From the December 2020 subject of Automobile and Driver.
Ever hear of left-digit bias? It is the explanation ShamWows value $19.95 as an alternative of $20 and why folks say they’re 39 as an alternative of 40. We deal with that first digit and assign it undeserved significance as a result of our cave-dweller brains are simply tricked. That is why the 2021 Audi RS6 Avant’s certifiably ballistic 60-mph time of three.1 seconds appears, in a weird method, mundane. If that point have been two-tenths of a second faster, we would be petitioning for Nationwide RS6 Day, a time to have fun and replicate on the RS6’s righteous and scarcely plausible acceleration. As an alternative, we’re like, “Yeah, about what we anticipated.” Can you actually even really feel the distinction between a 2.9-second and three.1-second run? Certain, to the identical extent you discover that five-cent distinction within the pretax worth of ShamWows and a $20 invoice, which is to say barely in any respect. However because of left-digit bias, the RS6 Avant places us within the uncommon place of apologizing for numbers that ought to require no apologies.
These numbers embrace the output from the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8—591 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque—and the quarter-mile run of 11.5 seconds at 120 mph. These are impeccable efficiency bona fides, although possibly not what we take into account supercar numbers as of late. Then once more, it is a station wagon. That is simple to overlook if you’re behind the wheel, looking over these flared entrance fenders (2.5 inches wider than a regular A6’s) and listening to the turbos and sport exhaust keep on a vigorous banter of chuffs and thunder. The cargo space is capacious and sensible and hidden by a slick motorized cowl, however you may need to lash down these groceries as a result of what’s behind you tends to slide your thoughts when your cranium is crushed into the headrest with the drive of gravity (after which some). Activate launch management and also you may see the gauge-cluster accelerometer spike at 1.19 g’s, as we did. That’ll scramble your eggs and your inside ear.
The Avant is not only a drag-strip specialist, although. Like a lot of Audi’s RS forebears, the RS6 is seemingly handicapped by a front-loaded weight bias, that V-Eight overbite saddling the nostril with 55.Zero % of the automotive’s heft. However in follow, the RS6 feels completely balanced and even slightly tail-happy because of the magic of torque vectoring and four-wheel steering. The rear sport differential can ship nearly all of the torque to at least one facet or the opposite, collaborating with the rear steering to endow the massive Audi with instantaneous turn-in. Add some throttle together with your steering lock—which in a nose-heavy all-wheel-drive automotive would usually lead to tragic understeer—and the rear finish will begin to swing vast whereas the entrance holds the road. The RS6 Avant is the unlikely 5031-pound automotive that may dance. Once more, do not get too obsessive about the at-the-limit numbers (on this case, a middling 0.94 g on the skidpad). It feels a lot grippy if you’re bombing down your favourite off-ramp.
So Audi nailed the necessities, and—here is the tough half, typically—it did it with panache. Simply have a look at this factor. Is that this not the meanest wagon but conceived by humankind? After an preliminary 10-minute drive, we had two textual content messages from neighbors who’d seen the automotive on the highway. Pattern: “Was that an RS6? Is Audi lastly bringing that again to the U.S.? Woooowww.” The fundamental form and stance are so good that you just acknowledge this automotive from 100 paces, nevertheless it’s additionally fascinating if you zoom in on the main points. Try the yellow decals contained in the headlights, warning you to not stare as a result of there are lasers in there. Or the Audi Sport puddle lights if you open the entrance doorways at evening. Or the optionally available blacked-out Audi logos on the grille and hatch. All of it really works to bolster the message that this is not the Allroad. Perhaps the AllRoadCourse.
The RS6 Avant can fake it is affordable household transportation if you happen to calm down the adaptive suspension and ignore the button on the steering wheel labeled “RS Mode.” However that is a troublesome button to disregard. The RS modes (two of them, in ascending order of depravity) are customizable, however each of them sharpen the Avant’s responses and usually serve to amplify the enjoyable, even jacking up the idle so the automotive feels prefer it’s straining the leash when it is stopped. You may, after all, make the exhaust louder by choosing both of the RS modes, however on this automotive, the rumble out again is all the time rivaled by the soundtrack from the consumption. Turbos usually whoosh. The RS6 Avant’s sound like Lord Gorg simply exited the airlock of his starship to announce an essential revision to the meals chain and your new place therein.
The RS6 drawbacks, corresponding to they’re, are likely to fall into the class of self-owns. For example, the RS6’s smooth inside touchscreens on the middle stack (a 10.1-inch higher show and an 8.6-inch decrease one) look minimalist, which is acceptable since they’re minimally purposeful. Why did Audi kill the scroll knob? If you wish to change a radio station, you need to use the touchscreen, steering wheel buttons, or quantity knob toggle, all of which work equally badly. Attempt to soar greater than two or three stations and the system has a CPU fart and freezes the place it’s. At first we simply thought the automotive actually beloved Ozzy’s Boneyard.
And there is a number of {hardware} crammed into that nostril. (That is not unprecedented: The 2003 RS6 engine bay was so cramped you needed to drop the entrance anti-roll bar to do an oil change.) Cooling followers are likely to run for a very long time after you shut down the engine. The gasoline financial system stinks—17 mpg mixed, per the EPA. And prime pace is restricted to 156 mph as an alternative of a claimed 190 except you ante up for the carbon-ceramic brakes, which value $8500. You are telling us that the usual 16.5-inch entrance and 14.6-inch rear rotors cannot deal with 190? That is so unfair we will our room and slamming the door.
However we cannot keep mad, as a result of the RS6 Avant validates fans with its very existence. In a world awful with 600-hp SUVs, we do not have practically sufficient 600-hp wagons. Word that we did not say “inexpensive 600-hp wagons.” Audi says it builds a two-digit variety of RS6 Avants per day at its Neckarsulm plant in Germany, nevertheless it’d certainly make extra if it may discover a greater crowd of consumers prepared and capable of commerce tall stacks of hundred-dollar payments for a rally household sport wagon.
Greatness would not come low-cost. And left-digit bias, pervasive as it’s, has its limits, as exemplified by the RS6’s $110,045 base worth. It is not like $110,050 is a few talismanic psychological threshold for monetary accountability. And in any case, including just a few choices rapidly bumped our as-tested worth to $119,840. However that worth appears to be like fairly good if you evaluate the RS6 with its company cousin, the Porsche Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo, which is equally speedy however prices $158,350 earlier than you a lot as coloration in these crests.
Usually once we argue that there is extra to a automotive than its numbers, we’re speaking about one thing like a Mazda Miata, which does not look fast on paper however is a pleasure to drive. The RS6 Avant truly does put up some monster numbers. However the expertise is even higher.
Let’s block adverts! (Why?)
