Here’s every generation of Audi RS4: which one would you pick?

The new Audi RS4 is here, and the TG verdict is clear: “It’s not just a good fast Audi. Right now, it’s the definitive one”.

It’s the latest in a short but fine line of fast, usable Audi estates, each of which have demonstrated a particular and desirable asset. They’re cool. Fast, usable estates generally are. We don’t need to explain this.

So, here we have a picture of every single generation of Audi RS4, including the ‘first’ one which wasn’t even called RS4. That’ll be the RS2 Avant, which Audi developed in co-operation with Porsche (they did the brakes and wheels).

It arrived in 1992, and featured a 2.2-litre turbocharged five-cylinder engine developing 310bhp. It could achieve 0-62mph in 5.4secs and a top speed of 162.8mph, which in 1992 was rapid. Hell, in 2017, it’s not shabby by any stretch. Looks fantastic, too.

Then came the first RS4-badged, um, RS4. In 1999, Audi teamed up with Cosworth, who helped that 2.7-litre twin-turbo V6 pump out 375bhp, dropping the 0-62mph sprint down to just 4.9secs. Apparently, Audi had to double the production numbers, such was the demand.

The second RS4-badged estate arrived in 2005, and this one broke the mould by slotting in a massive 4.2-litre V8. With 414bhp. And noise. Together with Quattro, it’d do 0-62mph in 4.8secs, and was by all accounts rather handy.

Then we get to the 2012 RS4: same 4.2-litre V8, but more power, at 444bhp. The new, 2017 RS4 ditches the big V8 lump for a turbo’d 2.9-litre V6, but still pumps out the same 444bhp. And is less a rapid daily driver, more a point-to-point “teleportation device”. It’s good.

We now want to enlist your opinion in telling us just which generation of small, fast Audi estate you’d pick. And you’ve only got one choice, so use it wisely...