2015 Audi RS 6 Avant Test Drive Score Sheet

The Audi RS 6 Avant came agonizingly close to making it into the top-five. In fact, our professional test driver, and complete gear-head, Gaurav Gill, said that this is the one car that he would like to take home. In fact, this car is now officially on his Christmas List. Audi: set your sales people after him…

You see, Gaurav says that all the European rally drivers own one. And they should know a thing or two about well performing automobiles. Let’s put it this way – there is simply no other car in which your baby’s pram, the family dog, and the kitchen sink can experience light-speed as quickly as this. They can, in fact, accelerate to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds. Now, wagon or no wagon, that’s just plain fast. Very fast in fact! And Gaurav would have been even quicker around the BIC in this, but for a set of brakes that had already been subject to the severest pedal pressure that automotive journalists from around the country could muster over the past couple of weeks.

The only other place where the RS 6 fell short was in terms of ride quality – an area in which the inclusion of the optional 21-inch rims (which look incredibly cool by the way) and the absence of the optional air suspension didn’t help matters much. That apart, this is one of the best built, most comfortable, and most versatile machines on the planet. And did we mention that it’s fast too? After all, which other car that has a sub-4 second 0-100 time also offers 565-litres of boot space? And that’s to say nothing of an incredibly spacious, well-equipped and finely detailed cabin. You’re certainly getting what you’re paying for here.

And that’s a theme that continues under the hood as well, where you’ll find a 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 that produces 553 horsepower and 700Nm of torque. Of course, thanks to the Quattro all-wheel drive system and the sport differential that enables an almost infinite torque split, as well as torque vectoring, you have enough grip and body control to short-circuit a pacemaker under hard cornering. If at any point you want to render three of your closest friends completely speechless, just take them out in the RS 6 Avant and lightly tap the throttle pedal. Oh, and the exhaust note is pretty special too.

But all of that is not to say that the RS 6 is not extremely civilized and usable on a daily basis – save for the firm ride. Cylinder deactivation means that you’re often running on just four-cylinders to save fuel. You wouldn’t know it though, because the minute you hit the gas all eight cylinders are immediately straining at the leash. Let’s just say that this is not a car that feels underpowered in any way.

And it looks pretty good to. If Jason Statham really wanted to look menacing he would drive one of these. It’s safe to assume that no one’s going to mess with you when you’re behind the wheel of an RS6. And if they do, you can simply leave them for dead.

The RS 6 may be the price of a small house, but fortunately it’s about as large as one as well. So, you get a lot of car for your money. We just wish it were a little more engaging at the limit. To its credit, you simply can’t get this car out of shape. It’s just that the electronics keep you at arm’s length, even when you’re on a racetrack. But if you want a supercar that’s actually spacious and usable, then this is the car for you.

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