First Drive: Audi’s RS4 Edition 25 delivers performance and nostalgia

Few performance estate cars can claim to have quite the heritage of Audi’s RS4. When it stormed onto the scene in 1999, resplendent in bright yellow paintwork, it was a bit of a revelation: mixing Porsche 911 levels of performance with a boot the size of a studio apartment.Several generations and 25 years later though, it’s time to wave goodbye to the RS4. With Audi having a rejig of its model lineup – with even numbers going on electric models – this will be the last ever petrol-powered car to be badged RS4.

Naturally, it couldn’t let that happen without giving it a proper send-off, and so here you have it: the most powerful, meanest, most expensive RS4 that’s ever been made. It’s also one of the rarest: just 250 are being built, and only 50 of those are heading to our shores.

Well, there’s the paint for starters – though perhaps ‘new’ is the wrong word. Called Imola Yellow, it’s a throwback to the original 1999 model that was available in the same lurid shade. White-backed dials are another nod to the RS4 of 25 years ago – though naturally on this 21st-century generation, they’re actually on a digital display.Then there’s the 20-inch forged alloy wheels – all eight of them. Buy an Edition 25 and you’ll get two sets: one in silver with road tyres, and another set in black with semi-slick ones for track driving.

Under the skin is where Audi has really splashed the cash, though. It’s squeezed an extra 20bhp out of the already muscular 2.9-litre V6, thrown on some manually adjustable suspension, and even tweaked the rear differential for more ‘driving fun’.

You’ve also got more powerful ceramic brakes included as standard – they’ve been optional on Competition-specification RS4 models – while Audi has also tweaked the camber at the front to make the handling even more engaging.

What you won’t notice on those jaunts to Waitrose or the tip, though, are the result of the tweaks to the engine and chassis. Get the Edition 25 on the right roads and you’ll find a gulf start to open up between it and the standard car. It’s just as powerful, just as capable, but there’s some added – and much-needed – bite to the way it drives.

Turn-in is crisper than on the regular car, the engine note is more raucous, and the new rear diff gives a degree of playfulness that’s usually missing from performance Audis.

Whether you truly feel the extra 20bhp, though, is a bit harder to fathom. It’s certainly not slow, and truthfully you don’t feel yourself crying out for more power – but it’s worth noting that even this version is still beaten in the BHP stakes by a BMW M3 Touring.

Were you to pick one of the other two colour choices – black or grey, by the way – you’d probably struggle to tell this apart from the normal car. There are ‘Edition 25’ badges etched into the rear windows, and various bits of trim are now ‘Matt Carbon’, but in reality, you’d have to be a bit of an Audi nerd to notice.

Controversially, it’s also had its roof bars deleted – though we imagine it wouldn’t take much persuading for a dealer to add them back on.

The biggest difference is a pair of carbon fibre bucket seats for front passengers: exquisitely made, very grippy, and surprisingly comfortable to sit in. One slight downside is their rigid backs eat into rear passenger space – any occupants in the back are likely to have sore knees after an hour of being pressed up against them.

This generation of A4 is now ever so slightly starting to show its age, of course. There’s not the same level of snazzy touch screens and tech that you’d see in rivals from BMW and Mercedes, and its dimensions haven’t ballooned quite in line with theirs either.

What you can’t fault is the quality of materials. This car comes from an era where Audi really built things properly – everything has a reassuring heft to it, and feels perhaps a touch more premium than some of their newer models, dare we say.

Those carbon fibre bucket seats aren’t electrically adjustable, of course, but they are still heated – we’re not savages, after all. Bang and Olufsen stereo, automatic cruise control, climate control, an electrically-operated boot – it’s all still there.

As, perhaps you might expect it to be, given the price tag. Our car, in Imola Yellow, is a shade over £119,000 – but black and grey aren’t far behind. That’s a lot of money for an RS4, whichever way you look at it.

It’s hard not to feel nostalgic when it comes to the Edition 25. A quarter of a century since it first appeared, cars like the RS4 are finding it increasingly difficult to remain on sale.

As a farewell to a legendary nameplate then, the Edition 25 has done its job. In lots of ways, it’s the most accomplished RS4 that Audi has made: on paper the most powerful, and to drive, the sharpest yet.

When it comes to handing over your cash for one though, it’s a slightly harder sell. As impressive as this version is, the regular RS4 is already such a good all-rounder that the substantial premium is slightly difficult to justify. If you want an Edition 25, you’ve got to really want one.