The 10 Best Audi RS Cars Ever
Want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, surrounded by lots of luxury and tech, and preferably powered by an absolutely cracking engine? You need to get yourself an Audi RS car.
Ever since the original RS2, Audi Sport has carved out a niche that’s seen it undeniably master the art of point-to-point performance. Its cars may not be as razor-sharp as most BMW M cars, or bring as much tyre-smoking exuberance to the table as AMG’s output, but there’s always been an undeniable appeal in their often-ludicrous pace matched with cosseting interiors and often-understated looks.
We’ve picked out what we reckon are the 10 best RS models Audi’s ever produced to crown an overall GOAT. Oh, and we’re including the R8 in this – it may not have worn RS badges, but it was developed and built by the same team and Audi always considered it part of the Audi Sport range. It would be a bit daft if it wasn’t, to be honest.
As always, this ranking is highly unscientific and takes into account opinions and gut feeling as much as it does objective excellence. Disagree with us? Feel free to argue among yourselves in the social comments.
10. TT RS (8J) Audi TT RS (8J)
It’s only been gone for around a year, but we already miss the Audi TT. The little coupe always appealed in how it took its humble Golf underpinnings and clothed them in a far more stylish package.
It received the RS treatment twice, but our favourite is the original, based on the second-gen TT. It may not have been all that sharp to drive (this will become something of a recurring theme), but it was the car that introduced us to Audi’s sensational 2.5-litre turbocharged inline-five, and the only one where said engine could be hooked to a manual gearbox. Its iron block means you can get biiiig power out of them, too.
9. RS6 (C5) Audi RS6 (C5)
The original RS6 was one of the cars that helped lay down the established Audi RS recipe: big power (in this case, 444bhp from a 4.2-litre twin-turbo V8), four-wheel drive, all wrapped in a body that you could very easily mistake for a run-of-the-mill diesel.
It kicked off a bloodline that remains to this day (and will carry on, sort of, when the RS6 becomes the RS7 for its next generation), and was one of only two RS6 generations available as a saloon in addition to the Avant estate we know and love. It’s mainly on this list because that opening scene from Layer Cake pretty much cemented it as an icon of understated, slightly menacing coolness, though.
8. RS3 (8Y) Audi RS3 (8Y)
It took 10 years and three generations, but with the 8Y, Audi finally delivered an RS3 with a driving experience to match its wonderful engine.
The very idea of a family hatch with a throaty, turbocharged 395bhp five-pot is enthralling enough by itself, but after the first two generations’ slightly disappointing handling, the current one can cash the cheques in the corners that its powerplant writes on the straights. It’s just had a minor facelift which we’re sure will be just as good – especially because it now apparently smells nicer – and it’s also the swansong for Audi’s 2.5-litre five-cylinder, one of the greatest engines of the modern era.
7. RS6 (C6) Audi RS6 (C6)
CT editor Matt Robinson reports that the second-gen RS6 was actually pretty underwhelming to drive, even by the not-always-pin-sharp standards of Audi Sport.
It absolutely deserves a spot on this list, though. How could you not love what appears to be a very normal executive saloon or estate, only to discover on closer inspection that it has a 5.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V10 engine crammed under its bonnet? This thing was around at the same time as the E61 BMW M5, meaning there was a time when there were not one but two V10-powered estate cars on sale. It wasn’t even that long ago, but it feels like an age.
6. R8 GT (4S) Audi R8 GT (4S)
Bit of an outlier, this. Before the second-gen R8 shed its front driveshafts, Audi had never, in its entire history, made a rear-wheel drive car. We were very glad when it decided to towards the end of the second-gen R8’s life, though.
Here was a mid-engined supercar with an atmospheric V10 that revved out to 8700rpm and delivered up to 611bhp to the rear wheels. It was at its very best in hardcore runout GT form, which saw it gain some downforce and some tricksy suspension in order to convincingly take on the 911 GT3. The only downside? Just 333 were made, and a mere 15 came to the UK.
5. RS6 (C8) Audi RS6 (C8)
Ask a group of car people what they’d pick if they could only drive one car, ever, for the rest of their lives, and we reckon a fair few would say the current Audi RS6.
There isn’t much it doesn’t do well. It’s devastatingly quick (621bhp in Performance guise will do that), massively practical and boasts one of the best interiors in the business. Compared to its sometimes-numb predecessors, it’s even pretty involving to drive. It won’t be around much longer, and with its replacement set to go plug-in hybrid and get inevitably heavier and more complex in the process, we should enjoy it while we can.
4. RS4 (B5) Audi RS4 (B5)
The first RS4 came from the early days of Audi Sport, when the stuff it was churning out was altogether more specialised and rare groove. Just over 6,000 of these were made over a short production run between 1999 and 2001.
With its subtly swollen arches, it looked great, and with a Cosworth-fettled version of Audi’s 2.7-litre twin-turbo V6 making 375bhp, it went well too. Moreover, as a low-volume, fast four-wheel drive estate car, it helped solidify the model RS recipe, something that had first been trialled by…
3. RS2 Audi RS2
…this. The first car to wear RS badges has an almost mythological air about it these days. Taking the sensible Audi 80 Avant and stuffing it with a 2.2-litre turbocharged five-pot making 311bhp, it offered performance that was totally unprecedented in a family estate car in 1994, and would famously outdrag a McLaren F1… to 30mph.
The biggest part of the mythology, though, is that it was co-developed and assembled by Porsche. It even borrowed bits of the 964 911, including its door mirrors, Cup-style alloys and brake callipers. It’s a certified modern classic, and absolutely deserving of a podium finish for being the very beginning of the RS bloodline.
2. R8 V8 Audi R8 V8
Yes, the R8 would live on for some 18 years, getting ever-spiralling power figures and more tech that elevated it from something designed to take on the Porsche 911 Carrera to a machine capable of taking the fight to the likes of Lamborghini and Ferrari.
None of these, though, could quite recapture the bottled lightning of the original. With 414bhp, it sounds almost tame these days, but that power was made by a truly phenomenal naturally aspirated 4.2-litre V8, linked as standard to one of the stand-out manual gearboxes of all time, a slick, open-gated masterpiece. Yes, the first-gen V10 had that too, and an engine that was just as – if not more – exciting, but as a genuinely usable yet engaging supercar, the original’s still the best.
1. B7 RS4 Audi RS4 (B7)
The B7 RS4 felt like the culmination of what, at the time, had been just over a decade’s worth of Audi RS products, a perfect confluence of ingredients that led to something incredible. Its predecessor had a manual gearbox, and its successor would retain its wonderful 4.2-litre atmospheric V8, but this was the only RS4 to combine those things.
Not only that, it was arguably the first RS product to show that Audi Sport was capable of building a car that was as engaging in the corners as it was brutally effective point-to-point. The other hallmarks were there, too: an interior that still looks and feels high-quality nearly 20 years later, and lots of practicality, especially in the Avant – although the B7 retains the honour of being the only RS4 to offer other body styles in the shape of a saloon and convertible.
Others have come close, but no RS cars since have managed to nail the recipe quite as well as this one. For that reason, it takes our number one spot.
