2009 Audi S5

I’d driven Audi’s 2009 S5 before it arrived at AutoMiddleEast Towers for a couple of days.

It was at an Audi event in Oman, in an area near Muscat replete with amazing, twisty roads and incredible scenery.

And I was underwhelmed. To me the car, while fast, felt too heavy to really enjoy around the bendy tarmac and too insulated from the speed it was generating to really get excited.

But now I’ve tried it in the congested traffic and long, straight highways of Dubai, and you know what? I like it more now.

That’s rather unusual – I’ll always choose to be away from traffic and up in some mountains somewhere, sweeping o’er crests and generally getting up to no good, given the choice. But let’s be honest, if you live in an urban environment, you don’t get that choice very often. More than likely your everyday driving routine involves low speed pootling, motorways and traffic jams.

So cosseted in the S5’s very impressive interior I was stress free in heavy traffic, while on motorways I cruised effortlessly with the (optional) adaptive cruise control on. And when the time came for it, I had plenty of power from the 354bhp, 4.2-litre V8 engine. It’s a machine with plenty of power throughout the rev range, so there’s no need to jump between gears unless you really want to put your foot down.

The gears, by the way, are swapped automatically thanks to a six-speed auto gearbox. It’s a tiptronic box rather than a more modern dual-clutch affair, but it lets you change up and down manually if you so wish and does so smoothly and relatively quickly.

Looks-wise, the S5 takes the standard A5 exterior and beefs it up a little – not much, but enough to give it a more athletic air. Tell tale signs include the S badge on the front grille, more pronounced bumpers and four exhaust pipes at the back. There are also some side skirts and a lip spoiler on the boot lid.