Senner RS5 Audi S5 is Confusingly Named, Clearly Cool

If you want a coupe, want to buy new and have about $55,000 to spend, you’d be foolish to not at least take a look at the Audi S5. The handsome styling, eager supercharged V6 under the hood and cat-on-the-drapes grip thanks to that quattro AWD are all very compelling arguments against going with the likes of the Infiniti G37 and BMW 335i. And if the S5 isn’t wild enough, you can always mow a few thousand lawns and save up for the limited edition RS5, the S5’s flared-fender, V8-stuffed sister.

But what if you want to split the difference between the S5 and RS5, in terms of both price and performance? Why, you hop up an S5, of course. And Germany’s Senner Tuning has done exactly that with an extra-strength S5 it calls…the RS5.

Okay, so the name Senner selected is likely to lead to some comical Abbott-and-Costello-esque confusion. But the looks of this tuned two-door Audi are dead serious. The stock front bumper is swapped out for a lower RS5-like (as in quattro GmbH’s RS5) unit with bigger grille openings. A KW coilover kit drops ride height substantially (while also squelching body roll), and the wheel wells are stuffed with 20” multipiece wheels wearing high performance Vredestein Ultra Sessanta tires. Add super-subtle lip spoilers on above the rear window and on the trunklid, RS5 style oval exhaust tips, carbon fiber rocker moldings and mirror caps, blacked out badges and grille inserts and a set of “Senner Tuning” decals and you have the full extent of the visible tweaks.

Interior changes aren’t very radical, either. The stock seats are re-upholstered in two-tone Nappa leather, and large swaths of carbon fiber are affixed to the dashboard, door panels and center console. Additionally, the S5 steering wheel is replaced with an R8 unit. Again, not a huge departure from stock, but it does work.

By contrast, the engine receives a substantial amount of attention. Senner fits the supercharged 3.0L V6 with a racing style air filter, reprogrammed ECU, and a completely new exhaust system behind and including the catalytic converters. These changes raise output from 333hp and 325 lb.-ft of torque to 423hp and 370 lb.-ft. For reference, that’s down 27hp and up 53 lb.-ft on the normally aspirated 4.2L V8 in Audi’s RS5. Not bad for a “little underachiever” V6 if you ask us.

As for the price, well, it’s merely okay. Senner is listing the car pictured for sale at the equivalent of about $89,000, or roughly $20,000 over the American base MSRP of an Audi RS5. However, it’s worth noting that a new Audi RS5 coupe starts at just under $100,000 in Germany. Is the RS5 from Ingolstadt $10,000 better than the RS5 from Ingelheim-Nord? That’s for potential buyers to decide. However, we do like that extra torque…

Source: Senner Tuning