Audi RS4: Review

We found another review of the Audi RS4 by a very impressed author.

There's no sense in holding out. The truth is so important, it needs to see daylight right here and now: The 2006 RS4 is the purest driver's car from Audi in the past two decades.

The sound of the V-8 is the first thing that gets you. To be honest, it's a little wheezy and strange when you first turn the key. Fuel-pump whir mixes with valvetrain clatter, fan whoosh, and some oddball background noise that vaguely reminds you of supercharger whine. Blip the throttle a couple of times, though, and it suddenly makes sense: the RS4's engine sounds funny because it sounds mechanical. In an age when most machines have been muted and muffled and beaten into legislated docility, the RS4's V-8 sounds, if not perfect, then at least very, very real.

That brain-warping noise isn't a false pretense. As you'd expect, the RS4 is by no means slow--60 mph comes up in 4.8 seconds--and yet, it never delivers that insane, punchy rush of fast Audis past. What it does serve up is the innately more defined, linear, and lag-free powerband of an old-school, small-block sports car. Although low-end grunt is brawny and a through-the-roof redline run can make your toes curl, the V-8's most impressive quality is midrange torque. Lazy, three-grand shove comes cheap and easy all day long, even though the RS4 is just as happy ripping its tach needle off the post.