Audi SQ5 Plus vs Porsche Macan GTS

Clearly the Volkswagen Group believes in competition improving the breed. Take Porsche and Audi. They’ve constantly clashed on the racetrack, Porsche beating Audi at Le Mans most recently. But the feud also breaks into the sales yard.

Bar the 911, every Porsche model locks horns with an Audi, but it’s Stuttgart’s latest and greatest (selling), the Macan, which inflames the inter-family rivalry to boiling point.

During development of its mid-size SUV, Porsche was briefed to use 70 per cent of Audi’s Q5, leaving only 30 per cent with which to fiddle to save a couple of pennies. However, as the story goes, it flipped that figure, instead using only 30 per cent from its donor to crucially make the rest feel bona fide Porsche.

Not wanting to let Audi hog the yawning $40K gap between the $92,800 Macan S and $130,000 range-topping Macan Turbo all to itself, Porsche replied by slapping a GTS badge on the Macan – a designation usually saved for a model’s twilight years.

The GTS commands $109,200 before on roads, though our test car lists at $137,610 thanks to some choice extras. In return its boosted 3.0-litre V6 inhales through tweaked inlet tracts and exhales through a sports exhaust system, finding another 15kW/50Nm in the process for totals of 265kW/500Nm.

Both mills are fed boost by two turbos. The Porsche’s work in parallel, drawing in gases from one bank each, while the Audi’s huffers work in sequence, where a smaller turbo builds boost quickly before the larger one steps in for the heavy lifting.

Each slurps a different drop, and the effects on each car’s character are most obvious when pointing them down Heathcote’s quarter mile. Even at a standstill the Porsche’s petrol V6 is eager to show how free-revving it is, launch control (for which you’ll need the $2690 Sport Chrono option) dialling up 5200rpm, which is 600rpm higher than the SQ5’s redline.

Whereas the Macan employs a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the Audi shoots power through an eight-speed torque converter, so its ‘launch control’ isn’t as fancy, though it’s just as effective. Disable ESP, stall up 2800rpm, lift the brake, and it flings forward with a sound like no other diesel donk.

There’s a chorus of noise as the turbos whistle and the exhaust system’s sound actuators grind out a V8-like bellow. Even fellow driver Steve Nally, standing trackside, is struck by how well the engine hides its diesel clatter: “It sounds like an HSV; like no diesel I’ve ever heard!”

The Audi’s gearbox works through two ratios before triple figures, while the Porsche upshifts to third at 102km/h. So even on a cold and damp surface the GTS trumps its factory claim to 100km/h by 0.11sec, eating it up in 4.89sec whereas the Audi needs 5.21sec for the feat.

Because the Audi’s close ratios keep the diesel mill working hard between 4000-5200rpm it never sees the 700Nm lurking between 1400-2550rpm and by 150km/h the gap has widened to almost eight-tenths. Nonetheless, the SQ5 runs the Macan reasonably close over the quarter mile, its 13.59sec effort trailing by just 0.28sec.

But the Audi proves there’s nothing wrong with sliding calipers (it uses them up front as well) erasing 100km/h in 37.46m compared to the Macan’s 37.21m. However, what they do lack is the precise feel and feedback of the Porsche’s left pedal.

Where Audi spent its cash was on a real torque-vectoring rear diff. It’s hard to grasp why you’d stick a whizz-bang diff in a soft-roader until, that is, you venture on to Mount Macedon’s damp, almost freezing, roads. At first the SQ5’s variable steering rack feels slightly dull and doesn’t quite relay where the front tyres point. And the damper-and-spring setup carried over from the base SQ5 allows the Plus to sometimes crash into ditches and bite into ridges.

Ultimately the Porsche won’t keep up with the Audi over such wet, cold surfaces. It’s inside-wheel braking tech simply can’t tame 500Nm, even with upgraded stability and traction control electronics. But as things dry up the 1895kg Macan kicks dirt in Newton’s face. The front-end hones in on apexes like an Imperial zero fighter buzzing an Allied battleship, the Porsche’s steering so much more accurate you could tickle a roadside snail with a Michelin.

Its PDK gearbox is scarily intuitive, too. Which is almost a shame as it denies you the chance to use the bow-like paddles behind the Macan’s steering wheel. They’re wonderfully tactile, and infinitely smarter than Porsche’s previous ‘push-pull’ button setup.

The Audi’s ’box is quick-shifting and smooth, but it’s always trying to downspeed the engine, and the plastic paddles feel cheap compared to the Macan’s. Elsewhere inside, though, the nappa leather cladded seats are cloud-like for comfort and carbon-fibre inlays weave in more luxury.

Climbing aboard the Porsche’s interior is like walking over to more expensive TVs in JB-Hi Fi, it’s higher tech and better looking, but you can sense your wallet cowering. Apple CarPlay stings you $1069 and park assist tech is $2690, while a GTS styling pack – which brings ‘carmine red’ stitching to match the bright red-and-white tacho, red seatbelts, and stitched ‘GTS’ logos – should offer more for $8990.

It not only feels a whole generation newer inside with its superior PCM infotainment system and digital half-moon display, but it also looks like a Porsche in here. You’d find its wide-centre console, flat sweeping dash and three-barrel tacho display on any other model in Stuttgart’s range, which brings us to this test’s much larger point.

Audi’s SQ5 Plus might look handsome but there are a few wrinkles behind its sharp-suit facade. The SQ5 debuted in 2013, but its platform goes way back to 2009. Yet besides a whirring HVAC system and pesky rack rattle there’s no way you could pick these two as separated at birth. With both priced at $109K, Porsche has basically rebuilt you Audi’s Q5, for no charge.

The Audi may also include more kit and be more effective for a hard-charge across gravel, but we’d trade in the diff and pocket the cash because on the dry stuff the Porsche would easily grab its lunch money. All the while, that delightful steering, super intelligent gearbox and zingy twin-turbo V6 helps it slaughter the Plus for driver appeal.

The Macan had to be faster, newer, higher tech, and more involving to drive than its under-the-skin twin. And at least in the GTS’s instance, Porsche can hold its head high on a job well done.

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