Thursday 21st June 2012

Chris Harris video: Audi RS4

Chris puts the new Audi RS4 into context against its predecessors ... and one very close rival

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Having already written a thousand words on the new B8 RS4, and now bunged a 20-minute video up, I'm struggling for new things to say about the car.

Previous B7 RS4 was the consumate all-rounder

What I can do now is look back on the past week and assess the reaction to the car.
There's one very important question that every road-tester type should ask themselves right at the very moment they are tackling the minutiae of any car's ultimate Queef-performance: would I like to spend 12 months in this thing?

It's a great leveller that one. Forget the degrees of oversteer, ignore the odd second over the quarter-mile and instead think of a cold, damp November morning, dropping the kids to school and driving two hours to the airport.

That's where the RS4, in fact all RS4s, tend to shine. What they lose in subjective frills they compensate with a kind of super-heated dependability.

Twin-turbo B5 version gets the Harris nod

I still feel that way about the new RS4 - it would be a pleasure to live with but the issues I raised last week still detract from the package. It's bloody useful having a rival car present on a first drive event. It's an invaluable control facility; a point of context. That's why we had a C63 AMG along for the test.

Anyways, you get all three RS4s in this video. B5, B7 and B8 - plus a little C63 for good measure.

Both the old cars came from Audi's historic fleet and even though the B7 was so nice it made me genuinely wonder if the new car was worth more than twice the money, it was the gnarly old B5 that won the day for me. Just about everything it does dynamically, it does badly but you can sort that, make it go like stink and it just looks fantastic.

Enjoy the vid.

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[Stuart]

Nice vid. One thing though Chris - is that a new microphone cover, or has a little bit of the Monkey chest rug escaped your normal rigorous depilatory regime?

[havoc]

Hey, I'll not have you being hirsuitist Stuart! Us near-neanderthals are proud of our rugs.

After all, some of the finest men in history have been hairy, for example
- Dr Zaius
- Cheetah
- Wolverine
- erm...

[dickieandjulie]

Oh that drift at 13:41!! Awesome!

[M666 EVO]

They didn't produce a B6?

[Chris Harris]

Stuart said:

Nice vid. One thing though Chris - is that a new microphone cover, or has a little bit of the Monkey chest rug escaped your normal rigorous depilatory regime?

Jealously will get you nowhere.

[chilled901]

It would have been fun to see the CTS-V sports wagon being pitted against the RS4 and the C63. Not sure if its sold in Europe or not but it would have made for some fun watching.

[carinaman]

M666 EVO said:

They didn't produce a B6?

I don't think so. I think they only made a B6 S4 with a 4.2 V8, no RS4 variant.

[Charlie Michael]

Stuart said:

Nice vid. One thing though Chris - is that a new microphone cover, or has a little bit of the Monkey chest rug escaped your normal rigorous depilatory regime?

- Nice vid Monkey. I got to be a passenger in a B7, bloody hell that thing is fast!

[EdM]

Quality review - PH at its best

[f328nvl]

The options list came out a week or two ago and it is, as suggested, potentially expensive. Given the huge discounts available on C63 AMGs, it's a tough call. I currently have an S4 (first ever non-manual car. It's really not bad at all) and had a B5 RS4 amongst five previous A4 Avants and I also have a deposit down on an RS4. I was offered December delivery last week but with lukewarm reviews all round I have told them I won't spec one until I've driven one which appears to be a problem.

Ho hum. maybe I should go back to Merecdes and see if they want to sell cars enough to tempt me.

[sturobturbo]

Who's going to tell Chris Harris that 'ft lbs' is not a measurement of torque...

[Vilhelm]

chilled901 said:

It would have been fun to see the CTS-V sports wagon being pitted against the RS4 and the C63. Not sure if its sold in Europe or not but it would have made for some fun watching.

Cadillac do sell cars in the EU and the UK, but they make zero effort to. There is no marketing, and no diesel option in any of their current cars. They also don't produce the CTS-V in right hand drive.

[Bencolem]

Great video, fast estates are a preoccupation for me and this video clearly differentiates the characters..I'd have the C63 but my God if the B5 isn't by far the prettiest of the quartet!

[MrBrightSi]

The noises of all cars in question wowed me.

[sturobturbo]

None of them are pretty, to me. He bangs on about how good the b5 loosks, it's just an Audi avant.

[Monster44]

I'd take the C63 every time! Any cross country wet weather pace would soon be undone by continually trying to configure the bloody thing to ride and steer properly.

[Phil Dicky]

Merc for me I think , just love the AMG v8

[chilled901]

Vilhelm said:

Cadillac do sell cars in the EU and the UK, but they make zero effort to. There is no marketing, and no diesel option in any of their current cars. They also don't produce the CTS-V in right hand drive.

Don't really see why diesel options should matter when we are comparing top of the line sports wagons. As far as LHD/ RHD is compared .. that horse has been beaten to death many, many times over.

[Guffy]

sturobturbo said:

Who's going to tell Chris Harris that 'ft lbs' is not a measurement of torque...

"Foot Pounds" is the accepted way of expressing the unit verbally, or is this one of those inside PH jokes?

Great video!

[Froggy porker]

Good vid. I'd take the Merc, but add snowy winter roads into the testing mix and the RS4 would suddenly seem like the clever choice.