Audi’s RS6 Avant has launched down-under with a supercar engine (a Lamborghini-sourced 426kW V10), supercar performance (0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds) … and a supercar pricetag ($270,946).
The second-generation RS6 costs 20 per cent more than the original model, though the switch from twin-turbo V8 to twin-turbo V10 generates a power leap of 29 per cent (95kW).
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With 426kW, the RS6 is more powerful than any production Porsche currently on sale as well as all Ferraris except the 599 GTB.
“The two cars are both halo models for us at the moment,” says Audi Australia’s marketing boss, Immo Buschmann. “But whereas the RS from a concept perspective is always short-lived in respect to its lifecycle, the R8 is here to stay more or less.
“They are both ultimate performance cars in our portfolio, though the RS takes the idea of the original RS [the 1993 RS2 wagon and has a greater level of functionality.”
“It’s a high-performance estate car that allows you to have the ultimate driving performance, but it’s less overt than the R8.”
A sedan version of the new RS6 will launch in the first quarter of 2009, with a slightly lower pricetag.
The RS6’s 5.0-litre V10 is based on the engine from the Lamborghini Gallardo (and also used for the S6 and S8 models in 5.2-litre form) but is significantly reworked – most notably the introduction of two turbochargers and direct fuel injection.
The V10’s 650Nm cover a vast spread of the engine’s rev range, from 1500rpm all the way to 6250rpm – from which point the peak power of 426kW kicks in, maintained till the rev limit of 6700rpm.
Such a big torque figure is handy, because the five-metre-long wagon weighs more than two tonnes (2025kg) – despite the inclusion of aluminium front quarter panels and bonnet.
It contributes to fuel consumption of 14.0L/100km that’s also supercar-like.
Audi Australia says it expects to sell about 70 RS6s a year, and already has 50-plus orders in place.
The company sold 53 RS6s in Australia during the last-generation model’s relatively brief life, though this number was also restricted by limited supply from Europe.
Audi is continuing – for now – with its one-RS-model-at-a-time policy, so the RS6 follows the cessation of production of the smaller, last-generation A4-based RS4.
RS models are built by Audi’s performance off-shoot quattro GmbH. The first such model was the RS2 Avant that launched in 1993 with a 232kW turbocharged five-cylinder.
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