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Style and Design
Audi have become a very popular brand lately and not without good reason. Their car build quality is without rival, the range of cars available is recognised throughout the industry as having the best interior of any vehicles on the road (with possible exception left to the Bugatti Veyron... but that's a special case as we all know...). And the bold design change in 2003 giving the range that gaping-mouth grille has been very well received.
But I'm an Audi fanatic, I drink, sleep and eat Audi. I annoy my family and friends with obscure knowledge of the Audi R10 Le Mans racer's turbo diesel engine. I leer wantonly as I pass the Audi dealership on the way into town. So naturally, I'm going to say their design direction is spot on, their cars are beyond compare, and their styling is impeccable... aren't I?
The Audi A5, for me anyhow, came out of pretty much nowhere. From announcement to being released to the dealerships seems to have been well under 12 months... and a lot more like 6... For a car of such imposing style and a job to fill a busy market niche, that's very rare. Perhaps there is something special here that Audi haven't wanted to spoil us with too early.
But then I realised something... I've seen that car somewhere before. Haven't I? A bit of research was required.
The A5 started life as a concept, the 'Audi Nuvolari', and the place I had seen it before was in my garage. No really!! Of course, the garage in question wasn't the one attached to the side of the house, but instead, the virtual garage on my most favourite of favourite past-times... Gran Turismo 4.
The Nuvolari looked like a big TT with an ugly great bonnet, ungainly shoulders and a sweeping coupe shape that didn't work for me. It was a horrible, horrible car.
At concept stage it was quite nice...
In the flesh at Geneva 2003, however...
It's very questionably designed...
But when the Nuvolari was designed, the BMW 3-series coupé was not in existence, the redeveloped Mercedes C-Class hadn't even touched the pages of Car magazine's candid photos pages. It was designed to be a big TT to fulfil the role of being something the fella could buy when his other half got herself the TT. As it was an Audi, the quality would have made it a success too. But Audi aren't daft, especially in the design department, so prior to the Nuvolari becoming a real-life car, they had a rethink.
The A5, as the Nuvolari eventually became, is stunning. Earth-shatteringly, jaw-flooringly beautiful.
Every line seems to have a purpose, there is no flustered over-designing and the end result, the whole package, looks balanced, expertly poised, flawless. The main reason for my change of opinion is that rear window. No longer does it swoop to a point, it stops short, giving you a thicker C pillar, and curves round back on itself to form the base of the window and the top of the car's waist. The lines are cleaner, the overall shape far more pleasing on the eye.
It is typical Audi, nay German, simplicity manifesting itself in a pleasing, functional form. I would hazard a guess that the number of hours that shape has spent in the wind tunnel is in three figures, if not four. I would presume that it has the aerodynamic efficiency of a whippet. But it looks as hard as a rock and meaner than Vinnie Jones with a spilt pint in his hand.
But, crikey, you can't release the best looking version of a car at the launch date!! You style the best, then you tune down the bodykit a bit for the first few punters. Then you release the all-singing all-dancing one which everybody envies. It's just how it works in the motor industry. Look at Vauxhall's Corsa, just how long did we all have to wait before the VXR model came out? The hard-as-nails 1.6l turbocharged beasty's bodykit makes the standard Corsa look like its little sister, so when your standard car looks as good as the stock A5 looks, then what happens when you start thinking in the direction of the RS5?
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