Holy Crap, The New Audi RS5 Weighs 1,112 Pounds More Than The Old One

Some of the figures produced by today’s performance cars are absolutely loopy. Twenty-ish years ago, a Porsche Carrera GT made 603 horsepower, accelerated from a dead stop to 60 MPH in fewer than four seconds, and was essentially considered a hypercar. Now, you can find dozens of sedans and crossovers that achieve those same figures. The new Audi RS5 is a similar exercise in spec sheet ridiculousness, and while more power than a Carrera GT or a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sounds appealing, it’s the curb weight of this compact sports sedan that stands out the most.

Let’s start with the good news: 630 horsepower and 608 lb.-ft. of torque. You want big numbers? These are some serious ones. Credit goes to an evolution of Audi’s 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6, kicking out 503 horsepower on its own and augmented by hybrid assistance. A lithium-ion battery pack with a 22 kWh net capacity feeds a 174-horsepower electric motor in an eight-speed automatic gearbox to produce a claimed zero-to-62 mph sprint in 3.5 seconds. For those keeping track at home, that’s four-tenths of a second quicker than the old RS5. Wunderbar.

Big power requires big brakes, so Audi’s offering the new RS5 with optional 17.3-inch carbon ceramic front discs that have the swept area to help a suitably equipped RS5 stop from 62 mph in a claimed 100 feet and should have enough thermal capacity to do that again and again—at least until the brake fluid is screaming for its mum. However, crossing the 600-horsepower mark likely isn’t the only reason Audi has fitted such gargantuan stoppers to the new RS5.

According to Audi, the outgoing RS5 Sportback tipped the scales at 4,079 pounds. Not exactly light, but still within the realm of cars like the BMW M3 Competition xDrive. However, Audi claims this new RS5 Sportback carries a curb weight of 2,355 kilograms, or 5,191.9 pounds. I get that many of us have put on a little bit of weight in recent years, but wow, that’s a 27-percent jump in curb weight. For context, that’s 69 pounds heavier than a crew cab Ford F-150 XL with 4×4, the 6.5-foot bed, and the five-liter V8.

While it’s easy to blame electrification for the weight gain, 25.9 kWh of batteries and a single electric motor aren’t entirely to blame. If we look at the new S5 with its three-liter V6, Audi claims it weighs 4,288 pounds. That’s 364 pounds more than the previous-generation S5 Sportback and 209 pounds more than the old RS5 Sportback. Considering the old, non-electrified RS5 Sportback weighed 155 pounds more than its S5 sibling, there was always going to be a significant weight penalty to the new RS5 even before factoring in electrification.

Now, the new RS5 isn’t as heavy as the 5,368-pound BMW M5, but it plays in an entire size class down, against the aforementioned M3 Competition xDrive. The plug-in hybrid Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance was already considered cartoonishly hefty for the compact sports sedan segment, and this new RS5 weighs 374 pounds more than that. It’s a gargantuan sum for something generally considered a compact, which means that all the fancy chassis systems will be working overtime.

We’re talking bits like an electromechanical torque-vectoring rear differential that can shuffle torque across the axle for corner entry stability and corner exit agility. There’s a 10-horsepower electric motor just for differential control alone, and Audi claims it can shift 1,475 lb.-ft. of multiplied drive torque in just 15 milliseconds. That’s nearly 10 times faster than a literal blink. Upstream of that sits a center differential that can shuffle torque from a 70:30 front-to-rear split to a 15:85 front-to-rear split – not a new concept, but Audi has introduced a level of preload to the center differential in the aim of aiding off-throttle corner-entry rotation.

Still, even with a fancy all-wheel-drive system, more power than a Ferrari 458 Italia, huge brakes, and 13:1 steering, 5,191.9 pounds is a lot of pounds to manage. Basic laws of physics state that increased mass carries increased inertia, which will require more energy to accelerate, stop, and turn. While being able to drive a few dozen miles without using any fuel at all is a nice perk, there’s good reason to be slightly wary. And that’s before looking at it from the perspective of other road users. For those of us on foot, or on bike, or in old cars, do we really want near-5,200-pound compact sports sedans to become a thing?

As of right now, one thing is undeniable: The new Audi RS5 is officially the big boy of the compact sports sedan segment. Expect it to go on sale in Europe this summer, with arrival in the U.S. sometime thereafter. The big questions? How will it actually drive, and will we get the (admittedly 33 pounds heavier) wagon in addition to the liftback sedan? We’ll just have to wait to find out.

Top graphic image: Audi