Honda-Acura.net - Audi A5 spy shots

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Article from, and more pictures at, Carster.

It was a beautiful December day along the Southern California coastline, and I was out cruising the winding canyon roads of Malibu in the Carster STI when lo and behold, what did I spy but a couple of Audi engineers test driving two of their upcoming (and eagerly anticipated) Audi A5's!

The exterior paintjob was a close match to the unreleased Audi R8 I 'd snapped some photos of back in August, but they must have learned their lesson about taking pre-production models out for an afternoon spin, because this time both cars were masked front and back . . . drat it all!

However, the main bodylines draping down the side of the rides were obvious enough to give the game away, and I loved the new swoop of the rear windows, although I believe the true window lines were camouflaged a bit just to throw the hounds off the scent.

It's difficult to be certain, especially through all that masking, but I believe the test vehicles were sporting the signature horseshoe pattern in the grille, while the rear brake light display cribbed heavily from other Audi production models. The side mirrors boasted some jazzy LED lights, and there seemed to be a slight chin spoiler added to the backside of the trunk.

While one of the A5's rolled on 20 inch rims clad in Dunlop tires, its companion A5 sported a set of Eagle LS tires on 17 inch rims, so my guess is that they chose a sunny California Sunday to go test some wheels - and without even calling me first . . . the nerve!