Audi VS Mercedes: The FULL Challenge | Fifth Gear Classic

the brand new audi rs6 is the world's fastest estate with the engine from a bentley an acceleration to shamer ferrari it's a surefire way of making your meetings on time its main rival is the mercedes e63 amg it's just been given more grunt and while the audi is an estate only the merc comes as both a state or saloon they're cars for petrolhead executives and we're gonna find out which is best these machines are designed to demolish german autobahns and should be able to sit at eye-watering speeds all day long today's three tests replicate the daily commute of wealthy german executives as they power their way to the office by the end of our three tests we'll be able to tell you which is best suited to the job our first challenge will find out which car is easiest to drive fast for long periods of time replicating the sustained high-speed driving their owners might do on unrestricted autobahns it's all about high speed stability but as an extra twist we've also brimmed both cars tanks after the tests we'll refill them to work out how much fuel they've used and see which car is the most expensive to drive fast these are your high quality shirts tiff oh executive essentials stowed we begin right test number one we're gonna do 15 miles as quick as we can without him stabbing him in the arm because he thinks i'm going too nice i think this is well fast enough because look look at them nasty time for the day is the one and a half mile rockingham speedway first the mercedes can you just call you called your just straight that yeah but this isn't back door for our back door merc's tuning division amg have added a host of tweaks to increased stability and speed most unusual is the suspension at the front it has traditional steel springs but at the back it's got an air system this should give the driver a sporty feel but provide comfort for passengers it does feel good this car on the road doesn't it it's soft enough but yeah you can feel it's taut and tight it does sound great that engine though doesn't it the merc has 10 grands worth of optional extras including a 4 200 pound bang olufsen hi-fi plus 1 800 pounds worth of heated and fan-cooled seats what is the best feature of the interior of this car well you're probably going to say that iwc clocker yeah it's got a nice simple clock the 5.5 litre v8 feels effortless on the straights we're hitting 120 miles an hour i'm confident the car stability control systems will intervene if we start losing grip in the corners jason is less relaxed we always got in a bit deep here honestly i can bite i can really bite off it's all stability i don't care we cannot crash because we have all spinners but i don't care [Music] and we come up to finish and the finish is going to be fish the e63 sets the benchmark covering 15 miles in 8 minutes and 37 seconds that's an average speed of 104 miles an hour next the andy off we go so comparisons first impressions steering's heavier is it yeah it feels racial i'm sitting on the floor i must admit it's got a racial sort of feel to it and what about the feedback from the wheel less it's just a bit dead and heavy both cars have almost exactly 550 brake horsepower but the four-wheel drive audi is 90 kilograms heavier so in effect you're always carrying an extra hefty passenger and that's not the only bad news i've got the same roaring engine now and also the seats aren't giving me the same sort of support i've got nasty wind noise from here the audi pips the merc when it comes to pricey options with 25 000 pounds worth its hi-fi costs 6 300 pounds and the quattro badge is part of the carbon styling package which costs 4250 quid considering this car you know as we've got it today is over a hundred thousand pounds you shouldn't be having that wind noise let's see if the windows are up properly that way stop the clock now eight minutes 37 to beat eight minutes 20.3 the audi averaged 108 miles an hour four more than the merc thanks to a more confidence inspiring feel and less interruption from jason now it's time to find out which car used more fuel [Laughter] i'll bite you in a minute how much we use then 12.7 12.70 that .01 might be important the rs6 returned a little over five to the gallon ouch oh the e63 is 30 percent better but still only average seven so this is more this merges more economical then nine on 20 quid to do those few laps and mine was 16. both are shockingly thirsty at monster speeds but it's the lower revving merc that will require fewer visits to the petrol station the audi's superior stability make it the outright speed king [Music] there's no point in having supercar acceleration if you haven't got supercar stopping power and as every german exec will know the autobahn can quickly turn into a traffic jam so therefore you need incredible brakes to stop you plowing into stationary traffic which brings us to test number two a head-to-head emergency stop challenge this is going to be the ultimate test of stopping power we'll drive side by side at 100 miles an hour then slam on the brakes at the same time we've just done 100 now come to the line [Applause] how's that how is that stupid hazard lights have come on as if we were in danger but we weren't and we've stopped identically but that is uncanny isn't it absolutely exactly the same the highway code says the total stopping distance from 70 miles an hour should be 94 meters these cars stopped from a faster speed in a shorter space just 90.5 meters incredible we decide to up the ante to see if either cars breaks suffer from reduced performance when they get super hot stop number two autobahns can be littered with one jam after another this test will replicate the kind of hard abuse the cars might take during a traffic filled office commute i thought i was going to win this i'm 90 kilos lighter you stopped shorter that time actually got the sensatronic limiter holding it at 100 and wow on the third run the mercs breaks start to fade slightly [Music] i overshot i'll tell you what i can start to feel i can hear some grumbling and a bit of a slight bit of vibration from the discs and the pad so you know this is an extreme test of the brakes round four are the audi's brakes starting to fade on the line they sound warm but the stopping distance has barely changed i can definitely feel some vibration a bit grumbling from the brakes have you got the same i'm always sure with you the grumbling comes out of your mouth mostly so it wouldn't be surprising we're putting it all on the fifth and final run to determine the winner after all that abuse which car's brakes will work the best right hundred miles an hour on my limiter oh man that's amazing look at that you're right on your mark and i'm only half a car legs passed those smokes from the brakes they've taken that really well well mine are ticking quite badly i've got quite a lot of clunking going on with the disc bells despite the audi's grumbling noises it stops in the fifth run exactly where it stopped in the first run the mercedes took about two meters longer to stop so it's now lost out on both speed and braking will it redeem itself in the final challenge we'll test the car's technology while racing head to head oh he's blocked with a little swag welcome back to fifth gear and the climax of our e63 versus rs6 high-speed commute now we know the audi is quicker at covering massive autobahn miles and but it did use a lot more fuel and it's got better brakes but now it's time for our final challenge a head-to-head race to the office [Music] it's a two-lap challenge but we won't just test the handling of these executive expresses during our second lap we'll also test their sat navs to see which car has the most intuitive version of this essential technology got to the grid first i think i'll take the high lines dryer racing line i see that tiff trying to get the high line there but i've nicked it sorry old boy okay i'm ready let's have the flag i had to go he's trying to get around the outside he won't like he doesn't like his big curve i'm brave but i'm not that brave and i thought i'd get away from you but the trap was still a bit greasy damn but he just understood and it wasn't very nice it rolled the steering feed back i was struggling to stay ahead of you right well he's got a head of it but i'm not too concerned because i've got phenomenal traction and the key with this car is to think about corner exit at all times like here like there look corner exit that audi i have to say in those tricky conditions it's really good fun to drive gives you lots of confidence and attraction that's where i could have you coming at cons i know he's gonna bomb me he's gonna bomb me oversteer mind you i reckon i'll have been an interview have been dry definitely a lot closer not ahead i don't think no maybe not as we head to lap two it's time to test the sat navs we've got an appointment to keep i've now got to find my way to angela merkel's office who's the chancellor of germany although we wouldn't recommend setting directions like this on a public road look he's all backed off he just like doing two things at once trying to use the technology in these closed circuit conditions is a useful way of determining which system is easiest to use press this button now uh address entry germany town berlin but the saturn have you struggled with that what was that just complicated merch thing or just a bit of age do you think look i'm still trying to work out burr burke and we must be somewhere burr willie branstad start root selection that's me god the merc's fiddly sat nav isn't the only thing holding me back i'm not getting snappy gear changes i'm not getting enough turning initially oh and then it just wants to push if it was bone dry he wouldn't be laughing as i'm sure he is laughing right now it depends on the nature of the circuit here with those hairpins yeah we've definitely got the advantage on the way out and i think the reason for that is the torque delivery on that murk is just too extreme it was all no it wasn't very nice [Applause] well that's a crushing victory for the audi the end of the day there's not really much doubt about the winner is there no i'm surprised at that because the you know the old version the older mod model wasn't that good of the audi i thought the mirror was going to be a better better car but hands down it's blown into the wings gearbox wasn't as good handling wasn't as good performance wasn't as good the audi's the winner for sure you

Channel: Fifth Gear

Views: 55,045

Rating: 4.8747697 out of 5

Keywords: Fifth Gear, car, review, fast, crash, fifth, gear, Tiff Needell, Jason Plato, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jonny Smith, car review, New Cars, New Episodes Of Fifth Gear, Fifth Gear 2018, Bring Back Fifth Gear, Fifth, Gear, Full, Episodes, Live, Stream, New Fifth Gear Series, New Car Reviews

Id: HtJq3raLbwo

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Tue May 04 2021