Verona, Italy – “FIGHT!” It’s that one word yelled at the top of the lungs that can bring every kid in the schoolyard running. On the playground of the auto industry, there’s no better grudge match than two-door performance coupes. Whether it’s the brawl of American muscle cars, the Judo sparring of high-tech Japanese sportscars or the rapier dueling of European performance coupes like Audi ’s new S5, it’s enough to make any red-blooded car buff drop his dodge ball and crowd around.
For years, Audi has chosen to stay out of the ring, with nothing to pitch against BMW’s own 3 Series coupe. But now, Ingolstadt is back to square off against its Munich rival, not to mention the rest of the field. The company has fast-tracked the new S5 coupe to market, arriving months before the much-vaunted next-gen M3.
An S-badged coupe is kind of a big deal. It’s been twelve years since the European-only S2 coupe left market, and a full 23 years since the original ur-Quattro marked the most recent offering in this segment for the U.S.A. Since then, BMW has enjoyed a mainly un-rivaled dominance. Whereas the first Quattro taught the original M3 that blistered fenders were cool, today’s S5 finds itself more squarely facing the turbocharged BMW 335i, leaving the M3 fight to the rumored, much-anticipated and highly likely RS 5.
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