Audi RS5 Sportback 2019 UK first drive

A long time coming, that’s for sure. Despite being revealed at the New York motor show way back in March 2018, this is the first time the Audi RS5 Sportback has been offered up to the car-buying masses in the UK. It arrives alongside a newly WLTP-certified RS5 Coupé, is available exclusively in the Audi Sport Edition trim you see here and has the same £68,985 asking price as its two-door sibling.

Even though we’ve been waiting for well over a year for our first go in this elongated, four-door version of Ingolstadt’s fast coupé, Audi has announced that it will make only 250 examples of each bodystyle for sale in the UK this year. Autocar also understands that these 500 cars will be the final RS5s Audi Sport will produce before a petrol particulate filter is installed as part of a wider range update next year. So if you want one, you’d better get a wriggle on.

Until that updated car arrives, though, the technical specification of both variants of the Audi RS5 reads much the same as it did before. The 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 co-developed with Porsche still sits at the car’s nose and still develops the same 444bhp and 443lb ft as it did before. Peak power still arrives at 5700rpm and that mighty well of torque continues to be spread from 1900rpm to 5000rpm. And, of course, all of this puissance is still sent to all four wheels via a quattro four-wheel drive system.

Unlike the occasionally antisocial-looking products from the likes of BMW M or Mercedes-AMG, Audi Sport’s fastest models tend not to look like they'd punch you in the mouth for no apparent reason. Their performance-oriented styling is usually subtler and more conducive to flying in under the radar. But while this RS5 Sportback would likely still come across as the more sophisticated member of a trio comprising a C 63 and an M3, the 20in alloy wheels, high-gloss black trim pieces and louder sports exhaust introduced as part of the Audi Sport Edition mean it can still turn heads. 

The cabin, meanwhile, is as smartly appointed as ever and is home to all of the obligatory Alcantara and leather you’d expect from a ‘shporty’ German saloon. Without the new dual-screen infotainment system that’s being rolled out in Audi’s latest models, you might accuse the RS5 of looking a touch last generation, but you’d have to be a slightly miserable individual to make any great fuss out of it. Truth is, this is a nice car to spend time in. And a reasonably roomy one at that - even with that sloping roofline.  

But is it a fun one? Over the past few years, the answer to that question as far as quick Audis are concerned hasn’t always been a resounding ‘yes’. A change of tack around the time Quattro GmbH relaunched as Audi Sport is probably partly responsible, when the brand decided it wanted to be known for making ‘premium sport daily drivers’ as opposed to a ‘super-sports firm’.