2009 Audi AS5-R by Abt Sportsline First Drive

Compared to the supercharged 492-horsepower MTM S5 GT from its rival German updo-er of all things Audi, the 2009 Abt Sportsline AS5-R with its supercharged 503-hp V8 appeals to us more.

Tuners aside, the Audi S5 is no great shakes yet, and we're eagerly awaiting the cure in the Audi RS5, which is soon to be introduced with a 450-hp V8. In the meantime, we are suitably bowled over after several locomotivelike miles ramming north and south on the speed-limit-free autobahn A7 between Kempten and Memmingen with the 2009 Abt Sportsline AS5-R.

We first saw this car on the stand at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show before its looks evolved a bit, and we have to say with all due respect that Hans-Jürgen Abt did this particular 2009 Audi AS5-R no favors when he ordered a fake carbon-fiber racing stripe for what had been a perfectly stunning car finished in matte-finish white and red paint. The drive is so delightful, however, that we'll deal.

Just Supercharge Me
With so many exquisitely over-engineered VW Group engines churning out nice power and torque but nowhere near the numbers that they're really capable of, tuners of Audis long ago discovered the instant thrill of supercharging.

The 2009 Abt Sportsline AS5-R gets the same Abt Power R upgrade that we experienced with the 2008 Abt Sportsline R8-R, which includes a Scandinavian iron lung for breathing assistance. This is the Lysholm twin-screw supercharger, and it's riveted directly atop the intake manifold of the 4.2-liter Audi FSI V8. The peak boost of 8.5 psi spools the power up to 503 hp at 6,800 rpm and increases torque to 457 pound-feet between 3,500 and 5,400 rpm. (The stock Audi S5 produces 349 hp at 7,000 rpm and 325 lb-ft of torque at 3,500 rpm.) The whine that the engine makes under full throttle is Muzak to those who love a supercharger's flying saucer sound.

By our math, this Power R tune increases power by 44.1 percent and torque by 40.6 percent. By our ear, the acoustic improvement produced by the Swedish supercharger and the Austrian-built quad-tip exhaust by Sebring is like 100 percent. Maybe more, we swear.

Rather than the nobly flat torque curve developed by the factory car from Ingolstadt, the 2009 Audi AS5-R's torque basically starts where the standard torque begins at around 2,000 rpm and then swells directly up like a sweet wave that we might ride in to the beach and all the way to the cabana. There is no perceived break in the wave until around 5,800 rpm, by which point the horsepower wave takes over and finally peaks at 6,800 rpm.

The AS5-R's top speed as quoted by Abt is limited to 181 mph. We managed a long clear stretch of the A7 with the speedometer hovering neatly around 175 mph. Acceleration to 60 mph is now a sonic 4.3 seconds against the S5's 4.9 seconds.

Wrestling Baby to the Ground
The 2009 Audi AS5-R offers a particularly elegant combination of ride and handling. While MTM generally takes a more hard-core approach to its cars and Ingolstadt builds kind and gentle cars to please its large cross-section of clients, Abt mixes the two in a more plausible and pleasing manner.

You won't find the sophisticated Audi Magnetic Ride here, because it adds unwanted weight. But neither will you find the boat-y standard suspension from the S5 either. Abt has opted here for a set of four adjustable coil-over dampers supplied by H&R, and the setup produced just the right personality during our drive, whether we were flying for glory or tooling around southern German towns that looked like movie sets. The AS5-R sits as much as 2.4 inches lower than the standard S5, and the lower center of gravity dramatically improves the dynamics.

Abt also slaps on a quartet of its mighty cast-aluminum 20-inch BR wheels, and this new design features a fetching matte-black finish between the five spokes. Love 'em and they're lightweight units, so unsprung weight is less and that always improves the suspension's responsiveness.

A set of not-too-hard and not-too-soft Continental SportContact2 tires function as the AS5-R's contact patch with the road and we were particularly in love with these 265/30ZR20s, which are righteous while rocketing along fast roads, although a little less ideal during gymnastics on narrow secondary roads. Nonetheless, we appreciate the overall low-profile 20-inch show. The 15-inch drilled front brake discs also enable late-braking moments all day long, even though they are coping with a 3,900-pound car.

The steering gear is the standard Servotronic from the Audi S5, which we sometimes find a little over-assisted and numb, but here among so much Abt hardware it actually pleased us in ways we haven't been pleased before by this technology. Now just take away the super-numb all-wheel-drive setup with a torque split of 40 percent front/60 percent rear in favor of something like a 25/75 default, then maybe allow us to disengage the electronic safety net and then we could burn some donuts.

How It Makes Us Feel Inside
You see the leather-upholstered sport seats and the perfectly placed shift lever. What's not to like inside? The Getrag manual transmission with its short-throw shift action lets us be in charge of our revs and our shifts, and that's what you want in a car that begs its driver to meet it halfway. Someday there will definitely be a return to manual transmissions once people get tired of all the tech telling them when and how to shift. (Please??)

The bolsters for these re-upholstered Audi seats are just right and none too restrictive. We might opt instead for a manually adjustable carbon-fiber seat just to save some weight, but these stock units are certainly a pleasure.

An Abt aluminum pedal set makes a big difference when we get into heated heel-and-toe downshifts. The spacing between the pedals makes it pretty easy to blip this indestructible engine enough for a snatch-free clutch engagement.

Looky-Looky
The current trend to matte-finish paint treatments must be encouraged, we think. Black is always a favorite for the Darth Vader boy racer, but this scheme with white trimmed in burnished red is a sensation. We wanted to strip off the ludicrous, fake-ass carbon-look stick-on junk that Abt's big man upstairs commanded after the Geneva show, but we'll get over the affront.

The Abt aero kit for the bodywork includes a new front airdam, black grille, rocker-sill skirts, front fender vents (to heat the outside mirror mounts?) and a red diffuser piece between the Sebring exhaust tips. It's a tasteful sport look and no doubt contributes to high-speed stability.

Fun fact time: At the Geneva auto show, VW Group bossman Martin Winterkorn arrived at the Abt Sportsline stand and noticed the matte-white four rings on the grille of the 2009 Audi AS5-R and he got his branding police on the case immediately, reminding the boys that those rings can only come in black and silver. The change was made just in time for our drive.

While the full aero kit and wheels and suspension parts are immediately available to enthusiasts in the U.S., Abt is still working on an EPA-friendly version of the 503-hp V8 and hopes to make it salable by the end of this year. At that point, this full transformation — sans fancy paint job and seat reskin — should cost around $35,000 through Abt Sportsline's new importer (since the last SEMA show), GGI European Tuning.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.