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The #Audi #RS6 is an legend of the auto industry, not because it links to #AudiSport’s origins in their original fast estate RS2, most people don’t even know - but rather, because it’s grown a reputation of being a supercar disguised as a mild mannered estate. If you ask joe-public what their ideal super wagon is, 9 times out of 10 they’ll say the RS6, because there’s no wagon that looks meaner or allegedly goes faster. But truth be told when I last drove it 2 years ago - I was left a little cold. Spending a week with it, I found it to be slower than rivals, less engaging, and not as emotional. And my conclusion was that Joe Public sadly got it wrong, and this is a car overhyped…
Fast forward to this year and I get an email from Audi Press offering the car to me as a long term loaner, and as you can imagine despite my opinion, I’ve never replied to an email faster - The typical car reviewer one week loan is great for zeroing in on single topics like out and out performance, but sometimes you can really miss the whole story!
Now that I’ve had a chance to live with the car, a revisit was definitely in order! Not only on living with it as a daily, but also reflecting on the huge changes in the landscape of the car industry over the last 2 years. There are also some super important new models coming in this range of cars too from Audi Sport, including a long awaited M5 rival - so we’ll also go over what Audi’s plans are for the future of the RS6 and their Avant range!
This C8 RS6, will likely be the last RS6 combustion car of its name. Yes you heard me right, and why that is I’ll explain shortly. The car itself is one designed without compromise - ignoring the front door and boot - the entire car gets a unique wide body. With the famous huge wheel arches, flared by 4cm! That’s more than half the battle won, and why people ignore people like me, and love it so much in general.
This base RS6 produces 592BHP and 800NM, and 0-60 in 3.6. It’s crazy how in only two years, these figures seem light compared to a lot of EVs. That goes to a Permanent Quattro all wheel drive, a now aged system which is not fully variable like most rivals, giving a maximum rear shift of power of 85%. This is quite a basic car, with the standard RS adaptive air suspension - which is nice as it will give us an idea of what a reasonable spec is like to live with.,
As for the future beyond this - a two pronged attack is planned for the A6 range. Firstly a facelift is due to this generation of combustion A6, where we’ve spotted an RS6 Sedan, or rather RS7 Sedan! We haven’t had one of those since the C6. It looks to have the wide arches of the avant and essential the same front end, and should be sold along side the RS7 avant.
After this in the new generation ALL combustion models will have odd numbers: so the A6 will be renamed the A7, and A4 becomes A5. This means the A6, will return but as an Etron in both sedan and avant looking like the concept. And Audi Sport confirmed to Top Gear Mag, that an RS6 E Tron is coming, they showed the design to a 1000 of their managers, and there was mass applause!
Now in terms of liveability - this car had plenty of rivals just in my own house, with the taycan ST and E63S. But the Audi equits itself well, easily eclipsing the EV for boot and rear passenger space - being especially roomy for the toddler. I moved house during this period, and you can’t imagine how useful the car was for pure shifting duties, or bring back stacks of IKEA purchases.
But the biggest draw was the emotion, in terms of both looks and performance. Let’s see how it got in!
Today we explore:
⁃ Performance of the Audi RS6
⁃ Future of Audi Sport
⁃ RS6 Sedan and RS6 Facelift GT
⁃ Etron RS6
⁃ Living with the RS6
⁃ Interior review
⁃ Launch control
⁃ Exhaust Sound
⁃ Full road test
⁃ Conclusion
Up next on RBR is the new RS7 Performance review, and Drive of the S63 AMG E Performance!! Subscribe to support us and see them first. :)
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CREDITS:
Huge thanks to motor1.com for the spy shots used in the video!!
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Driving disclaimer:
Please note all driving shots have been filmed either by professionals in a safe environment, or sped up for dramatic effect, or on closed roads. Please drive safely!