You might expect this stiff ride quality to equate with crisp racetrack handling, but that was not the case. There was a surprising amount of up-and-down motion in the suspension, accompanied by relentless understeer, which was aggravated by high steering effort at almost any speed. Mercedes seems to be making the old GM mistake of confusing effort with feel, and in this case it has created an exaggerated sense of mass, even though the Benz was the lightest car in the group.
Even with the ESP switched off, the C55's stability system still asserts itself to some degree, contributing to understeer. (It can be totally deactivated, but this is intended for dyno testing.) We also noted a deterioration in the Benz's braking prowess during lapping at Nelson Ledges. Although the C55 posted the shortest stopping distance in our instrumented testing—a commendable 165 feet from 70 mph—the pedal quickly became spongy on the track, even though Nelson Ledges isn't particularly hard on brakes. Spongy brakes will certainly stimulate the old adrenal gland, but that's not our idea of a desirable way to get the adrenaline flowing.
The upshot of the foregoing was the slowest lap times at the racetrack—a best of 1:21.12, or 88.8 mph—and third-of-three scores for steering feel, handling, and fun to drive. And with the highest prices in the trio—base and as-tested—it also drew an indifferent score for value. As a consequence, the C55 finished behind the CTS-V by one point. We can only hope this doesn't provoke any arrests in Stuttgart.
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Still, we saw the Audi's value quotient about the same as the Caddy's, and the S4 drew winning marks in major scoring areas such as driver comfort, ride quality, and steering feel—categories that say a lot about what a car will be like to live with day in, day out, all roads, all traffic situations.
In the same vein, the Audi dominated our two distinct subjective categories—fun to drive and gotta have it, first in the former, tied with the C55 in the latter.
In our 2003 comparo, we called the S4 "a rising star." This time around it seems clear that the new star has fully risen. As one logbook writer observed, the S4 is "a thoroughly lovable sports sedan. How often do we get to say that?" Not often enough.