06 Jun 02
The Audi RS 6 is Audi's most powerful road car yet. It has a bi-turboV8 that produces 450 bhp (331 kW) and 413 lb ft (560 Nm) of torque. Its 0-62 mph acceleration time? Just 4.7 seconds, faster than many an exotic supercar. It's a performance car for grown-ups, a subtle machine which doesn't shout about its power and prowess. In a nutshell, that is probably all you really need to know about the RS 6, especially given that Audi doesn't expect to sell more than 500 of them in the remaining life-cycle of the A6 on which it is based, i.e. up until 2003/early 2004, and it will cost from £57,700 (£58,800 in Avant estate form). It's no mass-market model. But since you're interested...
Comparative data thoughtfully supplied by Audi includes the following mouth-watering titbits of information. For example, with a bhp-per-£1000 rating of 7.8, it gives more power for the money than the BMW M5 (7.7), the Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG (6.4), the BMW Alpina B10 V8 (6.2), the Porsche Carrera 4 S Tiptronic (5.2), Ferrari 550 Maranello (3.2), Aston Martin Vanquish (2.9) and Bentley Arnage T (2.7). And if you chart power against weight, only the Ferrari 360 Modena gives greater bhp per tonne, as the RS 6 scores higher than the Jaguar S-Type R, M5, Carrera 4 S and E55 AMG. It looks as if you couldn't go faster, cheaper - let alone factoring in the advantages of a proper spacious five-seater cabin, a large boot or estate car capacity, or the standard quattro four-wheel drive. On paper, the RS 6 really does look like the practical alternative to a supercar, although many will, no doubt, be bought by people who own a supercar as well. The less financially fortunate of us can but dream - or console ourselves with the thought that, despite prodigious amounts of power on tap, fast Audis (original ur-quattro apart) have traditionally been remote, uninvolving and even rather boring to drive.
