Before you start sending us
flaming e-mails complaining
that a comparison between the
2008 Audi S5 and the 2008 BMW
M3 Coupe is an obvious
mismatch from the get-go, you
should know a few things.

Our first full test of the
$53,000, all-wheel-drive 2008
Audi S5 was a bit of a
revelation. With a
354-horsepower version ofmore

Before you start sending us
flaming e-mails complaining
that a comparison between the
2008 Audi S5 and the 2008 BMW
M3 Coupe is an obvious
mismatch from the get-go, you
should know a few things.

Our first full test of the
$53,000, all-wheel-drive 2008
Audi S5 was a bit of a
revelation. With a
354-horsepower version of
Audi's direct-injection
4.2-liter V8 under its hood,
the voluptuous Audi S5 ran a
13.3-second quarter-mile at
104 mph, just 0.1 second and 2
mph shy of the 420-hp 2007
Audi RS4 sedan. What's more,
the S5's slalom speed is
within a couple mph of the
harsh-riding RS-spec sedan.
'It ran a 13.3? With that kind
of speed, who needs a $67,000
RS4?' we asked ourselves.

We believe so strongly in the
2008 Audi S5 that it earned
our Inside Line's inaugural
Editors' Choice Award.

So we acquired (hastily
perhaps) another 2008 Audi S5
and set it against the new
2008 BMW M3 Coupe, a car now
fortified with V8 power for
the first time. Speed-reading
the specifications sheets of
these two cars, they seem like
natural rivals: the 354-hp,
all-wheel-drive 2008 Audi S5
measured against the 414-hp,
rear-wheel-drive 2008 BMW M3.

But as it turns out, we gave
the 2008 Audi S5 a bigger
challenge than we had
initially intended.

Category Autos & Vehicles

Tags BMW, M3, 135i, 335i, Auto, car, Audi