Smooth as silk: Audi’s S5 Coupe
For reasons that scarcely require elaboration, “lubricity” is one of my favorite words. It is, first of all, fun to say, all slippery with sibilance. Second, many fine things are lubricious in nature. Easy dinner conversation, for instance. The balanced slickness of a well-oiled pistol (caution: Avoid combining dinner conversation and pistols). In fact, lubricity might even be counted as one of the universal cues of quality. Whenever a thing has a heft and substance that nonetheless yields to effortless operation — a Waterman pen, for instance, or the stout zipper on Prada boots, or the gliding drawers of a Pegaso desk — that registers as a thing well made.
And that brings us to the 2008 Audi S5 Coupe . The S5 — the performance variant of the A5 Coupe , with an extra 89 horsepower in the snout — is another in a lengthening line of Ingolstadt ’s products that deliver crazy-great performance with a refinement and absence of stiction that makes them feel like they are lubricated with angels’ tears. Or the fatty renderings of an enchanted ermine from some Russian folk tale. Whatever it is, these cars’ moving parts seem to commune in a way that has banished friction to the dustbin of physics.
This quality — which manifests itself as smoothness in operation, and absence of noise and vibration is even more notable because the S5 has so darn many moving parts. Obviously, there’s the lump of reciprocation under the hood, a slightly de-tuned version of the 4.2-liter direct-injection V8 found in the R8 sports car. With its super-stiff deck, counter-balance shafts, active engine mounts, lightened and micro-polished valve train assemblies and silicon-impregnated cylinder linings, this dual-cammer revs with a lightness, a willingness, that makes it feel like it’s topped off with 5 quarts of 0W-nothing-weight motor oil.
The S5 is fitted with a conventional six-speed manual transmission (automatics will come later, but there are no plans to offer the DSG “manumatic” gearbox so beloved by Audi-ence members). Not surprisingly, the S5’s clutch pedal action is light and precise, but it’s the way the clutch engages — with no palpable vibration, or even a dry whisper as it meets the flywheel — that is so uncanny. It’s like the clutch is a felt-buffing wheel stolen from Harry Winston. This refinement is no minor feat, considering the S5 sings 354 hp at 6,800 rpm and 325 pound-feet of torque at 3,500 rpm. When that clutch hits the flywheel it sounds like cattle getting romantic. Mooooooo.
Tags: 2008 Audi cars, Audi S5 Coupe