09 Sep 05
But it's the character of the thing that stays with you. As the revs rise, the engine note hardens into a flat, almost clinically even-timbred blare. And if you hit the 'S' (for Sport) button on the steering wheel, throttle response is sharpened up a little and the V8's engine note gets a little more old-fashioned hot-rod bellow in its tune. Which we like very much indeed.
Then there's that statospheric rev limit. It needs to be high, as here is an engine that delivers maximum whack, power-wise, at a high 7800rpm. The first few times you investigate the upper reaches of the rev range, you'll experience that delicious thrill that an engine delivers when it pulls another couple of thousand revs out of the bag that you weren't expecting.
The RS4 feels quick, bloody quick, but not savage. The control inputs are all refined and reasonably low effort, and the acceleration is epic but linear and predictable. There isn't, for example, that sudden rush of thrust you get with the old RS when the turbos wake up and say hello. For the record, the RS will reach 62mph in 4.8secs and an electronically limited 155mph - word is that without the electronic nanny, the latest RS would be knocking on for 190mph.
