This is Audi, Sport: On the track

It’s bloody hot at Barnawartha today. The sky is a clear blue, a crackling wind is blowing in from the north and the tarmac at the Wodonga TAFE circuit looks like it’s melting before our eyes.

The ambient and track temps are an appropriate accompaniment for the six hot cars we’ve assembled for our second annual German speed-fest. In 2017 it was the BMW M Car Party, this year it’s time to celebrate Audi Sport’s finest.

Audi Sport was until recently known as quattro – yep, somewhat confusingly, lithe same branding as Audi’s all-wheel drive systems – and it is the performance equivalent of BMW M or Mercedes-AMG. It is all about fast cars and fun times. Which is what we’re guaranteed to have with this line-up!

From cheapest to most expensive we’ve assembled the new RS 3 Sedan, TT RS Coupe, brand new RS 5 Coupe, RS 6 Avant performance, RS 7 Sportback performance and R8 Spyder.

Compared to last year’s exercise, this is a more technically diverse group. All the BMW Ms were rear-wheel drives with Michelin boots. The Audis are all quattro of course, but there are different ways that drive is distributed and a variety of tyre brands involved in transferring it to the ground.

RS 3 Sedan: Transverse-mounted engine, dual-clutch transmission, electro-hydraulically actuated and electronically controlled multi-plate AWD mounted at rear axle. Pirelli P Zero 255/30R19 (front) and 235/35R19 (rear) tyres.

Our RS 3 Sedan has the optionally available bigger footprint up front than at the rear. That’s all about getting that substantial 294kW to the ground.

RS 5 Coupe: Longitudinal-mounted engine, automatic transmission, torque sensing self-locking centre differential permanent AWD. Hankook Ventus S1 evo 275/30R20 tyres at all four corners.

RS 6 Avant performance: Longitudinal-mounted engine, automatic transmission, torque sensing self-locking centre differential permanent AWD. Dunlop Sport Maxx GT 285/30ZR21 front and rear.

RS 7 Sportback performance: Longitudinal-mounted engine, automatic transmission, torque sensing self-locking centre differential permanent AWD, pretty much identical to the RS 6 Avant, really. It’s shod with Pirelli P Zero 275/30ZR21 rubber.

R8 Spyder: Longitudinal mid-mounted engine, dual-clutch transmission, hydraulically controlled clutch pack AWD mounted at front axle. The tyres are sticky Continental Sport Contact 245/35R19 (front) and 295/35ZR19 (rear).

Engines vary too, from in-line fives, to V6s, to V8s and all the way to the R8’s Lamborghini-sourced naturally-aspirated V10.

We’ve already driven them all on some wonderful public roads in our first part of this Audi adventure, but now it’s time for our Bathurst-winning pro Luke Youlden to step up and attack the tight Wodonga TAFE track in search of ultimate pace and lap times.

The formula is simple; standard tyre pressures, all the driver aids off, multi-mode to Dynamic, a couple of fliers and see what the GPS timer spits out.

Audi RS 7 Sportback performance
The big 445kW V8 is the first up, but not by choice. During our morning photo shoot the RS 6 Avant performance suffered a punctured front tyre after running over a motorcycle footpeg (kid you not!). So the plan is lap the RS 7 first, then chuck it on a hoist, swap the front wheels over, and put them on the RS 6, which will run last.

Burbling onto the track the RS 7 looks serene and sounds docile. But the moment Luke hits the loud pedal that image is dispelled. The brassy bellow from the exhaust and obvious body movement as the 2025kg five-metre-long five-door negotiates Wodonga TAFE’s series of tight infields turns speaks volumes literally and figuratively.

Coming out of the final, big, horseshoe there’s blue smoke pouring off the outside front tyre. Understeer! Then Luke’s kicking up dirt as he drops tyres off on the left as he lines up the fast right. Oversteer!

The best lap is the first flier, a 0:58.881.

“Just trying to get it turned,” reports Luke. “It’s just heavy, it feels its weight, it’s ballistic in a straight-line you can get it to oversteer but generally understeer is its biggest issue. Power down is not a problem.

“It’s quite a quick time to be honest, compared to how much understeer I felt it had.”

Afterwards when then RS 7 goes on the hoist for that tyre change we discover the retaining bolts have fallen out of a couple of rear suspension reinforcing braces. That’s a shock. We think the bolts had been left loose from when Audi installed the performance exhaust…

Audi RS 3 Sedan
The first compact sedan in the Audi Sport line-up promises a lot. After all it’s got the same drivetrain as the $50,000 more expensive TT RS Coupe, which means it delivers real bang for your buck … relatively speaking.

It sounds angry, it’s 294kW in-line five barking and snarling as Luke laps the course. But it’s clear watching him wrestle the RS 3 around this tight little track – and listening to the extended tyre howl – that not all is going to plan. The 0:58.981 lap-time confirms that.

“It is similar to the RS 7 in the way it handles with the understeer,” says Luke. “But it doesn’t have the grunt to compensate.

“That’s totally different to how I thought it would respond. On the road it does have understeer, but it doesn’t feel like it affects the car like it does on the track.”

What’s quickly becoming apparent is the tight Wodonga TAFE track isn’t the natural fit for these cars, which are quite heavy over the nose – even though this car uses the latest alloy version of the in-line five – and therefore prone to push in the turns.

Yet there’s no argument the RS 3 is supremely capable in the right circumstances. At its launch at fast and flowing Baskerville Raceway late last year Luke lapped this car two seconds faster than the old RS 3 hatch in 2016.

Horses for courses it seems…

TT RS Coupe
No surprise that with the same power and torque as the RS 3, but 95kg less weight to lug around (14645kg versus 1560kg), the TT RS proved the faster of the two five-cylinders.

It sounds the same, but looks so different thanks to that tight and purposeful little blue body.

“It feels like a lower, lighter, faster version of the RS 3,” reports Luke.

In fact, at 0:58.000 nearly a whole second faster. Yet clearly, understeer is also bedevilling this car, not allowing him to get it down to the apex of the turns.

But there’s another problem. The S tronic dual-clutch transmisison is stubbornly resisting his attempts to shift gears before the turns. Instead its conservative set-up ends up in mid-turn downchanges.

Luke has to leave the S tronic in Sports mode and let it downshift when it wants to. He then upshifts manually.

“The biggest thing is wanting the correct gear when you get on the gas,” says a frustrated Luke.

RS 5 Coupe
That big toothy smile is back on Luke’s face after his laps in the RS 5. His 0:57.560 lap tells the whole story.

“This car has a lot more of an oversteer balance than the other cars, which is exactly what it needs,” he enthuses. “It’s a lot more responsive in the front by comparison, it turns a lot better and just feels more of a track car.

“It actually feels lighter than the RS 3.”

It’s not. It’s nearly 200kg heavier.

The RS 5 had not looked as good on the track as Luke’s results indicate. There were some wild moments, such as a B-I-G oversteer slide in the horseshoe turn that made him earn his money.

“It’s a very long corner and in this car your turn in flat and then you brake, so if you don’t get that right you have a really big oversteer entry and that’s exactly what happened,” related Luke.

“It was a lot of fun because she was coming around and I had to get on the gas to drive it out. If it had been a two-wheel drive car I would have looped it.”

The upside of quattro right there.

Audi R8 Spyder
No surprise the pure-bred mid-engined sports car is the fastest lapper on the day. It looks and sounds fantastic as it screams around the course in 0:56.419.

Now someone is going to go back and check the times from BMW M Party and point out the M4 GTS was nearly two seconds faster. But the GTS is truly a racer with road rego, right down to the incredible Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber.

It’s also worth pointing out over two years of Germanic lappery at this track exercises the R8’s time is the second fastest of all…

“It’s fast and fun this car,” grins Luke. “It has a slight oversteer balance, which is better than understeer! It feels similar to the RS 5. They feel similar in their balance, but this car has just got more grunt.”

Not all is spot-on. Luke’s in-between gears in a couple of places and the brake pedal is high and hard, without offering the sort of stopping power he’d like for the racetrack.

“I don’t mind the pedal being hard like that, but it has to retard at the same time,” he explains. “On the road it wasn’t a problem.”

RS 6 Avant performance
As it rolls on to the track the big wagon looks slightly under-tyred on the front, even though the RS 7’s Pirellis are only 10mm narrower.

It certainly doesn’t seem to affect Luke’s pace as he pushes the big, bright yellow, bellowing beast around Barnawartha (the nearest town to the Wodonga TAFE circuit) in 0:58.138.

He’s definitely giving it his all, trailing a cloud of dust after dropping two wheels off exiting the horseshoe. You can never doubt Luke’s commitment!

There are the normal comments about understeer after he rolls to a stop and the issue of another S tronic system that has an unco-operative manual change mode. But for all that it’s not hard to tell Luke’s enjoyed this car.

“I am quite happy with that,” Luke sums up. “It’s better than the RS 7.

“It’s looser, it feels much more responsive in the front and stiffer in the rear. It’s more of an oversteer balance than the RS7 and that helps because it’s all about turn here.

“It should understeer more with less tyre on the front,” he ponders. “But the car feels more of an oversteerer.”

Summing up
With Luke’s hot laps done it’s my turn to sample some of the cars and it’s no surprise to find I am in agreeance with Luke – just at a slower pace!

The RS 3 is plain and simple disappointing. From a performance driving point of view the $34,000 cheaper Ford Focus RS is a better car to drive around this track.

The RS 5 impresses greatly, just as it did on the road. A great all-rounder and compelling competition for the BMW M4 and AMG C 63 S.

But the R8 Spyder is the champagne serving. Not only is it the fastest car to drive, it feels like the easiest to drive fast. That’s probably not a surprise.

What has caught us out though is the sheer diversity of performance capability and enjoyment these cars deliver. Audi Sport clearly has done a lot of good work, but as our boiling hot Barnawartha experience shows, there’s still plenty to be done.

2018 Audi RS 3 Sedan pricing and specifications:
Price: $84,611 (plus ORCs)
Engine: 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo-petrol
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Output: 294kW/480Nm
Fuel: 8.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
0-100km/h: 4.1sec (claimed)

2018 Audi TT RS Coupe pricing and specifications:
Price: $137,611 (plus ORCs)
Engine: 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo-petrol
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Output: 294kW/480Nm
Fuel: 8.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
0-100km/h: 3.7sec (claimed)

2018 RS 5 Coupe pricing and specifications:
Price: $156,600 (plus ORCs)
Engine: 2.9-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Output: 331kW/600Nm
Fuel: 8.8L/100km (ADR Combined)
0-100km/h: 3.9sec (claimed)

2018 RS 6 Avant performance pricing and specifications:
Price: $248,726 (plus ORCs)
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Output: 445kW/700Nm
Fuel: 9.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
0-100km/h: 3.7sec (claimed)

2018 RS 7 Sportback performance pricing and specifications:
Price: $257,426 (plus ORCs)
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Output: 445kW/700Nm
Fuel: 9.6L/100km (ADR Combined)
0-100km/h: 3.7sec (claimed)

2018 R8 Spyder pricing and specifications:
Price: $388,500 (plus ORCs)
Engine: 5.2-litre V10 petrol
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Output: 397kW/540Nm
Fuel: 11.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
0-100km/h: 3.6sec (claimed)