2019 Audi RS 5 Sportback Review: Practical Performance

“I’d really like an Audi RS 5 Coupe, but I really need two more doors, a usable rear seat, and up to 35 cubic feet of luggage space.” That’s probably an inner conversation no buyer is ever going to have with himself as he walks into his friendly local Audi dealer. But it neatly sums up the appeal of the latest addition to Audi’s burgeoning RS lineup. The 2019 Audi RS 5 Sportback is a practical performance car, a civilized family vehicle when you need it to be, and a rip-snorting supercar when you want it to be.

Here are the headline numbers: 444 horsepower, 443 lb-ft of torque, 0–60 mph in 3.8 seconds, and a top speed—if you order the optional Dynamic Plus package—of 174 mph. All that, and room for the kids and their stuff.

Built on VW Group’s MLB Evo hardware, the RS 5 Sportback is identical to its two-door sibling from the B-pillar forward. However, wheelbase and overall length have grown 2.3 inches to accommodate the rear doors, and the roof is 1.1 inches taller to improve passenger headroom. The extra doors and the large rear hatch mean the Sportback weighs 89 pounds more than the Coupe, which Audi says accounts for it being a tenth of a second slower to 60 mph.

The RS 5’s twin-turbo 2.9-liter V-6—and Audi makes it very clear this engine, also used in Porsche’s Panamera, was developed entirely in-house—delivers a creamy surge of thrust, accompanied by a woofly baritone exhaust rumble when you nail the gas. It’s one of the nicest V-6s in the business, though with peak power arriving at a relatively modest 5,700 rpm, it lacks the thrilling top-end zing of the 4.2-liter V-8 that powered previous-generation RS 4/5 cars. But whereas the V-8 developed 317 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm, the V-6 makes its maximum 443 lb-ft available from just 1,900 rpm. It’s a torque monster, and rapid progress is most effortlessly achieved by short shifting before the digital tach starts flashing red to warn of the approaching rev limit.

Or you can leave the eight-speed ZF transmission to its own devices. That the engine’s torque curve is flatter than Kansas from 1,900 rpm to 5,000 rpm gives it a lot to work with; there’s always a response when you get on the throttle. In the normal drive mode—what Audi confusingly calls Auto—the transmission glides through the ratios before settling in the highest, most efficient gear and letting the torque do the work. But in Dynamic mode it neatly downshifts right where you want it on corner entry, the engine matching revs on the way through, and will coolly hold gear when you lift off the gas. You’d still be quicker down a canyon road fanning the paddles, shifting yourself. But not by much.

The RS 5 Sportback rides 0.3 inch lower than the regular S5 Sportback. The standard wheel/tire combination is 19-inch forged alloys with 265/35 summer tires, but our U.S. spec tester was fully loaded, fitted with 20-inch wheels and 275/35 tires, and the Dynamic Plus Pack. That adds monster 15.7-inch carbon ceramic brakes and gray painted calipers up front, in addition to Dynamic Ride Control, which uses steel springs and three-stage adjustable shocks connected diagonally via oil lines running through a central valve to reduce diagonal pitching and roll through corners. Oh, and the Dynamic Plus Pack also includes a tweak to the engine management system that lifts Vmax from 155 mph to 174 mph.

Don’t want or need 174 mph and the brakes to match? No problem. Just order the Dynamic Pack, which gives you the highly effective Dynamic Ride Control suspension, along with red-painted calipers for the steel brakes, and the RS sports exhaust system with blacked-out tips. Just to show what you’ve paid for.

You don’t notice the longer wheelbase and extra weight of the RS 5 Sportback on the road. However, like its two-door sibling, the RS 5 Sportback is a car whose front axle weight bias demands precision on corner entry when driven hard. But although the steering is accurate and there’s decent front-end grip, you never get a detailed read as to what’s happening at the tire contact patch. So the best way to attack the twisties is slow in, quick out, allowing the clever drivetrain to best apportion the torque between the front and rear axles and the rear wheels, to punch the car away from the apex.

Ironically, despite the label, Dynamic mode isn’t the best for press-on road driving. Even on Germany’s smooth two-lanes, the ultra-stiff damper rates delivered a gut-jiggling ride, and the novelty of the amplified rumble from the exhaust wears off quickly. The solution? Switch the drive mode to Individual and set the suspension and exhaust to the Comfort settings and everything else to Dynamic. Thus configured, the RS 5 is a fast, comfortable, coherent grand turismo, on any paved road, in any weather.

Americans don’t like wagons, which is why we don’t get the heroically subversive RS 4 and RS 6 load luggers this side of the pond. But we’re not exactly fans of hatchbacks, either. Audi’s A/S7 and A/S5 five-doors are the exceptions that prove the rule, however: The A/S5 Sportback outsells the A/S5 Coupe by almost three to one, and Audi of America product planners fully expect the RS 5 Sportback to be one of the company’s most popular RS models.

It’s not hard to see why. With a roofline that sweeps down into a fast backlight, the regular Sportback looks more like a racy four-door coupe than a prosaic grocery-getter. The RS family visual cues add muscle to the mix: The grille is shallower and wider, the fenders have been pumped 0.6 inch on each side, and the new front and rear bumpers are adorned with the usual performance car prerequisites such as vents, spoilers, splitters, and diffusers. Eight exterior colors are available at launch, including the lovely RS-only Nardo Grey, and Sonoma Green, which is exclusive to RS 5 models.

The interior is typically Audi, beautifully designed and impeccably executed, swathed in stitched leather, with soft-sheen aluminum highlights. Audi’s impressively configurable Virtual Cockpit digital instrumentation pack is standard equipment, and the RS-specific head-up display, showing engine oil temperature, lap time, and shift lights in addition to speed and nav information, is available as an option. That 35.0 cubic feet of luggage capacity—enough, says Audi, for five golf bags or four full-size suitcases—is what you get when you fold the rear seats flat. Seats up, the RS 5 will haul 21.8 cubic feet of stuff. In case you’re wondering, that’s about 14 percent less luggage capacity than an RS 4 wagon with the seats down, and only 3 percent less with the seats up.

You can’t buy an AMG C 63 wagon in the U.S., BMW hasn’t built an M3 wagon for a few years now, Jaguar couldn’t make a business case for an XE Sportbrake, and Cadillac has long since given up any ambition to play in the space. All of this leaves the $75,195 Audi RS 5 Sportback pretty much in a category of one. If you want autobahn-storming performance and genuine practicality in a premium midsize package, it’s the only game in town. But one worth the price of admission.

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