Along with open-topped sports cars, grand tourers and hot hatchbacks, no class of car quite gets an enthusiast’s juices flowing like a fast estate – and it was Audi, with the RS2, that virtually invented the segment.
These days BMW is muscling in on the market with the M3 Touring, but in the latest episode of The Driver’s Seat, Henry Catchpole drives Audi’s riposte: the RS4 Avant Competition.
The RS4 Avant is something of a spiritual successor to that original RS2, and while it’s had its highs and lows over the years, the most recent generation of fast Audi estates has really hit the spot.
And as you might infer from the ‘Competition’ badge, this one’s been given just a little more vim, thanks largely to chassis tweaks like manually-adjustable dampers, and a fixed-ratio steering rack rather than Audi’s usual variable fare.
Along with stiffer anti-roll bars and re-tuned electronic systems, the goal is a more involving and expressive chassis. But has Audi achieved it?
Before we find out, there’s one important test to be done: does it still handle the estate part of the fast estate formula? Catchpole devises a fiendish test in the video, and one with results you might not expect, given the cards stacked against it.
Then it’s onto the roads around Ronda, and afterwards some laps of the Ascari race resort nearby – a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. We won’t spoil the verdict here, but let’s just say the concept of the fast load-lugger is alive and well, and Audi hasn’t lost that knack.
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