► Audi RS6 Avant replaced by new RS6 Performance
► More power, slightly less weight, bigger attitude
► The ultimate family wagon?
The new Audi RS6 Performance is now the only variant of the uber-wagon available to buy in the UK. Pushing out 621bhp, it’s the most powerful RS6 yet.
The RS6 Avant has always been the ultimate expression of the estate car, but now the starting price is nudging £115,000 is it still worth it? Or is this gas-guzzling dinosaur a thing of the past?
What’s different about the RS6 Performance?
You still get the same 4.0-litre V8 engine, but its twin turbos are now bigger with higher boost pressure, unlocking an additional 27bhp for a total of 621bhp. Torque too has received a boost up to a vicious 627lb ft.
That means 0-62mph comes along in a face-rearranging 3.4 seconds. As standard, it’s limited to “just” 174mph, but derestricted it’ll trouble 200mph.
Other changes include a new locking centre differential and updated software for the rear axle – the RS6 Performance is now capable of shunting 80 per cent of its power rearwards if the mood takes it. Audi’s also removed 8kg of sound deadening from the firewall – both as a weight saving, and to unlock a bit more of a bellow from the previously quite muted engine.
An an option, you can get new 22-inch forged alloy wheels shod in Continental SportContact 7 tyres that save 5kg a corner and, as an added bonus, look pretty awesome. You can also get 440mm carbon-ceramic brakes if you ask your Audi dealership very nicely… and cough up £9,200. The whole package remains an utterly beguiling thing to look at – it’s brutal, bulging, injected with so many hormones that it’s bulging out of its own metalwork. The arches almost look like they should have stretch marks.
Do the changes make it better to drive?
The overwhelming impression is that the dial’s been turned from 11 to perhaps 11 and three quarters. A 30bhp boost isn’t a ton in relation to a 600bhp V8, but then the RS6 wasn’t exactly slow in the first place.
This is a car that gathers pace ferociously quickly, accelerating long past licence-losing speed in a matter of seconds. After the barest hint of turbo lag, the V8 gives a bark and you simply find yourself heading towards the horizon.
The transmission is an eight-speed torque converter, but flicked into its Sports mode it changes ratios with rifle speed. You can easily take manual control too via chunky metal paddles.
What about the handling?
It’s like a video game. Honestly. Grip levels are tenacious and unless you’re going at about sixteen tenths the RS6 just goes, gamely, where you point it. Standard for the Performance is four-wheel steering, which gives the rear end a bit of pivot and makes the car shrink around you just a little bit.
It’s mature, friendly even, but keep poking it with a big stick and you can feel the power shift to the rear axle, giving it a degree of playfulness that’s missing from most Audis and really surprising in a 2-tonne estate car.
It’s not as tail-happy as an M5 or an E63, and the steering’s decidedly remote – it’s such a quick rack, and with so much mass to shift, that it’d be surprising if it wasn’t.
How does it cope with the slower stuff?
The duality of the Audi RS6 is what really impresses. Because with the press of a driving mode switch, you can turn it from snarling, rabid corner-muncher into a refined and relaxed cruiser. We took it on 400 miles worth of cross-country jaunt and, with everything in its most chilled settings, it simply eats up the road.
It eats up the costy juice too, mind. We averaged 21mpg and around 400 miles per tank. Those blessed with featherlight feet may be able to extend this to 25mpg on a run, but the temptation of that V8 makes it difficult to do.
As standard the RS6 Performance rides on air but our test car had Audi’s Dynamic Ride Control, a mechanical setup that uses three-way adjustable dampers and diagonally interlinked hydraulics. It doesn’t have the float of an air setup, but neither does it have the annoying patter across poor surfaces. It’s nonetheless firm but adequately absorbent in Comfort mode, impressively so when you consider the tyres look like mere smears of rubber around the outside of the rims.
The gearbox happily slurs ratios together and the engine even settles down to a refined sort of burble. Excellent, multi-adjustable seats complete a comfortable package – they’re nothing like as overtly sporty as the overwrought carbon monstrosities you get in an M3 Touring, which means they’re not as supportive but they’re vastly more accommodating especially for those blessed with more junk in the trunk.
How much junk can you get in the trunk?
Practicality is another string to the RS6’s bulging bow. The 565-litre boot isn’t as vast as an E63 Estate’s, but it’s massive nonetheless – wide, flat, and with seats that instantly fold totally flat for the tip run.
Those rear seats afford plenty of space for six-foot adults, though limit it to two – the middle passenger would be required to manspread over a seriously girthy transmission tunnel.
The Audi’s dashboard is fairly standard A6, and consists of a trio of screens – a Virtual Cockpit taking the place of a gauge cluster, an upper screen for infotainment, and a lower screen that controls the climate and the driving modes.
They’re not as good as one screen and a plethora of buttons would be. But Audi’s clever haptic feedback gives you the sensation of pressing a button, which sweetens the deal slightly. And the interface does at least feel as though it’s been designed for fat fingers, in stark contrast to some of its rival systems.
Verdict
How did people cope before fast wagons were a thing? And how will they cope when the last one gives its dying gasp, to be replaced by a fast SUV? A week with the latest Audi RS6 Performance has left us combing the back of the sofa looking for a spare hundred grand.
It does everything. It’s massively spacious for both passengers and luggage, approachable and friendly when you’re pootling around town, comfortable enough to cross continents in a day. Then at the flex of a foot, it’s a snarling, steroidal monster that can cover ground at savage pace, simultaneously flattering less experienced drivers and giving those with the skill to wring its neck something to really enjoy. It truly does replace three cars – with the space of a family bus, the long-distance comfort of a grand tourer, and the pace of a supercar.
It’s not perfect. An M3 Touring – though smaller – feels like more of an expression of driving joy than the Audi’s slightly cold, calculated approach to speed. And if you can manage with a saloon tailgate, the same applies to the bigger, bolder M5. But there’s definitely a place for the Audi RS6 – and this latest variant may well win a few more hearts than it did before, too.