Audi RS 4 Avant
My long-standing bromance with fast Audi estates was kick-started in 1994, when Porsche indulged in some highly advanced fettling with an already rapid 2.2 litre, five-cylinder, 230 bhp Audi 80 Estate S2 and duly hatched the RS2.
Armed with 315 bhp and 302 lb ft of torque, this monsterpiece arrived at 62 mph from a standstill in a quoted 5.4 seconds and smeared on to 163 mph. Best of all, though, the interior was almost entirely swathed in new-fangled, electric blue Alcantara, which the missus was too busy stroking to notice just how rapid our cross-country progress tended to be.
Mechanical sympathy brutally side-lined, we took the car to Millbrook proving ground for a hatful of clutch-dumping, diff-crunching, back-thumping practice starts (regularly posting 0-60 times of under 5 seconds and 0-30 in less than 1.5) and thence to the Brighton Speed Trials.
There, whilst the missus swanned about in our hotel room swathed in every towel the bathroom had to offer -eating strawberries and watching windsurfers carve up the week-old dishwater-grey Channel, I was trying to post a sub-14 second standing quarter mile down Madeira Drive.
Alas, the need to keep the turbo fully committed at around 5000 rpm allied to the vicissitudes of rapid manual gear selection proved sufficiently fist hamming to leave me with a best run of 14.12 seconds and a terminal velocity of just over 100 mph. But the RS2’s ability to thump off the line with all but zero wheelspin meant it was still besting a gorgeous Ford GT40 which consistently crossed the finish line at over 140mph, and giving a 911 Turbo a proper run for its money…
Moment of the day, however, undoubtedly went to the embarrassed spectator I found rummaging about between the car’s rear wheel spokes, through which could be glimpsed one of the first iterations of the brightly painted brake calliper: ‘Sorry,’ he blushed. ‘I thought you had an empty crisp packet wedged in there.’
27 years on, Audi’s (blisteringly) fast estate fleet has grown sufficiently to leave one with a difficult choice; the RS2’s five-cylinder natural successor, the RS 3, the titanic V8 RS 6, or -complete with newly downsized powerplant- this V6 RS 4.
To this jaded eye, the RS 4 -particularly in glorious Sonoma Green- is the belle of the ball; even the proportions of the Big Grille (over which we have mulled aplenty before now) seem to work better than on any other Audi bar the R8. And those almost residual, squared-off, original Quattro-aping wheel arch blisters are just perfect.
On board, instrumentation and switchgear that appears to be a generation behind that which you’ll find adorning the RS 6 cabin actually proves entirely beneficial to the driver; air-condition controls you can accurately adjust on the move, and readily dismissible irritants such as lane keeping assistance. Indeed, my only gripe is that the driver’s instrument binnacle isn’t configurable with simple round dials for both tachometer and speedo -the former now an ungainly graph dominating the screen.
The driving position’s nigh on perfect in terms of both ergonomics and comfort, and the corners of the car far easier to locate than from behind the wheel of this estate’s larger sibling. There’s plenty of room in the rear seats, and the loadspace expands from the cavernous to the downright cathedral.
Now, there’s little mileage in carping about the loss of that V8 in the engine room. In the power stakes, the V6’s 444 bhp is a near match for its predecessor and, more significantly, it generates 125 lb ft more torque whilst coughing up a quarter less CO2. The new RS 4 is also a whopping 125 kg lighter than its forebear, which plays its part in lowering the 0-62 mph dash to just 4.1 seconds, raising the top speed of this unrestricted Vorsprung model to 174 mph, and awarding the whole shooting match newfound levels of pointiness and agility.
An eight-speed Tiptronic torque converter automatic gearbox replaces the much-loved seven-speed dual clutch transmission, and power is not only artfully shunted between front and rear axles by Audi’s well-honed quattro technology, but now also between individual rear wheels by an electronically controlled Sport rear differential.
Lob torque vectoring braking into the armoury as well, and you have levels of traction and grip at your disposal of which only the entirely foolhardy will explore the road-going outer limits. Even in the wet, the RS 4’s progress is never far short of utterly imperious.
I’m not, truth be told, quite so enamoured with the Dynamic Steering here fitted as standard. Its variable rates take a deal of acclimatisation, and the system somewhat smacks of the solution to a problem which doesn’t exist.
The addition of two, steering wheel button-activated RS drive modes to the standard Audi fayre of Comfort, Auto and Dynamic also requires some acclimatisation. Not least because one of them posts a dirty great digital stopwatch on the head-up display, so large you find yourself forlornly trying to peer around it. Seriously? A track day? In this?
Settle down for a damned good rummage through the drive mode menus, however, and it is possible to combine a sonorous soundtrack with a not entirely bone-jarring ride and paddle shift work fast enough to satisfy even those who own their own racing booties. The only price to be paid being the occasional unnecessary thump between ratios in the sportier gearbox settings.
Oh, and a wet weather cross-country pace that’ll show a clean pair of heels to pretty much anything else in this price bracket, and everything else with a luggage capacity worth mentioning.
Then you hand the car over to the missus, who promptly dials in the Auto drive mode setting and then manages to cover ground almost as quickly, seamlessly, and in far greater comfort. And that’s always been the beauty of a fast Audi estate…