drcollie

Being the owner of an Audi SQ5 (my wife's ride) I was invited to a day of driving Audi's at Fex Ex Field (Redskins Stadium) in Wash DC. So yesterday I grabbed a buddy of mine - Jim Moran - and off we went in the Porsche to go play. I've done dozens of these events before, most are lame and a few are good. I have to say that this Audi event was hands down the BEST manufacturer car test day I've ever been to. Sometimes these gigs can be less than exciting, with boring little parking lot drills and auto-x stop boxes. Not this one. Big parking lot courses and they said "drive 'em hard". Added to the fun was the fact that Jim and I rode together all day long - we'd swap between driving and passenger. So we're egging each other on and laughing like two lunatics who have never been allowed to play with cars before.





Right off the bat they put us in Audi R8's and RS5's. WAY TO START THE DAY. I've got quite a lot of autocross and track experience, so my competition mode kicked in immediately and I knew I would be running up on the other cars on course. Most people are not very good autocrosser's, it takes practice to get proficient at it. It was high-speed lead / follow and these were not salesmen putting on the Audi Event, but professional race car drivers and they set out to do some blistering paces. No passing allowed as you would expect. This was our ride for the track session - pretty nice.



I was reprimanded once for being too close to another R8 on the course, I could have easily passed them given the chance. After the admonishment, I'd let those slow cats get way ahead on the course and then boot it so we could have some fun once I put enough gap between them and us. The R8 is a very nice car, but I think my pal Raf's Boxster S would have been even better on the course. The R8 is like a big Cayman, its well-balanced, corners flat, has good inputs and is a very nice car. Of course, there are no bad cars over $100K, just different ones. I would own an R8, but it didn't strike me as 'I gotta sell my Porsche and get one of these' in the least.

The RS5 has a hellva engine on the pipe, but its an understeering pig that gets unsettled in hard left/right transitions.

We did the snore drive around town as the second event, and that was my first change to play with adaptive cruise control in an A6. That is an amazing feature, works terrific in driving around town. Much more impressive than I expected in a street car, I'd check that on an options build sheet.

Then back to Auto-X to cycle through the A3, A6, Merc CLA, BMW 228i, Merc E350, BMW 528i. on the autocross course. We got a lot of runs, about 20 each. My impressions:



Audi A3: A cheap little economy car trussed up to try to be stylish. The upgrade car for a Secretary. Not particularly memorable but not especially bad, either. Kinda like a Mazda 3 to me.

Audi A6: This is a very nice car. Well balanced, capable, handles it weight well, quiet, well appointed, You could do a lot worse.

Mercedes E 350: Oh! what a pig. Heavy, sluggish, resistant to turn-in. Mediocre brakes, Careful in the slalom, it won't let you transition well....its still rolling left while you are going right with the steering wheel. Totally goofy - and I mean goofy - shift lever. What were they thinking?

Mercedes CLA: I really liked this car. Powerful engine that goes NOW....very capable handling, decent brakes and body roll. My fav of the autocross cars.

BMW 228i: This thing is a turd. WTF happened to BMW? It has a cheap interior, lousy brakes, crappy - and I do mean CRAPPY run flat tires that roll over onto the rims. Poor handling, too. I cannot believe this had a Roundel on the hood. Shameful.

BMW 528i: Unimpressive. Decent engine, but the handling is not there. Better than the Merc E350, but the Audi A6 will spank it. Pretty damn far from The Ultimate Driving Machine. Feels like there is 500 lb on each end on the bumpers. Slow to rotate, and another car with mediocre brakes. Pass

It was really good to be able to go back-to-back in cars. I came away from this thinking "What happened to BMW?" and also new-found respect for the little CLA Merc...that car was a hoot.

There was nothing there that made me want to trade in my Porsche, though they had this killer RS7 I was flirting with all day long. At $ 139K sticker though - that's 599 Ferrari money and the depreciation curve on that Ferrari will be close to zero.



Conclusions: Turbos and Automatics / Dual Clutch transmissions are not for me. Every one of the cars we drove suffered from severe turbo lag and I hate automatics for serious driving. Give me a naturally aspirated, three pedal car and now I'm in business and having fun. As long as I own a sports car, it will be naturally aspirated and have a stick shift.

If you get a chance to do this Audi Event - definitely go. Huge fun, very accommodating and you get tons of track/autocross time. They are headed to Dallas next week - those of you in Texas - sign up for it!

sandbar

Very nice write up. What a blast! I just picked up a '16 A7 and while I don't have but 250 miles on the car, can't wait to have some fun with it.

I looked at the 5 series and your right. Heavy hogs. Even the 535i was heavy and lots of roll.

Hope I get a chance to attend an event like that. Looks like you sure had fun.

911sccab

Great write-up! I especially agree on the responsiveness of NA stick-shift cars being more fun, especially off the race track.

One note, all BMW 5-series are not created equal. In standard form they've deteriorated to luxury cars, but equipped with the optional suspensions you'll still find an Ultimate Driving Machine lurking within... but sadly its no longer standard.

MJBird993

Nice Duane, thanks. You should have bought my A6 when you had the chance... special buddy price.

drcollie

Now all you have in your garage are bays full of crappy BMW's!

Archimedes

Own an RS5 and agree, weight and under steer are it's undoing as a sports coupe, but that engine, that incredible engine.

Also agree that Audi's adaptive cruise is awesome, better than the one in my Porsche.

And remember, those weren't all turbos you were driving, the Audis are all supercharged, save for the RS5/R8's, which are NA.

Did they at least start up the RS7 for you guys? That thing sounds amazing on the pipe.

Archimedes

As re: BMW, a few years back I was looking for a car for my kids and decided to test drive the 135is, which I'd heard such great things about. I couldn't believe how bad it was. I've owned and loved multiple BMW's, 3/5/M3's, and it was sad to me how bad the 135 was. Just awful in every way. The Chevy Cobalt I drove right before drove better than it.

Four Ring Circus

Looks like a great event. One A6 followed by two A8Ls back to back and I have never received an invitation to an event like this. What's my issue? 😜

cgfen

nice scribes and you are a smart man.

ZX9RCAM

Nice write-up.

Was the CLA the 45 amg?

hawc

What was so bad about it. Very curious as I'm considering its successor 235i or an A3.

Archimedes

Ridiculously underpowered, buzzy, cheap interior, meh ride and handling, numb brakes. It was awful. I was cross shopping it against a base Camry, Chevy Cobalt, Ford Focus, etc. and it went right to the bottom of the list. And this was a 135is with the supposedly 225hp.

mmaturo

Nice write up....being a long term 10+ Audi owner they really do put on good events. Well I own an RS5 and yup it is nose heavy etc but 100% better than my old RS6 for understeer and honestly with the sport differential in the car at the track I can get it to rotate and act slightly more like a rear drive car that I really enjoyed throwing it around. Its retired from track duty and is my wife's daily driver. She of course loves it. I had an RS7 and what you saw was an Audi Exclusive example that has a good 10 to 12K of extras on it for the seatbelts, stitching etc in red that runs the price up along with having every option box ticked. Mine was 114 out the door with all performance options and skipping the tech stuff of the cruise control etc. Fantastic car and other worldly fast but too big for long commutes for me so got my Porsche. I have an R8GT so my solution is to have both an R8 and a Porsche. They are far different and I really appreciate the many things my R8 does very well after spending now way more time with my Porsche. I like by Porsche no doubt but I love my R8.

MJBird993

If it was buzzy and underpowered, then I think you drove a 128. That's around 240 HP. The 135 is 300+ HP, and it's neither buzzy nor underpowered. The other things, yeah...

WCE

Did the event when it was in NJ a couple of weeks ago and I agree, best non-track driving event I've been to!I actually just traded my 991 for a V8 (which is why I think I got invited)! My impression was the RS5 stuck like glue and turned in remarkably well. I know ultimately it would understeer, but I never got there without really trying. The R8, on the otherhand, wanted to plow onwards on it's less loaded smaller front tires unless you more carefully managed weight transfer. Kind of like a 911, more difficult to drive fast but ultimately more rewarding.
I agree with your impressions of all the other cars except this one. In our group, the 228 was clearly the best autocross car (and ours was x-drive). Make you wonder what subtle differences made such a drastic difference of opinion! I do agree the CLA250 (with an AMG sport pkg) was surprisingly good overall. The bigger cars were out of their element on the autocross.
Those autocross starts are hell for turbo lag - and their new A3 seemed the worst!
And I can just imagine the clutch smoke from the random group of drivers at my event if they had brought manuals!