ARSEY4 wrote:Im afraid at 45 im a little more mature these days. Plus with a 2 year old in the back it changes the way you drive dramatically which is probably why raw pace is not that much of an issue for me any more as long as its not going backards!
Then there's probably the perfect car for you in an S4 or a 3.0 Sline or something else. Just because you buy your pants from M&S and proclaim all the presenters of Loose Women to be SEXPOTS, doesn't mean that the RS4 needs to forego raw pace in favour of more refinement. It's a halo car and needs to be competitive within segment. Launching as avant only first up will put it in a niche all if it's own for a short while but that won't last long when the 'loon is pushed out into wild, the new M3 and C-class AMG thungumy will be ready to kick the <beep> out of it like a ginger step-child on his first day of school... and that, is a PR nightmare. All the "comfort, gear boxes and suspension and in car tech" won't save it from the relentless group tests, it'll come bottom every time, except for build quality (yay?!). The halo car needs to be a hero or at least put up a good fight and not look like a balding drunkard with his skidmarked M&S pants on the outside of his jeans. Sadly, this perception will carry on into the grey area of tuning potential too. What will happen when a Beemer fanboi can pull into the pits and have another 50+ horses added to their already muscular turbo'd output? It'll leave the Audi '4 driver praying for rain so they can unleash their Audi driver warcry. I've always loved free-revving and highly balanced motors but I don't see how these high-rpm NA units can compete in this sector with bi-turbos creating ruthless efficiency and brutal pace, it'd need an extensive diet to shed enough weight to stay relevant and by all accounts, that ain't happenin'.
As mentioned, the smaller newer cars are causing hell too, not just at Audi, look at the 1M vs current M3 - there's nothing in that match up, not even on the track and that's not a bad thing but it means the new M3 has to be just that much better or why bother? Same goes for the RS3 vs new RS4, where's the consumer value in getting left for dead by a car lower down the food chain? What, just so you can burble on about interior space, boot capacity and in-car tech toys? No thanks.
Audi needed to have moved on from this whole NA 4.2L thing by now, I think it's missed a window of opportunity here. After all, it's the king of production turbos, AWD and innovative design, why not play to those strengths and pull out all the stops for this new halo car. Transplanting the RS5 power-plant and drive-train into the B8 RS4 is just too heavy, too thirsty and too old hat - hardly moving things forward, is it?
No matter where you go, there you are.
