A Heavyweight Challenger — Literally
Yes, we’ve seen all the memes and stories about the all-new RS 5’s weight, but we’re still glad that Audi makes such cars. Even better, it still has six cylinders, so it’ll at least sound decent. It also means that the battle for (not so) high-performance compact executive sedan supremacy lives on, and that’s good news for everyone.
For over 30 years, Audi has been butting heads with BMW and Mercedes-Benz in this category. And while comparison tests will have their own declared winners, all the cars in that class have their rabid fans. In the case of the RS 5, its main target is the BMW M3 and Mercedes-AMG C63.
We’d like to point out that the current iterations of the M3 and C63 are on the way out. The BMW is taking the six-cylinder plug-in hybrid route, while the AMG is ditching the four-cylinder soon. Mind you, it’s AMG that started the whole plug-in hybrid thing in this class of car in the first place.
Audi
Pulling Power
The Audi RS 5 wades into battle with a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6 just like its previous generation. But this time around, it gets a plug-in hybrid system bolted on, giving it class-leading horsepower and torque. Those powertrain systems combined deliver 630 hp and 608 lb-ft of torque. The engine alone makes 503 hp, a significant increase over last year’s model’s 444 hp.
However, those stats are still eclipsed by the Mercedes-AMG C63’s total combined output. Affalterbach’s hot PHEV sedan makes 671 hp and 752 lb-ft of torque. We’ll address the elephant in the room: it’s a 2.0-liter four-cylinder, boosted to kingdom come. Yes, it makes the power, but where’s the soundtrack?
As for BMW, the current M3 sticks to a tried-and-true recipe with no electrification tricks whatsoever. There’s the 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline-six, good for 473 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque, and the Competition version, which raises that to 503 hp and 479 lb-ft. Go for xDrive all-wheel drive, and you get an extra 20 hp. It’s the least powerful on paper, but that’s just one part of the equation.
Weighing the Scales
We now live in a day and age where anything under 4,000 lbs is considered light for a performance sedan. With that, the flyweight of this group is easily the BMW M3 with the standard non-Competition model at ‘just’ 3,890 lbs. That’s as light as they come in this group, but it’s actually (slightly) heavier than an E60 M5, which tipped the scales at 3,869 lbs — with a stonking V10 under the hood. Oh, what a world we live in today.
The next car is nearly 1,000 lbs heavier than the M3, and that’s the C63 at 4,817 lbs. Do the math, and that’s exactly 927 lbs more than the BMW. Of course, the reason for that is the plug-in hybrid system. Batteries and motors are not light, folks. But the AMG is a featherweight to the new RS 5.
The all-new RS 5 weighs a whopping 5,129 lbs. The Avant version, which America won’t be getting in the near future, drives up that number to 5,225 lbs. It’s even heavier than the RS 6 Avant, and just a few hundred pounds away from the much larger SQ7. Impressive, but for all the wrong reasons.
Keyboard Drag Race
There is a spread of about 200 horsepower between the least-powerful and most-powerful models. With that in mind, acceleration times should be straightforward, right? Well, no. Also, remember that there’s 1,239 lbs between the lightest and heaviest cars here.
Audi claims a 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) time of 3.6 seconds for the RS 5, so its 0 to 60 mph time is probably around 3.4 to 3.5 seconds. As for the C63, AMG lists 3.3 seconds for its official 0 to 60 time. BMW’s claimed numbers for the M3 are 4.1 seconds for the base RWD manual and 3.4 seconds for the Competition xDrive. All that horsepower advantage, and they’re all virtually tied to get to 60 mph. Weight, in this case, is the great equalizer here.
Audi
Final Thoughts
For the RS 5, we’ll reserve judgment until we get to drive one. That said, we do have several things to say about the M3 and C63 in their current forms.
We had rather mixed reactions in our C63 review, mainly because of the car’s complexity, and the feel behind the wheel was best described as competent but not exactly thrilling. It’s fast, yes, but it doesn’t deliver much drama. At the other end of the scale, the M3 was fun and engaging while making the right sounds. We want the RS 5 to be more like the M3 than the C63.
More specifically, we want all three cars to be more like the soon-to-be-outgoing M3. Admittedly, the next-gen M3’s shift to electrification has us a little worried, as it’s inevitable that it’ll gain a lot of pounds in the process. As for the AMG, the return of six-cylinders is welcome news, but we won’t know for sure how it drives until the updated C-Class appears later this year.
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