Audi ABT AS5 Sportback

Power and elegance are rarely spoken in the same breath but Autovox partnered with ABT has created that rare instance for us right here. Barely four months after the launch of the Audi A5 Sportback, they've taken one of Audi's latest babies and given it a sprinkling of ABT's racing fairy dust.    

This isn't my first encounter with a German sled hopped up with ABT parts. It was barely five months ago that Autovox sent me knee-deep into depression after I spent an entire day in an ABT tuned Mk6 Golf GTI. No, don't get me wrong. The Golf wasn't bad. Not at all. It was specifically because it was anything but that drove me to madness the next couple days cause of how much I wanted one.

Naturally, I could hardly contain myself when Brighid, Autovox's Marketing Manager, rang me up with an invitation to review their latest ABT tuned Audi A5 Sportback. Of course my reply was an over exuberant (bordering on juvenile) "Hell yeah!".

You'll have to excuse my seemingly unprofessional outburst of emotion. My exuberance stems from my lengthy love affair with most things Audi. Of course my love for 911s still casts a deeper and wider gorge in my heart but Audi's long history of motoring greatness has me pretty smitten too. It all started after a close friend of mine bought himself a standard B7 Audi A4 1.8T and turned it into a sinister looking Bahn cruncher within a year.

Audis for me are a refreshing breakaway from the staid design of other German rivals. It seems that the design language of nearly every Audi in the range is heavily influenced by the elements of power and performance.

The muscular lines belie a caged beast under its white collared exterior. It is a fine balance of power and elegance with a bias towards the former.

Keeping that balance when tuning a car like the A5 Sportback requires great restraint and understanding of the market you're aiming for. Improving upon a car like the Sportback is much different from your run of the mill import models. Lest you end up with a garish looking Audi that would cause Ingolstadt designers to drop dead from the desecration of their work. Rather than slapping on random go-faster bits like what so many of the local import tuners do, ABT approaches the project with thorough research and fore planning. In which the end result is as much a compliment to the Audi designers as it is for ABT's design team.