Since the RS range arrived in South Africa with the RS 2 Avant in 1994, just 1 250 examples of Audi’s Rennsport vehicles have been sold locally. For many years you could only find one RS model on sale at any one time, but now Audi have let their hair down and buyers have a choice of seven, with two more to follow before the year is out.
It’s a tantalising line-up that begins with the Audi RS 3 Sportback, followed by the Audi TT RS, Audi TT RS Roadster, Audi RS 4 Avant, Audi RS 5 Coupe and finally, the latest Audi RS 5 Cabriolet. If you’re wondering about the R8, well, it doesn’t carry the RS badge and is in a league of its own within the stable.
The latest addition to the RS family doesn’t bring any specific changes to the current recipe, but does add a little more noise and narcissism.
The new Audi RS 5 Cabriolet features the same styling cues as its Coupe stablemate. The car’s flowing silhouette is adorned with combination xenon and LED daytime running lights, along with Audi’s trademark matte aluminium trim around the windscreen frame and side mirrors. More matt aluminium-look trim surrounds the anthracite coloured honeycomb grille, while large central and side air intakes are integrated into a bold front bumper with aluminium-look splitter edge.
A great looking set of 19-inch forged aluminium wheels, wrapped with 265/35 profile tyres, fill the flared wheels arches. The tail end features a diffuser, two oval shaped exhausts and is finished off with a discrete carbon fibre rear spoiler.
Inside, the Audi RS 5 Cabriolet is styled in black with carbon inlays as standard. Further chrome accents and gloss black trim underscore the RS 5’s sporty appearance, with front seats contoured to provide ample support whether cruising or cornering. RS 5 logos can be found on the door sill plates, the steering wheel, tachometer, the gear selector grip, as well as embroidered onto the backs of the seats. Trim options include a combination of leather and Alcantara, or Nappa leather, with all leather having been pigmented to guard against excessive heating by sunlight.
Audi favour a fabric roof, or soft top, over the heavier folding steel roof option. The benefits include reduced weight and less influence on the car’s balance and centre of gravity. The RS 5’s roof folds down in 15 seconds and up in 17, all at speeds of up to 50 km/h. Sound insulation is bolstered by a 15 mm thick acoustic foam layer between the inner and outer roof linings. Cargo space is 320-litres, which Audi claim is best-in-class.
With no roof to aid structural support, Audi have added hardened steel to the passenger cell, along with specifically reinforced components, such as: diagonal struts joining the side sills to the subframe; ultra-high strength walls on the side skirts themselves; together with special and extremely rigid tubes that reinforce the A-pillars.
Rollover protection is located between the interior and boot area. In the case of impending doom, pre-tensioned springs instantly push up aluminium supports behind the rear head restraints. The RS 5 Cabriolet is also equipped with side impact, head/thorax and driver/passenger airbags. Between the safety and structural measures, the Cabriolet weighs 205 kg more than the Coupe.
This additional weight is noticeable from behind the wheel, but the naturally aspirated, 4.2-litre V8 has no problem providing rocket-like propulsion. The 331 kW and 430 Nm engine, spins to 8 250 r/min and delivers a benchmark 0 – 100 km/h sprint time of 4.9 seconds. Top speed is limited to 250 km/h with a derestricted option to raise it to 280 km/h. Whatever speed and whatever pace you accelerate, however, the V8 sounds glorious while doing so.
The RS 5 is available exclusively with Audi’s 7-speed S tronic transmission, which can be operated by a sequential manual with the gear lever, or shift paddles finished in an aluminium-look. It’s a quick shifting gearbox, which offers addictive auto-blips of the throttle on down shifts. Audi also claim an average fuel consumption figure of 10.7 l/100km thanks in part to the S tronic’s long 7th gear ratio.
We can’t talk about a RS car and not mention Quattro and the RS 5 is equipped with the latest software driving Audi’s self-locking crown-gear centre differential and torque vectoring systems. The latest Quattro system is some way ahead of the previous generation, which can still be found on the TT RS. The RS 5’s Quattro system is far quicker to react under hard cornering and manages the distribution of torque that much better too. The result is that despite the car’s weight penalty over the hard top equivalent, the car remains less prone to understeer and therefore a more rewarding drive is played out against a spine tingling V8 backtrack.
Although equipped with a lap timer and an oil temperature gauge, the RS 5 Cabrio isn’t the kind of car that begs to be taken to your local trackday. You’ll have plenty of fun if you do, but trying to set a new lap record on your lap timer would be ambitious and unlikely.
Instead, the RS 5 Cabrio would be put to better use with just a few laps in the morning session, followed by a quick polish and a burble through the countryside on the way to Sunday lunch with three of your best looking friends.
| Prices (incl. VAT & CO2 tax) | |
| Audi RS 5 Cabriolet | R968 000 |
Pricing includes a 1-year/unlimited km warranty and 5-year/100 000km service plan.
