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As ludicrous as it seems, there was a time when big displacement naturally aspirated V8s were almost common in the humble saloon and estate car. Two decades on, is Audi's RS4, BMW's M3, Mercedes-AMG's C63 and the Lexus IS F as good as we remember? Sam Jenkins investigates, and finds out whether he spent his own money on the right one. Subscribe for evo’s latest performance car reviews, head-to-heads and track tests: https://bit.ly/3Ommfyv Subscribe to evo's free newsletter for more like this: https://www.evo.co.uk/newsletter-signup?mail= Follow us: https://twitter.com/evomagazine https://www.facebook.com/evomagazine https://www.instagram.com/officialevomagazine/ https://www.tiktok.com/@evomagazine? https://www.reddit.com/r/evomagazine/ https://evomagazine.substack.com/ 00:00 Intro 00:53 The cars in question 02:47 Lexus IS F 08:00 Audi RS4 (B7) 11:27 BMW M3 (E90) 16:37 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG (S204) 22:00 The winner...
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0:00
2008 was a funny time. It's formed the financial crisis, but it also spawned somehow a 6.2
0:26
litre V8 estate. This is a 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 estate, complete with AMG's very first bespoke
0:33
engine. And it's my car. I bought this five years ago, I've covered 25,000 miles of it, and I can't
0:40
think of any other car I would replace it with. But did I make the right choice? There are a whole
0:46
load of other naturally aspirated V8 compact executives from Lexus, Audi and BMW. These are
0:54
the cars in question, all from the era of big displacement and relatively small dimensions
0:58
and with naturally aspirated V8s, but they are all unique in their own ways
1:03
The V7 Audi RS4 hit the market first, all the way back in 2005. It's often considered one of
1:10
the finest Audi RS models ever produced, and given its 2026 alternative in the hybrid V6 RS5
1:17
it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like it again. We never did see anything like the BMW
1:21
again, with the E90 M3 launched in 2008 as the only V8 M3 ever produced, and couldn't be further
1:29
from its twin-turbocharged straight-six successors in the F80 and G80 series. The absolute pinnacle of
1:35
AMG for many, the S204 C63 is the car that truly deserves the badge it wears. Somehow, this car
1:41
with the performance package makes more power than its turbocharged successor, and plenty of noise to
1:47
with it too, something that certainly can't be said about AMG's latest C63 with its hybrid
1:52
four-cylinder. Japan joined in on the fun with the ISF, the very first Lexus to wear
1:57
the F badge and a very different product to any other Lexus that came before it. It had
2:02
a high bar to meet with competition from Germany, but a 5-litre V8 and tried-and-tested Lexus
2:07
luxury make it a strong offering, and is the only one in this test that never received
2:12
to follow up. Why exactly have we gathered two estate cars in two saloons from well over a decade
2:18
ago? Well, quite simply, they represent a snapshot of what many consider to be the peak of this
2:23
segment, with their combination of naturally aspirated engines developed without the restrictions
2:28
of today's regulations and relatively small dimensions, making them increasingly desirable drivers' cars. So it's very clear that these cars are all very different on paper, but how do they
2:38
fair on the road and through a 2026 lens? Well, let's find out
2:49
This car is definitely the least loved of the four. You see the fewest on the road
2:55
but is that really justified? Well, it feels like a Lexus, and while that usually wouldn't
3:01
be a terrible thing, in this group, I'm not really sure if that's what you want. It feels
3:06
like all of the controls are wrapped in a blanket of Lexus and you feel less connected to the driving
3:11
experience and to the road than you really want to be. That isn't to say this is a bad car
3:16
objectively, it's a good car, this is comfortable, it's great for doing lots of miles in and it does
3:22
have a 5 litre naturally aspirated V8 sending 470 horsepower to the rear wheel so it's definitely
3:29
got the numbers and it's got the recipe to make this a really cool performance saloon but
3:34
it just doesn't have that edge. It doesn't have the theatre of the other cars in this test
3:39
And if you're stepping back all the way to 2010, or the late 2000s
3:44
that is what you really want to have from these cars. You don't want the isolation and comfortable, rounded edge of modern cars
3:51
But that is what this feels like. This engine is very interesting
4:00
It's sort of in the middle of the road in terms of torque. 370 pound foot. The red line is not very high, it's the lowest of all four cars in this test and
4:08
while it does have this two-step intake sound that encourages you to reach beyond 6,000 rpm
4:14
there isn't much there for you if you do. I'll demonstrate that two-step intake system now
4:18
so if I roll into it, you get a lot more intake sound higher up the rev range, which is really
4:26
quite satisfying, but there's no need to reach up there. It's frustrating
4:32
One benefit of the Lexus approach, though, is that the ISF was a very early adopter of some
4:36
very significant hardware, including the first eight-speed automatic and an early take on
4:41
electronically assisted steering. Neither are particularly outstanding as a result, but increase the speed and things do begin to come together
4:49
This is a really softly sprung car, and you get a good amount of body roll if you load the car up
4:54
But there is lots of grip on offer if you ask for it. You can carry some great pace in this car, but it just doesn't have that engaging edge that you really want
5:04
Exhaust sound is definitely the least pronounced of any of the cars in this test too
5:08
You only really get that intake sound through into the cabin that sort of appears by your right foot
5:14
There is a lot of grip on offer with this car. you just have to really trust the car to extract it because you don't have much in the way of
5:22
steering feel to tell you what's going on with the front wheels we did later discover that this
5:28
particular car is on 10 year old bridgestones which won't help matters but in a group of cars
5:33
with hydraulic steering this system was bound to stick out the benefit of cars from this era is
5:39
that most have hydraulic steering which just puts them a step above their modern counterparts but this car came with electronic steering it the only one with electronic steering in this test and you really feel it It just feels slightly
5:51
disconnected and doesn't give you the confidence in the front end that you have in the other cars
5:56
Even the Audi with all-wheel drive and power to the front wheels has more confidence-inspiring
6:00
steering. It just puts the Lexus on the back foot. The gearbox in this car is a strange one
6:09
because it feels pretty quick initially. It feels snappy and sharp, but it'll occasionally do stuff you don't really want it to do
6:16
It feels like a car that wants to be a luxury, comfortable saloon, but also pick bits from the M3 and C63
6:22
but it hasn't quite done it. It doesn't quite have the ingredients to make that happen
6:27
with the electronic steering and this engine. This is probably the car of the four that I would pick to drive every day
6:33
if I could somehow. It's a really comfortable car. you can do big miles in it and cover ground quickly if you really want to but it just doesn't
6:44
have that edge if you were to use it as a weekend car it's not the one I'd pick
6:52
The interior of the Lexus is just about as confused as the character of the car itself
6:57
It doesn't really know what it wants to be it's a mixture of a comfortable cruiser and an F car
7:03
A good example of how illogical some of the design choices were in this cabin is the gate for the automatic gear lever
7:11
It almost feels like you're using the height adjustment for a lawnmower
7:15
It's just really awkward to use and doesn't feel very premium at all
7:19
It's not all bad though. Behind the steering wheel, the panels are nicely weighted and in the back you actually get independent bucket seats
7:25
which makes it feel like a really special place for rear seat passengers. Now, physical buttons are something we are asking for in 2026
7:32
but if they don't make any sense to use, then they're not really worth having
7:36
and that is the case in the ISF. It's impossible to figure out how to even tune the radio in here
7:42
despite the physical buttons it has. It's a very similar story with its exterior design
7:47
as Lexus took a very different approach to the rest in this test. There are no aggressive swollen arches or extroverted bonnet ridges
7:53
but instead a heavier, more reserved aesthetic in line with its dynamic character
7:58
The Audi, however... The clock on the dash here is actually reading August 2006
8:09
which is before any of the other cars in this test were launched. This car was actually launched in 2005, making it the oldest by far
8:16
and it does feel it inside, which isn't a bad thing at all
8:20
This car feels really well put together. It feels solid. And that also carries through to how this car drives
8:28
We love the R8 V8, and the B7 RS4 revamp is effectively an estate version of that car
8:37
It has exactly the same 4.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 for just over 410 brake horsepower
8:43
and also like the R8 V8, it has a six-speed manual transmission
8:48
Sadly, not the gated one of the R8, so, you know, we can't have everything
8:52
but it's still a decent transmission, and it makes this car more engaging than the other three in this test
8:58
This car is far from the quickest on paper in this group, despite it being all-wheel drive
9:08
It does feel it. This doesn't feel like a hugely quick car. It feels like it's probably hot-hatch quick in 2026, but that doesn't mean it's not fun
9:20
The Lexus might have more displacement than this car, but this engine is much more engaging
9:24
It encourages you to use its full range of revs to reach right for that red line, which
9:29
is the second highest of this group. The RS4 steering doesn't communicate quite as well as the C63s as you would expect from
9:41
something with power to the front wheels, but the way the chassis is set up is just
9:46
so well in tune with the rest of the car that it doesn't really matter
9:53
This car just inspires confidence from the moment you step inside and that's not just
9:56
because of the excellent wing back seats in the nice low seating position
10:00
This car has composure like not much else on the road, even two decades on
10:05
And its secret is hydraulically cross-linked dampers. The only catch is that given this car's age and the system's complexity, most examples
10:12
have already had the original system available, replacing it with a much cheaper aftermarket system
10:17
If ride is the reason you're not keen on the RS4 you've test driven, that'll be why
10:22
The Audi definitely feels the most retro inside of any of the cars in this test
10:26
It almost feels like it's from a generation before, and really it is
10:30
This car came out a few years before the rest in 2005, and it's from a time when Audi interiors were at the absolute top of their game
10:37
This car has tons of physical buttons and switches, but they're all laid out logically, feel really tactile to the touch
10:44
and the steering wheel only has four buttons on it, which is really a rare thing
10:49
Unlike the others, even the key of the Audi is retro, It's a real physical key that you put into a barrel
10:55
There's some real carbon fibre on the dash here and on the door cards, which is nice to see
10:59
And the wing-back seats in this car are really rather good. They don't offer quite as much lateral support as in the C63, but they look incredible
11:08
and they do the job when you're pushing on. From the moment you open the door in the Audi, it feels like a really well-put-together product
11:14
It feels like it will stand the test of time well, and this car definitely has
11:18
The Audi is a very popular car today, but not long after its launch it was
11:23
quickly overshadowed by the controversial launch of the first and only V8 BMW M3 The M3 is the car that led the pack in its day and for good reason but is that still the case through a 2026 lens
11:39
This engine has a real exotic edge to it. This is the S65 4-litre natural gas-graser V8
11:47
and it does have some motorsport pedigree, but it also means that this does lack torque
11:52
This has 295 pound-foot of torque, which is about on the same level as a Golf R
11:58
Not having much torque is not a game-breaker by any means, but in this car, the window in which you get it is very narrow
12:04
You don't get much at the bottom or the top at the rev range. It's right in the middle, and that can make power sliding quite tricky
12:11
The character of this engine couldn't be any more different to the C63s
12:15
It doesn't have anywhere near the torque low down, and that means you have to drive it in a very different way
12:20
You have to really extract the torque from this engine which is really fun if you want
12:24
to push but if you want to short shift and just lean into the power it doesn't really
12:29
do much for you. Just like the RS4, this car was available with a manual transmission and while you'd
12:41
expect that to be the default choice, it wasn't a great gearbox
12:45
So the DCT is actually probably the better option and it's a great gearbox
12:49
This is one of the first of its kind, and while BMW has since gone back to torque converters
12:55
this is a super, super sharp gearbox. Almost too sharp in some ways
13:00
If you increase the shift aggression on the dial, it can upset the rear balance quite
13:05
significantly if it's damp, which makes the car feel alert and alive and it keeps you on
13:10
your toes, but it is something to watch if you're pushing it
13:14
The footprint of this car looks about the same as the others in this test but sit in
13:22
the driver's seat and it becomes very clear that this cabin is pretty compact
13:26
You feel really sort of hemmed in here. The seats are also not great, they're not that supportive and you sit quite high in the
13:34
seat too. So after the C63 and the RS4 especially, this car doesn't feel as comfortable
13:44
This car has the theatre that you want from a car of this era
13:47
The only thing that it lacks is the damping sophistication of the RS4
13:52
It is a pretty firm ride and it can struggle with imperfections on some roads, which in
13:59
the UK we have plenty of. The RS4's engine is really nicely revvy and so is this, but it doesn't have the same linear
14:11
power band as the Audi which makes it so exploitable all the time on all roads
14:16
This you really need to push to get that power out of it and that can be nice in
14:22
some scenarios but in others it's just kind of frustrating. The steering is not the highlight of the experience in the M3, it is
14:37
is reasonably direct and it does the job well but it doesn't provide that much feedback
14:42
to tell you what's going on with the front wheels. The chunky, spongy rim doesn't help matters here though and next to most of today's electronically
14:49
assisted racks, the M3s really is a tonic. There is something incredibly addictive about the way the S65 revs
14:59
It doesn't give you much for reaching for the red line, there isn't a huge amount at
15:03
the top in terms of torque, but wow it sounds absolutely spectacular
15:12
The speed of the shifts also pairs really well with just how quickly this engine can
15:17
rev, which gives you some really crisp downshifts. The throttle response is the best of any of these cars
15:22
The Audi isn't far behind, but this really does feel like a motor sport engine in a normal
15:29
family saloon. If there's any car that you can call a race car with four doors, this is it
15:37
The M3 does feel like the most modern car inside and for the better too
15:42
It's stood the test of time well in terms of its design but it does have some interesting
15:46
quirks like on this car some sort of fake fabric carbon fibre
15:50
But leather on the centre console here makes it feel like a really premium place and although
15:55
I don't love the sponginess of the steering wheel it is a nice small round wheel which you don't get
16:00
in every one of these cars. My only major complaint with this interior is its seats. You sit quite high
16:06
in the cabin and they don't go any lower than this. You also don't get much lateral support like you do
16:12
in the RS4 and C63 which is a bit of a pain. The M3 really is in a league of its own. There never
16:19
was anything quite like it before or since and there's a very good reason your local track day
16:23
will be chock full of them. It's a car with real motorsport edge in more than just its
16:28
engine, and if you can stomach the cost of fuel and perhaps rod bearing replacement
16:32
there aren't many better single car packages for road and track use. This car might not have any of the hybrid assistance or turbo charging of its successors
16:46
but it feels really quick, not just for 2010, but for 2026 standards. This actually has more
16:53
power than the non-S W205C63 that came after it so I'm not really sure what
16:58
AMG were doing in the day but they definitely did a good job of getting
17:02
some power out of this engine. This might be a huge 6.2 litre displacement engine but it really
17:10
encourages you to rev There a reason to go above 7 rpm but in a lot of cars like this that isn the case There torque not just from down low but also right at the top above 7000rpm
17:27
This particular C63 is fitted with the performance pack and while that does give you an Alcatara
17:31
steering wheel and slightly upgraded brakes as you would expect from a package of this kind, it also gives you upgraded engine internals from the SLS and the Black Series
17:40
And I can tell you that on the road it feels like it has that extra power because it does this
17:48
And there is nothing quite like real AMG sound. Of course the 4.0L of its successor sounds great, but the 6.2L M156 gives you real genuine
18:03
burbles and cracks from the exhaust that you just don't get now
18:08
The communication through this small, thin-rimmed wheel is excellent on the limit, giving you
18:17
a great sense of load. And given just how keen this car is to go sideways, that comes in quite handy
18:23
So, the gearbox. This car doesn't have a dual clutch. This has a 7-speed torque converter automatic, being the pre-facelift
18:31
And while it isn't as good as the dual clutch in the M3, it's nowhere near as sharp, it's consistent
18:38
If I request a downshift now, you can see it takes some time from the click to the shift
18:47
but that time is exactly the same every time. So it's predictable. With a few miles under your belt, you can acclimatise to that pretty quickly
18:55
And the downshifts are so satisfying. The engine braking you get with the increased revs means you don't have to use the friction brakes a lot of the time in normal driving
19:05
which actually saves you quite a lot of money. And on up shifts, the shifts are quick
19:19
So one aspect of the C63 that I feel was a bit miscommunicated at the time of its launch was just how good the steering is
19:27
This is a hydraulic rack like every other car in this test other than the Lexus
19:31
And it gives you so much confidence in the front end, which is handy given how easily you can upset the rear
19:38
There's a good amount of feel too, which you really can't say about many cars of this kind, and it makes this car just so exploitable
19:48
One aspect of this car that I have been slightly disappointed with is its brakes
19:52
Now, that's slightly odd because this car's known to have really good brakes, and they are very effective
19:57
but they don't inspire that much confidence, which isn't really what you want when you can carry so much speed
20:02
Lean into the brake pedal enough and you get plenty of braking action, but the top half of the pedal doesn't really do that much
20:09
and there's not much feel there to tell you what is happening beneath. Now, when the C63 was launched
20:17
many people criticised it for having a rock-hard concrete suspension, but thankfully they updated it a couple of years into production
20:24
and this car has those updated springs. But it still isn't the most compliant setup, I have to admit
20:31
On these reasonably well-paved roads in the Yorkshire moors, it handles itself well
20:35
It's well set up, and if you do hit a pothole, you'll know about it. On these 19-inch wheels, though, with 35 profile tyres, you don't have much room to play with
20:45
This car was given the title of axe murderer by a certain journalist when it was new
20:50
and while you do need to respect almost 500 brake horsepower to 255 section of your tyres
20:55
I don't personally see it. Modern-day Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber will no doubt have improved its dynamic character on the limit
21:02
but it really is approachable and friendly, much more so than the M3
21:07
The interior of the C63 is a nice place to be. The seats are the absolute highlight
21:12
They give you a ton of lateral support, they're really comfortable for long journeys and they look pretty cool too
21:17
But there are a few features that do date this interior a bit, like this phone dial pad that you'd never get in a modern car
21:23
or even the facelift C63 for that matter, and this central multimedia display that does that
21:29
it's a pretty awesome party piece but it does date the interior again the same goes for the
21:35
shifter it doesn't look brilliant but then that's sort of part of the appeal this is an estate with
21:40
a 6.2 litre v8 so it's hardly trying to be modern on rougher uk roads or to be honest all uk roads
21:48
at this point you do get a few squeaks and rattles in this interior but most of the time
21:53
the V8 drowns out those noises anyway. Which of these cars is the winner then, if there is one
22:01
Well, I really don't think there is. I think these cars are so unique that it makes that decision a
22:06
little pointless. What these cars do prove though is that it's the era we should be celebrating
22:12
We're very unlikely to ever get another group of naturally aspirated V8 small executives again
22:16
that we should be celebrating this moment in time. But if I was forced to choose one car of the four
22:22
it would be the car I spent my own money on, the Mercedes C63
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