Track Test - Audi RS6 Avant

That's right - Quattro GmbH in Neckarsulm, Germany, makes Audi's RS cars. They're essentially the "AMG" or "M Division" of Audi. And they don't make all RS cars at once either, with just one model running at a time.

Now that the RS4's finished with its production run, they've put together Audi's latest RennSport - the RS6 Avant.

The 2009 RS6 is, simply put, Audi's most powerful production vehicle ever, not to mention station-wagon. This new dry-sump engine is loosely based on the 5,204 cc atmospheric V10 from the previous S6.

It retains the 84.5 mm bore while stroke has been shortened to 89.0 mm. Actually, "station-wagon" already starts to sound wrong when you think of the 4,991 cc V10. Forged everything, a pair of IHI turbo-chargers and two intercoolers find their way under the bonnet and when boosted to a measly 0.7 bar, produce 650 Nm from 1,500 rpm to 6,250 rpm. That pretty much gives you an idea as to the staggering potential and capability of the engine when one gets around to increasing boost pressures to "normal" performance car levels.

6,250 rpm is also where it develops its peak power, which then extends to 6,700 rpm. As for output-specific figures, just one of its 580 horses does the job of lugging 3.5 kilos around.

With around 116 bhp per litre, that isn't nearly the highest specific output from Audi so far. It's not as high as the 2000 model-year RS4's 2.7-litre twin-turbocharged V6 which then yielded about 145 bhp per litre.

Such is the amount of twist that only a conventional torque converter automatic transmission would do the job. This comes in the form of a six-speed tiptronic, Audi style. By that, we mean it rev-matches on downshifts and locks-up almost a hundred percent of the time, save for idle and gear changes, making it very, very efficient.

Joining that to the wheels is the new, revised quattro drivetrain with a front-rear toque split ratio of 40:60. The re-engineered Haldex centre differential is also capable of sending up to 85 percent of the power to the back, and with faster reaction times.

By the way, it weighs in at around 2,000 kilogrammes. In perspective, that's heavier than an E63 AMG estate and the BMW M5!
"It needs more air, so we'll put a hole in THAT™"

A car this heavy and with so much power had better have a "holier than thou" front bumper. And the RS6 does. It's deep with really huge intake ducts and has an aero splitter that produces understeer-killing downforce. You won't find fog lamps in the usual space either. They too have been gutted and fused with the main headlight cluster.

Flared fenders house extremely large 20-inch wheels, frighteningly low 275/35 profile Pirelli P-Zeros (for the test cars from Germany - the local unit had Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GTs on) and even scarier looking 16.5-inch ceramic discs with six-pot calipers. Made from a carbon-fibre composite and silicon carbide, the methodological boffins at Audi say they play a fundamental role in reducing unsprung weight - almost 12 kilogrammes of rotational inertia per wheel to be exact.

Finally, the rear bumper incorporates a large aero-diffuser and two menacing oval exhaust tips which again, round off that intimidating theme.

The local-registered test car we got our hands on featured jet-black alcantara sports seats - predictable, and nothing out of the ordinary. Then again they were complimented by delightfully abundant amounts of carbon-fibre on the centre console, doors and dashboard. Both driver and passenger receive electrically-operated memory seats which provided amazing amounts of bolstering when we were out on the circuit.

Track impressions

First things first, we navigated our way through the new multimedia interface in order to set the RS6's rheo-magnetic "sport suspension plus" to (you guessed it) "sport" mode. As cynical as we were, we couldn't help but feel the bumpy undulations near the apex of Sepang's turn 1, even on the slow warm-up lap.

The RS6 does have the tendency to understeer at slower speeds. But for a wagon this heavy and three-quarters the length of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, snap changes in direction were entirely possible with a dab of the brakes at up to 110 km/h. Above those speeds, the front splitter came into its own, especially through turns five and six. Our G-TECH meter registered and unbelievable 0.97 g of sideways pull, and the car felt wonderfully balanced throughout.

Through the double-apex turns of seven and eight, we were able to utilise every inch of the track, running both wheels up onto the kerbs and incurring a slight but stable four-wheel drift without compromising our chosen line.

The rest of the time was spent balancing understeer throughout the apexes with careful use of the brake pedal, especially through the tricky corners of twelve to fourteen. A good exit meant we were able to see nearly 250 km/h on the back straight before a near-constant 1.18 g was generated under braking, just 100 metres before the slingshot onto the main straight.
Body-roll was entirely absent, possibly attributed to the way the diagonally opposite pair of shock absorbers are interconnected - two hydraulic lines and a central valve channel oil away from the outer front wheel where shock compression takes place.

Despite relatively heady numbers, this proved to be one of the most relaxing track days ever. With oil temperatures barely exceeding 110 degrees Celsius over a period of fifteen laps, we left the air-conditioner and radio running. But being too relaxed was never a good thing - we were sometimes caught off guard by the rev limiter cutting in abruptly at 6,750 rpm.

But what happens below that though, is certainly unreal. The power band literally starts from idle, where the RS6 already started to sound like a grumpy, raging bull if you restrict it to 2,000 rpm. Linearity gives way to insanity when the tachometer sweeps past 3,000 rpm, pushing us firmly in our seats, accompanied by a shockingly quick clockwise sweep of the speedometer needle. Let's not forget that banshee-like V10 engine and exhaust note which you can also sample here.

Puff the Magic Wagon

For a recommended retail price of S$475,000, the RS6 comes with the usual active and passive safety ensemble - a two-mode ESP helps aid new driving enthusiasts with the option to intrude less and later. ASR traction control, ABS, electronic brake-force distribution (EBD) with Brake Assist, six airbags (two front, two side and two curtain) and ISOFIX mountings for a child seat are all standard.

But one look at the options list was enough to scare us mere mortal journalists. The option to set the RS6's speed limiter to 280 km/h and carbon-fibre engine decorations will set you back by S$7,264. Swapping the chrome bits to glossed-over black? That'll cost you another two grand. Exclusive blue RS paint? A staggering S$12,079. And last but definitely not least - those huge carbon ceramic brakes cost (are you ready for this?) S$37,229!

Optioned to the level of our test car, the RS6 effectively costs the same, if not more than the Audi R8. But we're not complaining, because it isn't everyday that we stumble upon a car that hauls 1,600-litres in capacity to the century mark in 4.5 seconds.

Any sort of shindig with it evokes an assortment of gestures as well as fresh new "expressions" in native dialects. It might not be dynamically accurate like the BMW M5 or brazen like the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, but make no mistake - the 2009 Audi RS6 sedan is one intimidating, unabashed brute of a car.