2024 Audi RS6 Avant GT | PH Review
Audi has convinced 60 UK customers to spend £176,975 on a run-out RS6. Good call?
Audi Sport has been quietly releasing some brilliant performance cars of late. It started a couple of years ago with the R8 GT, a limited-run swan song that uncorked the full potential of the V10 supercar’s chassis right at the death, followed up by the RS4 Competition which follows the same recipe with similarly impressive results. And now it’s the turn of the RS6 Avant GT, which aims to turn the most uber of uber-grade wagons into a proper driver’s car and potentially, as Matt Bird originally put it, the Holy Grail of fast estates.
Good thing it’s built on very solid foundations. The fourth-generation RS6 is a spectacular thing, with a thumping 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 to push you along, responsive steering and a 48-volt active anti-roll system propping up nearly 2.1 tonnes when the Gs ramp up. It’s as proficient at navigating a string of corners as it is barrelling along countless kilometres of autobahn, all while carrying a family of five and two German shepherds in the boot. There’s no such thing as the perfect performance car, but as a jack-of-all-trades, super-estate the RS6 still reigns supreme - even if the new G99 BMW M5 Touring might eventually have something to say about that.
Anyway, it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Audi Sport has always been the master of accessible performance, but outright engagement has never been its strong suit. Neckarsulm has worked tirelessly to dial out the understeer you get when fitting big engines to the front end of already big cars - and has done so relatively successfully - yet those after expressive steering and a fully adjustable suspension system have typically been left wanting. Whether or not you’d actually want any of that in a gargantuan family estate is another matter, but the fact Audi filled all 660 build slots within 48 hours of the RS6 GT going on sale suggests there’s demand for it. So who are we to argue?
And it’s not hard to see why. I mean, just look at it. I’m trying to think of a more unhinged production car to come from Audi this side of the millennium and I’m coming up short. Perhaps the A1 Quattro? Either way, the RS6 GT looks just as bonkers in person as it does on your screen. More subdued colours are available, and it does look particularly mean in Nardo Grey, but the car I’ve been handed the keys to, number 659, has been specced in the best scheme of all, one inspired by the monstrous Audi 90 Quattro IMSA GTO from the late '80s.
Once you get over the shock of seeing a five-metre-long super estate decked in retro IMSA colours, even a layman would notice that the GT is more pumped up than the standard car. The basic dimensions are the same, only now there are vertical vents behind the wheel arches to add more width, and there’s a double-decker rear wing at the back, both of which have been inspired by the epic RS6 GTO Concept. Meanwhile, the bonnet and front wings are made from carbon fibre, as are the skirts, while the bumpers have been tweaked for even more hunkered-down menace.
It looks magnificent, but the bit I’ve been most looking forward to trying out is all the work that’s gone on underneath its steroidal body. Like the RS4 Competition and R8 GT, there’s a set of three-way adjustable dampers in place of the standard RS6’s adaptive air suspension. There’s no way to tweak the settings on the go: this is a proper mechanical setup where you need to get your hands dirty to adjust the spring rates. The anti-roll bars have been stiffened, too, while the sport diff has been retuned to allow up to 85 per cent of torque to arrive at the rear axle.
Nothing has been done to the V8 up front, which is no bad thing. That means power mirrors the RS6 performance with 630hp and 627lb ft of torque, and there’s no better place to hear it in action than the rolling hills just north of Madrid. The RS6 GT promptly puts to bed any fears that emission regs could silence its V8 rumble; its climb to a 7,000rpm redline is accompanied by the kind of ferocious snarl that we hardly thought possible in a modern performance car. I’m not talking about the augmented sound that’s pumped in through the speakers either (though you can dial it back to a ‘subdued’ setting). Simply drop the windows and you'll encounter a noise roughly akin to a NASCAR at full pelt. It really is that good.
But the soundtrack pales in comparison to what Audi Sport’s boffins have done to the suspension. Where the standard settings often feel numb and occasionally outright vague, the RS6 GT is brimming with information about the road and chassis beneath you. The steering is alive with texture, from the raised white markings dotting along an Iberian mountain road to the sensation of the Continental SportCompact 7 tyres (285/30 R22 all round) clenching tarmac, you feel every bit of it through the Alcantara-covered steering wheel and seats. Getting an accurate take on ride quality is tricky with Spanish roads - even the ones 1,500m above sea level are half decent (unlike our own) - but the cobbled streets that line the mountain villages are well managed by the coilovers in their default setting. Granted, they'd be ably dealt with in the regular RS6, but I’d trade a slightly (and I mean slightly) firmer ride in exchange for improved steering.
Not least because it inspires confidence in a way I’ve yet to experience in a standard RS car. The cliff-lined road Audi directed us to was incredibly tight, to the point where the near-two-metre-wide RS6 spilled from its lane - yet the steering, which combines a razor-sharp turn-in with very well-judged weight, proved wonderfully intuitive. Where the standard version often seems merely dutiful, the GT is a joy to chuck into a corner, the positivity of its front axle matched only by the tenacity of the rear. The car barely acknowledges tyre squeal under load, let alone anything as wayward as slip.
Between corners, the RS6 didn’t need any more power, so I’m glad Audi didn't bother unlocking 10hp extra for the sake of it. That said, catch it at the right moment and it can seem a tad lethargic at low revs. Third gear was sufficient for most of the mountain pass test route, but exit a corner below 3,500rpm and there’s a moment of hesitation before the turbos spool up again. Of course, you could always just pull the left paddle and drop to second, but even with a software tweak the GT’s eight-speed auto isn’t always keen on downshifting when braking hard into a corner.
Nevertheless, once in its stride, the car is immensely fast - and slows no less enthusiastically thanks to the standard carbon ceramic brakes that prevented yours truly from flying off a cliff edge. They’re nice and progressive when pootling around, and progressive enough to bring you to a gentle stop when an elderly villager wanders into the middle of the road after a boozy lunch. And there's still sufficient bandwidth in the settings that when you’ve had enough of mucking about in the mountains, the GT is capable of returning to something like a regular RS6 when in its Comfort drive mode, the only giveaways being some model-specific badges and a plaque with the car’s build number on the centre console.
In this respect, the RS6 GT is a bit like the BMW M5 CS. The Competition was a fantastic super saloon in its own right, yet a few chassis tweaks (and a fair bit of weight saving) transformed it into one of the finest modern M cars ever conceived. The RS6 does without the M5’s diet, but in return you get five useable seats and a ginormous 565-litre boot that eclipses even the incoming G99 Touring. It’s a shame then that the manufacturer is only bringing 60 examples to the UK, all of which have sold for £176,975 apiece - or nearly £50k more than the standard car. But if Audi were to start granting us wishes, on this evidence we'd very much like the GT badge to become Ingolstadt's equivalent of the CS, with many more manic variants in the pipeline. Even if it's not, kudos to anyone who nabbed a build slot. You're in for an RS like no other.
SPECIFICATION | AUDI RS6 AVANT GT
Engine: 3,993cc V8, twin-turbocharged
Transmission: eight-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 630@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 627@2,300-4,500rpm
0-62mph: 3.3 seconds
Top speed: 189mph (limited)
Weight: 2,075kg
MPG: 18.5-19.5
CO2: 289-277g/km
Price: £176,975
(I'll have mine in the Mythos Black please, and sure while we're at it - Y-style alloys in bronze from the Performance might be nice!!!!!!
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