The existing eight-speed auto works very well.
The 2018 New York Auto Show Highlight was the Audi RS5 Sportback. Audi is a great choice in the current market of four-doors with opening rear gates (don’t refer to it as a hatchback) and high-end 4-door offerings. This is not an easy design to master – just ask the Porsche Panamera critics – but we are proud of Audi’s new RS5 Sportback.
This is it. Nearly Everything is perfect. Everything is right when the The Sportback was finally unveiled. New York was the first place we found out that it would retain the running gear from its two-door sibling. The 444 horsepower (331kilowatts), isn’t a disappointment. Neither is Audi’s Quattro all wheel drive system. Several people have wondered why the RS5 does not have a dual clutch gearbox. This equipment is almost standard for luxury performance vehicles of this caliber, but Audi has fitted the RS5 – Coupe and Sportback – with an eight-speed auto that utilizes a good-old-fashioned torque converter.
The folks at Automobile magazine snatched Anthony Garbis, Audi’s RS5 project manger, during the New York Show and asked him a few queries. One was a pointed-black challenge, which was answered by Garbis on the same topic. Garbis claims that Audi doesn’t use a double-clutch transmission to handle the RS5’s torque. That’s 443 lb-ft (601 Newton-meters), of torque from the biturbo-V6.
What about the dual-clutch transmission on the Audi R8. This is a great question and the one that we first thought of when we found out this information. The R8’s 5.2-liter V10 produces 532 hp (397 kW) which is far more than the RS5’s mill. This monster engine produces 398 lb-ft (397 Kw) of torque.
We are happy with the 8-speed auto. The RS5 is a great car. We have driven it a lot, and although the shift knobs aren’t the most intuitive for manual operation, they work flawlessly with gear selection. The RS5 is a grand touring car, so the eight-speed transmission seems a great match.