It's not a famous artwork, nor is it a particularly exquisite piece of architecture; instead it lies in the steely expressions of a man named Walter de'Silva. Normally dressed in a neat grey suit, this Italian is responsible for blessing our roads with some deeply cool machinery.
Walk across any car park in the world and you're bound to stumble upon one of his creations: the Alfa 147, the Seat Leon and more recently, Audi's epic R8. Now one would think that the latter would be his pièce de resistance, but that's where you're wrong. According to De'Silva, the most perfect car he's ever penned is the Audi A5.
Beautifully understated, the tin-topped A5 really is a stellar thing to look at, but - and this is most unusual - I must say that the new soft-top version is even sexier. Replacing the old A4 Cabriolet as the Four Ring's headline convertible, the absence of a proper roof actually accentuates everything that makes this car such a stunner in the first place: the swooping nose, that aggressively raked windscreen, those two razor-sharp shoulder blades. While topless versions of mainstream coupés can seem a little forced, a little "OTT", the cloth-topped A5 Cabriolet pulls off its open-air credentials with a restrained ease that helps it avoid any of the flashy pretentiousness usually associated with cars in this class. And that's most impressive.
Predictably, as those stylish looks suggest, the other elements making up the A5 Cabriolet package are just as noteworthy. Audi spent a lot of time tuning this machine's chassis/suspension set-up and its investment shows on the road. Though it rolls on massive 19-inchers and has all sorts of torsional upgrades hidden beneath its skin, the A5 we tested rode with a fluency that defied belief. You would expect to be left with a footwell full of fillings over anything but the smoothest tarmac, but in actual fact, it rides incredibly well, managing to be compliant without losing any of the sporty handling characteristics you'd expect in a car from Ingolstadt.
Happy to glide down boulevards all day, this convertible is also a riot to drive when you snick the class-leading S-Tronic gearbox into S Mode and get pushy with the accelerator pedal. Outright grip is, thanks to the Quattro all-wheel drive system, phenomenal and even with the traction control turned off, it is nigh impossible to get this Audi out of shape.
Consequently, you can really go wild when it comes to corners and carry through the sort of speeds that many of its rivals would do well to match. Put simply, this is a car that you can drive very quickly without the worry of having a spectacular crash.
Power wise, that oil-burning V6 looming large under the bonnet offers up some truly ferocious shove and, once above the 2000rpm mark, piles on speed with the enthusiasm of an Audi Le Mans racer.
It also returns some fairly decent economy figures, with our test unit settling at about the 10L/100km mark after a week of varied driving conditions.
However, as excellent as this unit may be, I found its rather soulless, thrumming soundtrack somewhat unsuited to top-down motoring.
One of the reasons why people buy convertibles in the first place is to hear, and ultimately get closer to, the racing heart of the machine. And with my ears met by nothing but the occasional whistle of the turbo and a lot of wind noise, well, I often found myself pining for one of the more vocal 3.2FSI or 2.0TFSI petrol engines.
But apart from that, and my usual gripes about Audi's expansive and expensive options list, there's not much more to find fault with in the A5 Cabriolet. It's the ultimate summer accessory for the well heeled.
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