The marketplace for luxury high-performance coupes, once largely defined by the BMW M3, has been getting more crowded recently. Nevertheless, Audi still believes that there is room for one more offering, introducing the new S5 this summer. The S5 certainly meets the minimum entry requirements, mounting a 4.2-liter V8 and six-speed manual transmission that can take the car to sixty mph in a whisker over five seconds, a sports suspension that can handle the twisty bits with aplomb, and tuner brakes tucked into 19-inch alloy wheels that can bring the car to a halt from sixty at a rate that will throw passengers firmly into the seatbelts.

All of that performance is packaged in a sleek new body style that literally stopped pedestrians and passing drivers in their tracks in this normally car-blasé little town.

Backstory

Over the past ten years, whenever any motoring writer has been given the keys to a mid-sized coupe or sedan with a stick-shift and a motor putting out more than 300 horsepower, its manufacturer would say the car was the new competition to the BMW 3-Series. Needless to say, these cars have generally fallen short of that benchmark.

But it takes true self-confidence, or perhaps chutzpah, to introduce a new car that is intended to be competitive with the M3. To be fair, Audi doesn’t actually say that the S5 is an M3 challenger. However, when they advertise their car as the high-performance version of their new A5 sports coupe, they give it a V8 engine and six-speed manual transmission, equip it with all the high performance visual cues and equipment as standard, and then price it within a few hundred dollars of the M3, the marketing target is obvious.

We just had a full week to drive the Audi S5, with glorious northern California spring weather inviting us back up into the coastal backroads that were recently populated by American journalists trying out the new BMW line-up. We couldn’t resist the temptation to take the S5 over the same roads on which we sampled the M3, and the comparisons and contrasts really helped put the S5 into perspective.

Aesthetics (3.5 of 5)

Opinions differ widely about the attractiveness of Audi’s new large signature center grille – actually two grilles, one above and one below the bumper, visually linked with a single chrome surround – but no one seeing the car approaching or in their rear view mirror will doubt that it’s an Audi. With a light color exterior, like the ibis white that we drove, the imposing grille looks a little piggish. However, in the available deep sea blue, phantom black or brilliant black, the horizontal central panel of the grille blends with the body color to create a two-grille effect like previous-generation Audis that borders on attractive.

The purposive and functional aero-effect panels that are standard on the S5, and distinguish it from the more demure A5, are quite dramatic. Accented by a dramatic use of l.e.d. running lights underlining the headlights, they convey a strong high-performance image.

From the side, with the sleek greenhouse flowing smoothly into the rear quarters, the car looks as if it is clearly intended for speed, and the rippling feature lines along the side panels accent that impression. We found that a rear three-quarter angle was really the prettiest way to photograph the car, with the trunk, spoiler, and fender lines above the quad tail pipes distinct improvements over anything BMW is designing.

At the end of the day, however, the S5 does not come off looking nearly as interesting as the sum of its parts. Oddly, most of the sheetmetal’s nuances that one could rightly call beautiful will go unnoticed to the untrained eye. In trying to make the A5/S5 look understated, Audi seemingly de-emphasized design cues that would look much more appealing if exaggerated. (The headlights, beltline, and window profile come to mind.)

Cabin (5 of 5)

In recent years, Audi has clearly raised the bar for interior quality and styling, and the S5 version earns high marks, managing to encourage the enthusiast driver, while at the same time complimenting his or her sense of style. Prada would look as appropriate as Piloti on the pedals of the S5.

Perhaps taking a leaf from the Bentley (or MINI Cooper) playbooks, owners can pick from a range of rich interior colors, including Alcantara and leather in black or silver/ black, or cloth and leather in deep red, glove brown, or black. Accent trim is available in brushed chrome, deep walnut, or ebony black. This is certainly a welcome change from the black on black on black interiors of many other performance automobiles.

Enhancing the performance image of the interior, the driver’s gauges and screens are grouped under a single cowl in front of the driver that sweeps down into the center stack. A small read-out screen which provides a digital indicator of speed, navigation instructions, or audio information is placed conveniently between the white-on-black tachometer and speedometer. More detailed information, including the navigation maps, radio stations, audio or hvac data is displayed on a standard-sized screen immediately to the right under the cowl.

Unfortunately, the placement of control buttons is much less ergonomic, with the key controls for the navigation and audio, fifteen buttons in all, placed on the console behind the gear shift, requiring the driver to look down from the road to select from among them. Perhaps we are to assume these controls were only intended to be operated by the co-pilot.

Space in the coupe, even in the back seats, is exceptional because of the 108 inch wheelbase, very long for a two-door car. Though the back-seat passengers will have to be fairly agile to slide between the b-pillar and the front seat, as long as they and the front-seat passengers are both under six feet tall, they will all be quite comfortable once inside.

One unusual standard feature on the S5 is the sunroof, which admits sunlight and brightens the interior. But it can only be opened a crack at the rear for ventilation, rather than sliding back as does virtually every other sunroof. No romantic warm evening star-gazing will be going on in this coupe.

Technology (4 of 5)

To achieve the S5’s fine handling and quick power response, Audi resorts more to fundamental physics than high-tech electronics. The all-wheel quattro system which Audi pioneered over two decades ago and has been fine-tuning ever since, coupled to a multi-link sports suspension, does as much to keep the car planted and stable in quick corners as any other manufacturer’s electronically-adjustable shocks and stability control systems.

Likewise, power comes from a naturally-aspirated V8 engine putting out a more-than-adequate 354 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. Redlined at a reasonable seven grand, it provides exceptional acceleration at all speeds and in all six gears. As far as we’re concerned, the 5.1-second zero-to-sixty capability is as fast as we’re comfortable with on onramps, and whatever we’ll be giving up in straight-line performance on the track, we think can be made up in the corners.

Fuel efficiency is on the negative side of the equation. With gasoline pushing four bucks per gallon, and one station on the California coast now charging over five bucks for regular, it’s just a little hard to rationalize 14 mpg city/21 mpg except to say that’s exactly the same rating as the new M3.

But while we’re on the subject of technology, subtract the rest of one point for Audi’s MMI operating system. This screen/knob system was a step ahead of the BMW iDrive system a few years ago, but has gotten worse as they’ve attempted to improve it. To say the system is “unnecessarily complicated” as Consumer Reports does, is understating the problem.

The approach of controlling vehicle functions by using successive computer screens was supposed to replace hard-to-find buttons, but in the last two incarnations, Audi has simply added back the buttons in order to provide short-cuts to the computer screens. If we didn’t like the back-up camera so much, with distance and targetting lines on the screen that pivot with the steering to show exactly where we were going when backing-up, we’d punt the optional navi system entirely.

Performance (5 of 5)

Enough of this sitting around and admiring styling and statistics, let’s drive. To put our S5 to the test, we headed back up into the California coastal hills that we enjoyed so much on the BMW introduction a few weeks ago (see M3, 1-Series, and MINI Clubman reports). The nice thing is that these roads offer short straights for bursts of speed, fast sweepers to test steering control, and down-shift uphill hairpin turns that challenge torque and chassis balance. And the scenery is pretty spectacular too, when you stop to look at it.

Our route starts with a series of tight two-lane curves that climb a thousand feet to Skyline Drive. The first impression is that the breadth of the torque band is amazing. In fourth gear, even though the rpm drops to where the shift indicator is recommending a downshift, the car doesn’t falter. However, it’s much more fun to downshift to second into the uphill hairpins, then power out past the apex. When given the opportunity, it’s easy at any speed to accelerate to pass a slower car.

Speaking of shifting, this is one great gear shift. Throws are short and the lever can be moved from gear to gear with just the tip of a finger. It doesn’t get any better than this.

You also want to roll the windows down just to enjoy the incredible sound coming out of those four tail-pipes. There’s nothing like a V8 singing through a tuned exhaust to get a driver’s blood flowing on a spring day.

On level curves, the car turns in easily with just the slightest tilt to confirm that the suspension, not some artificial boost to the shocks, is keeping the car flat through the turns. However, we should note that this control comes at the price of a suspension that some riders may find stiff and unyielding in normal driving.

Another issue with this car is the heaviness of the steering. During normal highway cruising it takes little effort and attention to keep the car in a straight line. However, in high-speed sweeping curves, the wheel requires some pressure to maintain the car’s path. Neither of these issues is enough to detract from the rewards the car provides to the enthusiast driver, but if you don’t want to put up these shortcomings, you might want to go for the A5, or some other boulevard cruiser.

Bottom line

Having driven the M3 only a few weeks ago, we couldn’t help drawing some comparisons. On the whole, these cars both get their owners to the same fun-driving goals, but they accomplish that in very different ways.

The M3 is slightly more attractive on the exterior, but the interior colors and style of the S5 are definitely more pleasing. It makes you feel good just to sit in this car, even though the BMW engineers would argue that all those colors and textures will take your mind off your driving.

The M3 can get you from zero to sixty a few tenths of a tick faster than the S5, but the M3 does it at higher rpm, so you always seem to be working harder for the same reward. On corners, especially on the track, the M3’s technology will get an average driver around the corner as fast as a better driver can do it in an S5, but when with a little practice, you can make the Audi perform just as well, the achievement feels more satisfying.

To put the comparison into perspective, if we were offered a choice between the two cars, we’d have to flip a coin to make our choice, and wouldn’t be unhappy with heads or tails. On the other hand, in the real world of real buyers, where we’re hearing reports of dealers adding as much as $30,000 of “market adjustment fees” to the price of the M3, the choice may be easier.

Words and photos by Gary Anderson

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