Our S5 has left, making us realise just how much it had grown on us
Were it not for the unmissable daytime-running lights, the Audi S5 might lay claim to the title of most subtly impressive car on sale today. The turnaround of opinion from our downbeat press launch drive (evo 105) to this, the end-of-term report for our long-term S5, has been marked. After almost a year and nigh on 18,000 miles, most of us who have enjoyed extended exposure to the quietly potent, V8-engined four-seat coupe have been beguiled.
I admit that I was not thrilled by the arrival of our S5 last September. I had not long since bid a wrenching farewell to an Audi RS4, a car I still consider a more rewarding daily drive than an M3, so the delivery of the hottest A5 coupe in the same colour but with two fewer doors and some 65bhp less didn’t impress me. Not that it was my job to be impressed; the S5’s first custodian was our then editor-at-large Richard Meaden, and having put 2000 miles on its odometer in just over a month, he quickly became a fan.
What struck him first was the amount of attention the S5 attracted. ‘Never, and I mean never, have I driven a new Fast Fleeter that has attracted more attention,’ he wrote. In part he put this down to the LED running lights – still a novelty back then – but Walter de’Silva’s design is a fine piece of work. It embodies all the Audi signatures, it’s apparently simple – plain almost – and yet it stands out.
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