Audi’s first rear-wheel-drive motor is a blisteringly quick triumph
Putting a whopping 530bhp into the rear wheels of the RWS sounds like a recipe for disaster - instead it's a dream drive
SOME things look on paper to be a downright stupid idea but turn out to be brilliant.
Take the slinky, for example. That was invented by some bloke called Richard James in 1945.
If I knew Rich, and he came to me one night in the pub and said: “I’m gonna market a toy which is essentially a coiled spring which will roll down the stairs,” I would have told him to put down his pint and order a cab.
Today more than 300 million slinkys have been sold, netting James and his family over £200million. Yep, seriously.
When Audi decided to abandon its impeccable four-wheel drive Quattro system for a special edition of the firebreathing R8 — called the R8 RWS — which sends all 533 of the horses to just the rear wheels, I thought, “That’s going to end badly”.
Once again I was wrong.
Putting that much power on the back sounds like a recipe for fiery catastrophe.
You might expect a sudden spike in fatal crash statistics, as Hooray Henrys whose bank balances far outweigh their driving ability spanner these £112k stunners into trees, horses or their wife’s Land Rover Discovery.
But at Audi HQ in Ingolstadt — the home of engineering greatness — they saw the same iceberg.
So instead of producing a licence-shredding one-way ticket to an early grave, Audi has produced an R8 which is simply a little more track friendly than the Quattro, but still as easy to drive.
Even with traction control dialled back to zero, Quattro cars do not lend themselves to YouTube-worthy heroics like lift-off oversteer and endless doughnuts.
In the right hands they can do all that and more, of course, but for a novice like me to look even halfway cool I need rear wheel drive and a very big, empty patch of land.
. So it was a matter of pride to Audi to make its first rear-wheel drive sports car — just to show it can.
But at the same time it wasn’t going to produce a widowmaker. Having no need for a front driveshaft means Audi could strip out 50kg from the regular R8, which is immediately apparent once out of city centre traffic.
It dances into corners and flicks out of them with only the most modest of steering inputs.
The original car can never be accused of being heavy, but the Quattro is definitely what keeps it so planted.
In the RWS you feel more connected to the actual car itself, rather than simply being a co-pilot for the all-wheel drive computer thingamajig.
It’s telling that Audi only built the RWS in the lower-powered version of the two 5.2 litre V10 engines optionable in the standard R8.
Over 530bhp is still a hefty wallop, but it makes sense not to use the 610bhp version considering there isn’t that extra safety net of torque vectoring technology.
Despite the RWS being an absolute triumph of engineering and a welcome move to more driver-engaging cars from Audi, it has to be said there’s a small part of me sad that it isn’t more, well, lairy.
As I said before, on paper it sounds like a stupid idea, so the fact the RWS feels no more untamable than a standard R8 is a slight disappointment.
The Porsche 911 GT3, for example, leaves a far longer lasting impression.
Even so, being careful what you wish for would be good advice in this instance, and you have to commend Audi for the sheer brilliance of its first rear wheel drive effort.
It’s way better than a bloody slinky anyway.
KEY FACTS
AUDI R8 RWS
Price: £112,450
Engine: 5.2 litre V10 petrol
Economy: 22.8mpg
0-62mph: 3.7 seconds
Top speed: 198mph
Length: 4.4m
CO2: 283g/km
Sorry Fiat, it’s just not my Tipo
MOST of the time, I experience a little pang of disappointment when I hand the keys back after a week with a new car.
It doesn’t have to be a Ferrari or a luxury SUV – even the more mundane everyday offerings tend to feature something intriguing, whether that’s a neat infotainment feature or a new engine to play with.
As hard as I tried, the same just couldn’t be said for the Fiat Tipo hatchback, which will likely be forgotten as quickly as the list of this morning’s chores.
Packing a nondescript 120hp 1.4 T-Jet petrol engine, the plain old Tipo instantly gave off the scent of rental car and jumping inside its interior didn’t help matters.
The strangely mottled black plastic trim looked surprisingly like a black bin bag, the small 5-inch touchscreen radio was as basic as they come and the digital display nestled in the centre of the instruments used a font that was reminiscent of the spinning 3D screen savers found on old Windows 98 computers.
At £15,795, it’s difficult to get too picky about these things, but with rivals that include the Skoda Rapid Spaceback and the Ford Focus, it faces very stiff competition.
That said, the Tipo rides and handles pretty well, with this small petrol variant offering enough poke to make motorway journeys fairly comfortable – but there’s not much in terms of entertainment to be had.
Boot space is good at 440 litres, while head and legroom is decent throughout.
But I found the front seats (big slabs of cloth-covered foam) uncomfortable and the driving position a bit awkward.
It’s true, there isn’t such a thing as a truly bad car these days and Fiat’s mid-sized hatch is by no stretch terrible.
But there is such a thing as a forgettable car and the Tipo is just that.
Leon Poultney
KEY FACTS
FIAT TIPO HATCHBACK EASY PLUS 1.4 T-JETPrice: £15,795
Engine: 1.4-litre turbo petrol
Economy: 47.1mpg
0-60mph: 9.6 seconds
Top speed: 124mph
Length: 4,368mm
CO2: 139g/km
Reader’s car of the week
A BIG thank you to Don Matthews, from Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, for sending in a pic of his Jag.
Don says: “This is my 2003 S-Type Jaguar. It has done 80,000 miles. I have had it for the past ten years and it’s been the best car I have owned.
“I’ve had about 28 new cars since passing my test in 1964, but the Jag is by far my favourite. I can’t sing the praises of this great car enough. I just love driving it.”
To see your pride and joy here send me a picture and brief description to [email protected].
ABSOLUTE TOOLS!
IT’S one thing to have your car broken into – but to have your work van knocked off really takes the biscuit.
It takes a special kind of low-life to steal the tools we need to make a living.
Sadly theft of kit from commercial vehicles is up by 15 per cent in the last three years, according to research by Volkswagen.
Robberies of tools from vans is at a three-year high, with 67,000 break-ins since 2015. Nearly 24,000 of those occured in the last year alone.
The total cost to businesses of the crime spree is £46million.
The worst hit area is London, unsurprisingly, but Northumbria and West Yorkshire are also hot spots.
Stay safe, folks. Or, at the very least, stay insured.
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GT is just the tonic
ROYAL Enfield, a name that has been around for more than a hundred years – and one that is instantly recognisable the world over.
Until now, it has kept its powder dry when it comes to the retro sector, but its new Interceptor and Continental GT models could be exactly what the market needs.
Rather than building a bike that justifies the biggest price tag possible, Enfield has built two the very best bikes you can possibly buy for the least amount of money.
It’s an inspired move, as both bikes are great fun to ride – 650cc parallel twin-powered, with an A2 licence-friendly 47bhp, either one of these bikes is ready to put a smile on your face.
ABS Bybre brakes and simple suspension feel capable most of the time, but if you’re intent on riding as fast as possible you might be better off looking elsewhere.
If you’re up for low-price fun, want genuine heritage and styling that is absolutely bang-on, take a look at either of these. Our pick of the two is the Continental GT – the riding position gives the suspension an easier job which installs confidence.
Prices in the UK haven’t been announced yet – as we were leaving our test route in Santa Cruz, California, it was suggested that both bikes will be sub six grand.
If it can pull that off, Royal Enfield deserves to clean up in this popular – and often overpriced – sector.
Great work Royal Enfield and welcome back to the party.
For more bikes search “Bike World” on YouTube or find Bike World on Amazon Prime.