Audi RS E-Tron GT review: the most powerful Audi ever made
I’m starting to think I might be a sadist, based entirely on my inability to resist the temptation to use a car like the Audi RS E-Tron GT to scare the wits out of people.
Someone actually said the words “I know, because I do my own research” to me recently, which caused wasabi to come out my nose even more rapidly than derision could escape my mouth.
If I’d watched this happen to someone else I might have enjoyed it, because I’m starting to think I might be a sadist, based entirely on my inability to resist the temptation to use a car like the Audi RS E-Tron GT to scare the wits out of people, and the fact that I enjoy their suffering as a result.
I must admit I was slightly underwhelmed at first as I tooled around town in this new electric vehicle, listening to the strangely old-fashioned fake noises it makes in the cabin (while some EVs have gone for futuristic, fantastical soundscapes, there’s something of the original Blade Runner about the Audi’s wups and whines). I also feared there was something wrong with my eyes, because everyone else told me how much they loved the look of this new GT; a neighbour even called me to ask what sort of Porsche I had parked out front, which is a tricky compliment, considering how hard Audi has worked to make this car different to the Porsche Taycan it is related to under its shiny skin. It’s not that I don’t like the look of it (it’s handsome and imposing, like David Duchovny crossed with Dave Bautista), it’s just that I’d been led to believe it was going to make me weep tears of joy, like watching Emma Stone blink.
I did enjoy the interior, with its lashings of carbon fibre and lovely large sun roof, and I was particularly taken with the steering, which is tight, taut and communicative, and delivered through a thin and sharp Alcantara-clad wheel. This, at least, made it feel like a proper RS Audi. The application of this storied badge means that some deeply speed-obsessed and fun-loving Germans have thrown themselves into improving a particular model; RS vehicles are always exciting to drive, with far more involving steering than normal Audis.
What I eventually realised was bothering me about the E-Tron was that every other RS car I’ve ever driven has felt like it wants to fight someone, all the time, and that it is shouting “Come on, have a go then!” loudly, all day, from the moment you start it up. The E-Tron, however, is a GT – a Grand Tourer – and thus is designed to feel relaxed, comfortable and quiet, which it was as I drove it carefully within city confines. It rode beautifully and sat on the road with a sense of occasion you only get from large and very heavy cars (it weighs 2.4 tonnes, which is about 400kg more than an Audi Q5).
Finally, however, I found the time to take the RS E-Tron for a proper drive on an open, winding section of road that allowed me to push the throttle more than a third of the way to the floor for the first time. Having read that this was the most powerful road-going Audi ever built, with a properly super 475kW and 830Nm on tap, what happened next should not have shocked me, and yet it really did. It also seemed to shock the tyres, which protested loudly and then scrabbled desperately to either hold the road surface or to dig holes in it. If you’re on a nice bit of blacktop with perfect conditions, this Audi will hit 100km/h in 3.3 seconds, which is the kind of pace normally well beyond the reach of cars with four doors and a proper boot. Incredibly, despite all that weight, it’s good fun around corners, too.
Once I’d discovered the kind of face-warping, woo-hoo acceleration the RS E-Tron is capable of, I found it impossible not to use it inappropriately. We have a new colleague at work who is unused to fast cars and I let her have several minutes of feeling relaxed in the Audi before suddenly smashing my foot down. She screamed, her handbag flew up and hit her in the chin, which made her howl, then I hit the E-Tron’s huge tungsten carbide brakes and slowed us so sharply that her arms flew out in front of her like someone on a roller coaster and the contents of her handbag sprayed across the dash. I think she might have hit me afterwards, but I was laughing too hard to notice.
I must admit I find it hard to believe that anyone could avoid the temptation to misbehave in this RS Audi long enough to achieve its claimed range between charges of 504km, but if you are worried about such things you could save about $68,000 and buy the non-RS Audi E-Tron GT for $180,200, which offers an impressive 540km of range (and still has 390kW and 640Nm).
Personally, however, I would be unable to resist the range-topping, vision-blurring variant, which does have me worrying slightly about myself. Perhaps I should reinvent another painfully clichéd line favoured by intellectual dolts and proclaim “I’m not a sadist, but…” I do seem to enjoy torturing people.
Audi RS E-Tron GT
Engine: Two AC synchronous electric motors, one on each axle
Transmission: Two-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Efficiency: 20.2kWh per 100km
Price: $248,000
Rating: 4 out of 5