox, automatic handbrake for those lazy ‘stuck in traffic’ occasions, Park Assist, a sound system so loud you can drive with the windows closed and shut the little Chico up next to you with its subs and amps and most importantly flappy paddles that resemble the ones on your X-Box controllers. So it looks and feels the part of a comfortable sports car.

The driving bit isn’t bad at all either, we took the car on my favourite little ‘not so urban’ road just off the N7, with bends, some straights and a bumpy section that would make any sports cars suspension cringe. But this supercharged V6 ate up the straights, made the bends feel straight and had me wondering when the City Council decided to fix the bumps in the road. On the busy urban sections of our journey it was as smooth and quiet as a normal road car, the automatic gearbox selected the right gear every time for every situation and the automatic handbrake was a sensation. This big car handled like a little sports car and manoeuvered through daytime traffic like a little hatchback.

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This big car handled like a little sports car and manoeuvered through daytime traffic like a little hatchback.

As does the S5 cabrio. Audi has managed to get a great balance on the S5 V6T. The beauty and the beast - it's up to you which face you want to see.