They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but we honestly haven't heard anyone criticize the Audi A5 Sportback. Whether it's the base, S, or the spicy RS flavor, the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe rival is widely regarded as a pretty car. This one? Well, you'll be the judge of that. We haven't seen so much carbon fiber on an RS5 before, but there's far more to this wild build than its lightweight treatment.
Our friend Auditography had the chance to shoot this striking five-door Audi in Doha, Qatar and give us all a virtual tour of the look-at-me RS5. Wearing a lovely Viola metallic finish, the V6-powered machine rides on 20-inch HRE wheels with a bronze/gold finish to create a powerful contrast and therefore make the car even more of an attention grabber.
Gallery: Violet Audi RS5 Sportback with bronze wheels, yoke steering wheel
The aftermarket body kit from Australian company Karbel includes front canards and a splitter, along with chunky side skirts, a rear diffuser, and a spoiler mounted on the tailgate. Surprisingly, it's all show without any extra go as the twin-turbo 2.9-liter engine produces the same 444 horsepower and 600 Newton-meters (442 pound-feet) of torque.
That extra show continues on the inside where there is even more carbon fiber to be found. However, you won't notice it right away because the custom steering wheel is the most obvious change. It adopts a yoke-like design with the upper rim largely shaved off, reminding us of the Tesla Model S Plaid and the Toyota bZ4X.
The Do-It-All, Non-Wagon Audi:
We'd argue this one is easier to use since it's more along the lines of a race car's steering wheel rather than an actual yoke as seen in the two electric vehicles where the entire upper half is removed. It's dipped in Alcantara on the sides, combined with carbon fiber for the bottom section and the lower spoke. It appears to be an original Audi steering wheel with the top of the rim simply removed and the newly created extremities filled with carbon fiber.
We would prefer to do without the peculiar "wheel" since nothing can be better than the traditional one, especially when it comes to performing driving maneuvers at low speeds. As for the other changes, the Porsche-like color is a nice touch, and so are the wheels, although not necessarily in this combination. The carbon fiber add-ons do accentuate the Audi RS5 Sportback's sporty nature, albeit we would argue the canards are too much.
To each his own, right?
Source: Auditography / YouTube