Latest rapid load-carrier has all the performance credentials to make its nearby rivals look tame
The new RS6 has arrived unusually early, hasn't it?
By tradition, yes, because Audi usually brings forward an RS treatment only when a certain model reaches mid-life. The current A6 is still fresh and just over a year old.
The load-carrying Avant goes RS, and here are some of the key improvements it has received over the outgoing model based on the C6.
The new C7-based RS6 is 100kg lighter than ever, thanks to aluminium making up 20% of the body.
Apart from the lighter body, the new RS6 gets a downsized engine with cylinder deactivation technology and an uprated eight-speed automatic to cut fuel consumption by 40%.
Super! It hasn't gone soft, right?
Here's even better news. Okay, the number of cylinders has dropped from 10 to eight, the engine size has fallen from 5.0 to 4.0 litres and the power has shrunk from 580 to 560hp.
But with higher torque of 700Nm due to two large turbos _ and the lighter body advantage _ the all-wheel-drive RS6 becomes the first ever of Audi's super-fast breed to reach 100kph from standstill _ less than 4sec.
To be precise, the new RS6 does 3.9sec _ a good 0.7sec quicker than before. Thus, it's a whole lot faster and more economical, at 10.2kpl on the average, than before.
It's worth noting that the RS6's new V8 is also being used in other in-house models like the S6, S7, S8 and Bentley's Continental range _ albeit different outputs to suit their specific characters and market positioning.
Other modifications made to cope with such performance in the RS6 are active suspension that lowers the body by 20mm and optional carbon-ceramic disc brakes.
They are particularly essential because buyers can now choose to restrict maximum speed at three levels: 250, 280 and 305kph.
The RS6 appears to be the quickest in its class...
It is. Although its German rivals like the BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG employ twin-turbo V8 engines, both of them are four-second cars, so to speak.
The 560hp/680Nm M5 does 0-100kph in 4.4sec and 525hp/700Nm E63 4.3sec, both equipped with seven-speed dual-clutch automatics.
Don't bother with the Jaguar XFR-S that featured in Life last week.
Armed with a 550hp/625Nm 5.0-litre supercharged V8 and eight-speed automatic (torque convertor style from ZF, just like the RS6), the fast Jag only matches the earlier RS6s in the 0-100kph time. That could be considered quite an achievement for the new RS6 _ at least on paper _ because we're talking about the estate version which was traditionally a tenth slower in acceleration terms than the saloon in the previous generations.
Will Audi make an RS6 in saloon form, you may ask.
The official line is that there will only be an Avant body _ just like in the latest RS4.
That sounds quite fair because the RS6 Avant is already a class act in performance terms and an estate body was always the special bit when it came to an RS (the pioneering RS2 was based on the 80 estate).
Thai fans looking at an RS6 will have to wait till at least mid-2013 to get a hold of one costing in the region of 13 million baht when properly taxed by local authorities.
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