AUDI S5 CABRIOLET
ROAD TEST: S5 CABRIOLET. Words Jennifer Dow. Photography John Buchan
The S5 cabriolet is another Audi that has been on my ‘I want to drive’ hit list for a long time. Longing for at least a couple of nice weather days we took delivery of the Daytona Grey S5 early on a Monday morning. As always there was a team discussion of who should be the first to take the wheel and it was quickly decided that the first spin would be a team effort. Once we were all in, with myself at the wheel wearing a winning smile, we left the side streets of our office behind and took to the open country roads. Noticeably there was plenty room inside the cabin and even the rear passengers, who were already yearning for their turn, had amble room to get comfortable. Couple that with an abundance of adjustment controls for both the seat and the steering wheel I was able to find maximum comfort in the driver’s seat. The S5 Cabriolet’s interior certainly impresses with oodles of luxurious touches and all controls and switches are sensibly placed allowing the driver to focus on just that, driving.
Diamond patterned stitching in the seats adds to the overall luxurious feel and look of the car which come as standard. The massage seats offer more of a taste of heaven and I am sure these would add to the drivers comfort on long journeys. A real showpiece is the virtual cockpit which allows the driver to switch between satellite view, large gauges, audio and trip information. Despite its attractive appearance my eyes were drawn to the heads-up display, having this on my own Audi I was used to making the most of this optional extra.
Driving with the roof up there is very little wind noise for a cabriolet and the road noise is also well managed. Despite the not so nice weather we still had to experience a drive in the car with the roof down. So, hair bobble at the ready I swept my hair up in a ponytail and took the roof down. It went down in what felt like seconds and watching it do so we were impressed with the mechanics and smoothness of it all. After a discussion about the marvel we had just witnessed we were ready to go again. As we set off we were prepared to be wind swept however buffeting is kept to a minimum and even reaching speeds of 70mph we could still comfortably discuss all things Audi and the magazine, nothing beats a fun team meeting to start the working week.
Back out on those open roads the S5 Cabriolet was happy to charge along the winding roads and if you wish to take it a tad easier set the drive select to comfort and it will cruise along equally as happy. Out on the country roads the S5 offers plenty of excitement with the steering wheel nicely weighted and plenty of grip coming up through those tyres. With an abundance of power and torque the 354PS output of the 3.0-litre V6 makes progress effortlessly. The S5 Cabriolet is on of Audi’s quickest open top models and for this generation the 3.0-litre supercharged V6 and seven speed tiptronic were replaced with a 354PS 3.0-litre single turbo V6 and the more modern 8 speed automatic. This version of the S5 Cabriolet is 40kg lighter than the version it has replaced yet is still 225kg heavier than the S5 Coupe. Both the S5 Coupe and Cabriolet share the same top speed but the Cabriolet is 0.4sec slower to 62mph, taking 5.1 secs.
sources: Performance Audi, August 2018
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