Review the new Audi RS 4 Avant Competition 2022

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As models come to an end, the RS 4 Competition has a lot going for it, even though it’s horribly expensive at £84,600. The bottom line is that the Audi Sport has upgraded the powertrain enough to match the price, and in the process, has turned an already good car great to drive – without spoiling its everyday appeal. its.

Is the era of the purely gasoline engine Audi The RS model is coming to an end, Audi Sport has come to town on dear old car RS 4 Avantpush it one last time before the last guillotine falls on it, with nameplates sold since the end of the last century.

Simply called RS 4 CompetitionThis 75-piece special is not cheap at £84,600, £16,000 more than a regular RS 4 Avant but importantly a few less than the similarly specified Vorsprung model.

Given that its 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 doesn’t produce much more power or torque than the standard 444bhp and 600Nm RS 4, it’s easy to think of the Competition as a further exercise, however. skepticism; a car designed to maximize profits from a model with lasting appeal will likely sell it to a committed few at almost any price.

However, the Contest is much more than that. It’s a car with its own identity, both visually and in dynamism; a sharper, louder, faster sound and a slightly more distinctive feel next to the already pretty good regular RS 4.

On the surface, it is very special, with all 75 versions available in the UK sharing the same specifications. Like it or not, they all wear a Sebring black paint job and ride on new 20-inch silver Y-spoke alloy wheels at the rear with some bright red brake calipers. There’s also a matte carbon fiber finish for the new front splitter, front air intakes, rear diffuser and door mirrors. And even though the test cars were photographed painted grey, believe us, in black with silver wheels, it actually looks naughty in the flesh.

The same goes for the interior, which has been upgraded to include pretty much every option you might get in a regular RS 4, plus some distinctive styling touches to set it apart, such as red stitching in the back. various positions, a flat-bottomed Alcantara steering wheel, a ridiculously good B&O sound system and, in the case of the test car, a great pair of new bucket seats. Unfortunately, however, these will not appear on UK cars. Not unless you talk to your local Audi dealer who is very nice.

Dynamically, the Competition is a bit sharper than the regular car thanks to five key upgrades, the most important of which is the adoption of a new three-way adjustable roll-over dampers. You do need to set the bike up on a ramp to adjust these but there’s a neat little toolbox in the glovebox to do that and once raised it takes no more than a few seconds to adjust. adjust settings.

You can also reduce the ride height by 10mm at the same time, the Competition is already 10mm lower than standard, thus reducing it by 20mm for use on the track. At that point, the fact that it appeared on the Pirelli P-Zero Corsas as standard soon began to make perfect sense. The competition, it turns out, is a pretty serious track car, albeit a mere 10kg heavier than the standard one.

Other elements give it more personality, in no particular order: reworked the gearbox, removed some of the sound-damping materials to make the exhaust larger (which itself has been redesigned. for more barking), a sportier new differential mode plus a fixed ratio, slightly faster steering rack. The ESC has also been recalibrated to allow for more freedom of touch at the rear when making a U-turn, not that Competition has become any sort of over-the-top monster in its transition.

Instead, it feels like a blue version of the standard car with more grip, a sharper response in all dynamics and a louder exhaust sound. But you need to select Dynamic and Sport modes at the same time to fully appreciate how lively it is, because in Comfort mode it retains a lot of the refinements of a regular car on the go. transfer. It’s a good thing. In practice, this means that the Compete’s range of capabilities is slightly wider than that of the standard RS 4.

For those interested in such things, the 0-62mph time has also dropped from 4.1 seconds to 3.9 – mainly thanks to the extra grip from the Corsa tires, as well as quicker gear changes – in When thanks to the option of reducing the limit from the standard RS 4, the top speed increases from 155mph to 180mph. On the other hand, emissions and fuel economy are not affected.

In short, the RS 4 Competition is a good car that’s pretty much produced, but you’re better off moving fast if you want because, as things stand, more than 50 of the UK’s 75 cars had a home. It’s worthy.