Audi - Paris 2016

Farewell Quattro GmbH and hello Audi Sport with a new RS3 saloon and LMS race version

Given its significance to the Audi range and popularity among buyers we should probably focus this report on the all-new Q5 making its debut here at Paris. Frankly even by Audi's glacial pace of evolutionary design you'd be hard pressed to tell it apart from the existing one. And it's not what you'd call core PH.

The A5 Sportback possibly is though, the charge onto the stage amid a plethora of superlatives led by the 354hp S5 version with the new turbo V6. Already seen in the regular S5 and with much carried over from that car it's safe to say we can expect more of the same, albeit with a couple of extra doors. Overall though it was a vintage game of motor show press conference buzzword bingo, the designated suit going in hard on the 'sportlich', 'efficiency' and 'connected' jargon while boss Rupert Staler introduced us to the somewhat sinister sounding concept of 'swarm intelligence', referring to cloud-based data sharing using the existing sensors, cameras and other features already integrated into Audi's products.

The big Audi news from our perspective would be the return onto the motor show stage for ex-Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann in his new role as head of Quattro GmbH. Only he's not, because as of now there is no such company, his division rebranded as Audi Sport but continuing its job of building customer race cars, dedicated sports cars like the R8 and, of course, ruded up RS branded versions of regular Audis. Winkelmann promised eight of these in the coming 18 months alone, suggesting he's been doing more than just cultivating an extravagant beard since taking up his new position.

And the first of these is, as we'd guessed, an RS3 saloon. Which is, in the literal sense, an RS3 with a boot. No bad thing really, especially given how its equivalent in the S3 range somehow manages to come across as a bit more interesting than its hatchback equivalent. There's no real reason for that beyond looks and image, the cars fundamentally the same underneath and sharing the same five-cylinder turbo, Haldex-based four-wheel drive and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. For the saloon the hatchback's 367hp and 343lb ft gets a further boost to 400hp and 354lb ft though, worthwhile gains that'll no doubt be reflected in the price. Given the hatch is basically a £40K car a few options away from a £50K pricetag don't expect it to be cheap, this a pretty sturdy price point for a transverse-engine, Golf platformed saloon, no matter how muscular and charismatic its engine.

Sharing the stage with the RS3 saloon was a surprise unveiling in the shape of its RS3 LMS race version. Rules mean it runs a four-cylinder engine like the TCR Golf to compete in the Touring Car Racer International Series and not the road car's five-cylinder. No matter, it looks seriously mean with fat slicks busting out of already engorged box arches, a huge rear wing and a single centre exhaust of drain pipe proportions.

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Douglas Arfempty

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