Audi RS4 Ride and Drive – Oulton Park

Well here we go; it’s the B8 RS4 review you may or may not have been waiting for…..

Let’s just start by saying that Grizz and I are probably a little spoilt for cars and you need to consume this review knowing that we drive cars that are not short on power (600+ GT-R and 700’ish RS6 plus).

The day started with coffee and a bacon butty then straight to a video of Audi’s rally past and the heritage behind the Audi “Q cars” and why the RS4 is only available as an Avant.  Audi then presented the history behind the RS4 and built up from RS2 Avant, to B5 RS4 Avant, to B7 RS4 and finally to the B8 RS4 Avant.  An interesting statistic was the number of cars brought to the UK; 200 RS2, 400 B5 RS4 and almost 4,000 B7 RS4.

The “wavy disc” was also explained as being designed for lower unsprung weight and better cooling to essentially delay brake fade.

There were a selection of colours on display including silver, grey, black and blue.  The latter being our favorite as it seems to present the bulging wings a little more that the other colours.

Once the briefing was over we were taken in 3 car convoys for a drive around the local roads to experience the RS4 as a road car.  The lead car was a V10 Audi R8.  All in all the RS4 is a very nice car on the road and the usual effortless “uber bahn stormer” you would expect from an RS.  Whilst driving, we played with a few of the options and found the “dynamic” suspension setting gave much more feedback than the wallowy lesser settings.  The nav and audio was at a good standard with the usual AMI interface in the glove box and 12v feed in the arm rest.

Once the road testing was over, it was a time for some quick refreshments and on to the track stage….  Again in small convoys of three cars but this time following an instructor in an RS5.  Thankfully our group seemed to be identified as people with some track experience and before long we were allowed to start stretching the RS4’s legs and test the carbon ceramic anchors.  Again Audi have done some great work and the chassis setup and the balance of the car make it very predictable.  The 7 speed S-Tronic gearbox is very smooth and easy to use due to the paddles being fitted to the steering wheel.

The grand finale was a couple of laps with an instructor driving.  This again brought out the excellent chassis and setup of the car as it handled the instructors attempts to scare it’s passenger; and oh boy did they try, as shown in the picture below with smoking brakes which even had a few flames to boot.

So it’s a great car, BUT…..  We do think it will be a lot more interesting when we start to see some superchargers being fitted and some aftermarket anti-roll bars to stiffen things up a little more.

Bang for buck; it does what it says on the tin and we can only imagine what it would have been like with the 4.0 biturbo V8…