2019 Audi RS 5 Vs. 2019 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG 507 Edition Comparison

2019 Audi RS 5 Vs. 2019 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG 507 Edition Comparison

I say formidable because, as its 0.99 g of max lateral accel suggests, it delivers tenacious grip. The "party trick," as Lieberman notes, is the sports rear differential. That said, the RS 5 does relay its mass to the driver more than the 507 does. The Audi always feels glued to the road, but you feel the weight transfer between the big 275/40R20 Pirellis as you work the car to "unglue" it through turns. The Benz, conversely, at 0.91 g of max lateral acceleration, just glides along the road, coming across lighter and nimbler. It should be noted, too, that the 507's sport seats and driving position were rated above the Audi's. Under aggressive braking, especially when the brake zone featured bumps or slight bends, the Audi proved more stable, staying flatter and exhibiting less drama. Both registered curt 60-0 stopping distances: 103 feet for the C63 and 104 feet for the RS 5. That's not to say the C63 didn't offer great brake feel.

With lovely, high engagement that allowed gentle breathing on the pedal to start the slowdown process, yet prodigious bite when really needed, the Benz's binders were nothing short of excellent. Ditto for its 6.2-liter. Man, what a motor. Revs above 7000 rpm, yet has massive low-end grunt and sounds like a '60s musclecar. And keeping the Audi's tach needle where it needs to be couldn't be easier, mostly b ecause you don't have to do anything. The S tronic intuitively does it for you, whether performing seamless shifts in Drive or firing off millisecond gear changes in Sport. Simply put, it's a noticeably better transmission than the Benz's MCT. Thus, there's no surprise the RS 5's 0-60 (3.9 seconds) and quarter mile (12.3 seconds at 112.2 mph) runs were just a tenth behind the C63's (3.8, 12.2 at 117.4, respectively). With the 507 emerging as our road favorite, it was time to hit the track with our resident racer Randy Pobst to see if it could maintain its thin margin over the Audi. Pobst went out in the Merc first and set a fast lap of 1:43.45 around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca's challenging 2.21 miles.

You could say that. Given how high Randy was on the 507, we figured the less powerful, heavier RS 5 had no shot. We couldn't have been more wrong. Posting a best lap of 1:42.97, it was 0.48 second quicker, but Randy's comments suggested more like 4.8 seconds. Indeed, Pobst was able to dive deeper into the corners in the Audi and then carry more speed through the turns. That's where the Benz lost time, albeit not that much. Had it not been for the 507's underhood advantages, which gave it the drop exiting corners and on straightaway Vmax, the RS 5 would have extended the gap. The RS 5 is a balanced blend of rally car, road racer, and GT, and in many ways it's the cooler, more desirable machine. Its stance is meaner and stronger -- the sheetmetal seemingly shrink-wrapped over the five-blade 20s -- while the Benz looks like it's a big engine stuffed into a small car. And seeing the RS 5's bold mug, with the big black grille and brake ducts, in the 507's rearview makes you want to switch driver's seats.

Then there are the Audi's screaming V-8, quick-firing DCT, Quattro AWD, and superior track time. But the 507 is more fluid on winding roads than the RS 5, which feels robotic in comparison -- like going from an analog 911 to a digital GT-R -- and it's certainly no slouch at the track. The Audi might be quicker up and down a mountain and around Laguna, but it's more of a ride-along. The Benz is engaging, inviting you to join in and experience the party. And we always prefer being the life of the party. Now here's a really interesting matchup. If you take a quick glance at the speed-versus-distance plot above, you'd assume the Mercedes-Benz was the walkaway winner. Just look at how much more steeply it accelerates on the longer straights and its frequently higher speeds between the corners. How could it lose? Look more closely. Into Turn 2, the Audi brakes later and much harder. In Turns 3, 4, and 11, it corners slightly faster and is substantially quicker through Turn 6, a corner that's a real test of confidence in a car. And looking even more closely, the Audi gets its power down fractionally better out of Turns 2 and 9 as well. By the end of the lap, the Audi has squeaked out a win with a margin that's less than half a second. And around a road course such as Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, braking power and cornering confidence can combine to trump a power advantage like the Mercedes has.

No company has done more for the cause of the high-performance small car in recent years than Mercedes-Benz, or more specifically, the AMG high-performance division of Mercedes-Benz. The first C-Class to carry an AMG performance package was the six-cylinder C36 back in 1993, followed by the C43, the company's first V8 effort, in 2000, and in 2005, the C55 V8. The 2012 C63 AMG is powered by a naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 engine rated at 451 horsepower and 443 foot-pounds of torque, with a 0-60 time of 4.4 seconds, according to Mercedes-Benz. For 2012, that same powertrain is available in the coupe body, making it the most powerful C-Class coupe ever built. It more or less replaces the previous AMG coupe, the CLK 63 AMG, in the performance coupe lineup. As with the E63 sedan, there is an optional AMG package that raises engine power to 481 horsepower, raises the electronically limited top speed form 155 to 174 mph, and lowers the 0-60 time by a tenth of a second.