RS HEAVEN

THE VERY FIRST Audi RS4 Avant was a real eye-opener, and so was the second-generation RS6 and of course every single iteration of the R8. But somewhere along the way, too soon and with almost tragic persistence, Audi’s in-house go-faster department lost the plot.

Sure, the cars engineered in Ingolstadt and produced in Heilbronn gained more power and torque with every model change, dedicated tech-heads got their money’s worth out of the increasingly ambitious interpretations of the Vorsprung durch Technik theme, and the more and more colourful make-up kept boosting the poseur value. But drive a 2018 model RS5 or RS6 and you will very likely be anaesthetised by the duff steering, wooden brakes, muffled feedback even close to the limit, and the frustrating artificial supremacy of the safe but stubborn electronic control apparatus.

To add insult to injury, the engines began to lose their lustre when the normally aspirated V8 gave way to the breathless turbocharged V6, the V10 was put on