FirstDrive:Audi's new RS6 has taken engine power to new levels but, despite his admiration, Paddy Comynwonders if this estate car really has a place on Ireland's roads
Audi has upped the ante with its 580bhp RS6, but power is nothing if you can't use it. With all the talk of CO2 emissions that are going on these days, you would be forgiven for forgetting that at the other end of the environmental spectrum, car firms are still intent on showing just how big their engines can be.
Audi has been at the forefront of this power parade of late, with cars like the stunningly beautiful R8 and also with its S and RS range of cars. The RS model shows just what the German firm can do to an average family car, given the right amount of horsepower and the necessary Quattro all-wheel-drive needed to keep it on the road.
The RS4 is one of our favourite cars here in Motors. It takes the "regular" A4 up to stratospheric levels of power, thanks to the addition of a 4.2-litre V8. Now Audi has done the same thing with its larger A6. But this time it hasn't really spared the horses.
How about a 5.0-litre V10 engine, that puts out 580bhp, thanks to the addition of twin turbochargers? It is enough to give Minister for the Environment John Gormley sleepless nights, but this is just what Audi has wedged into the A6. But not just any A6, it's an estate model.
This really is the car for anyone who would like to have the power of a Lamborghini (you will find a similar engine in the Gallardo), but your circumstances don't necessarily lend themselves to a car that only seats two, and makes you look as if you are having the mother and father of all mid-life crises.
There really can't be any logical reasons why you would want this car, so there isn't any point in justifying it as you might a regular model. For a start, it is more than twice the price of an A6 3.0-litre TDi Avant Quattro Sport, a car that is rather quick and impressive in its own right.
But then the RS6 is not your average A6 Avant. It is not only the most powerful estate car in the world, but it is also the most powerful car Audi currently makes.
You might ask, first of all, why Audi has stuck all this power in an estate model, but this is apparently because it will give them an advantage over its main rivals at BMW and Mercedes-Benz which, even with the M5 and AMG versions, cannot match the 580bhp on show here.
Visually, the blistered wheel arches, huge air intakes and mammoth 19-inch or 20-inch wheels twinned with a subtle yet purposeful body kit hint at the car's performance potential. The 20-inch wheels come with the optional ceramic brakes which, at a price, will provide you with even further improved stopping power - handy in a 2,025kg car that can travel at the speed of a cruise missile.
So all that aside, what exactly can you hope to gain from your €161,300, should you be one of the dozen or so that will splash out on an RS6 in 2008. Start the car up and that 5.0-litre V10 makes a snarly bark and from here, if the car is fitted with the optional sports suspension plus, you can choose between comfort, dynamic and sports settings for the suspension.
These vary from squishy to bone shaking. Set off, and you quickly get the feeling that you are going to be hanging on to, as much as driving, the RS6. The burst of power that is created by your right foot is astonishing.
Sitting, as you are, in a large estate car, with such obvious creature comforts in the cabin and such venomous power, you will be tempted to "give it socks" as a colleague of mine likes to put it.
Thankfully we had a mixture of both the Paul Ricard circuit and some twisty roads to do just that. On the local roads, within the constraints of physics and the local gendarmerie, you get a decent impression of just what everyday life in the RS6 would be like, and driven fast on these roads it is a series of very fast bursts of acceleration before you stand on those enormous brakes to rein it all in. On the motorway, 120km/h feels like you are stopped, and this means that you need to keep a watchful eye on the speedometer at all times to avoid breaking the land speed record.
SUFFICE TO SAY, AND I KNOW I SOUND DULL IN saying so, there really is nowhere on the public roads for all this car's power. So it was lucky there was a racetrack on hand, and here you can start to get a better idea of the car's ability and the best compliment I can pay the car is that you could be a pretty awful driver and make a good attempt at most circuits.
The Electronic Stability Programme (ESP)system is on hand to make you look good, and a quick press of that ESP button also allows a more playful version to kick in, given all the Hollywood-style slides you could wish for. The car never feels as good to drive as the smaller RS4. Sure enough, the six-speed tiptronic box, with its paddle shifts, is pin sharp and the steering, something which Audi struggled with at times, now has plenty of feedback, but compared to the RS4, the RS6 does feel a little like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
You can't help but marvel and enjoy the eye-watering performance in the right conditions that a racetrack affords, and with 0-100km/h coming in just 4.6 seconds, 0-200km/h taking just 14.9 seconds, a top speed of either 250km/h or 280km/h depending on your choice, these are speeds that really only usually happen on a Playstation.
I truly will admire everyone who buys an RS6. Trends would indicate that they probably won't be trading in a car and will have a few others in the stable, and you know that they won't care about the 14 l/100km fuel consumption or the 333g/km of carbon dioxide that comes out of the exhaust. They will want an RS6 simply because it exists.
There is absolutely no logical reason to buy one, and to be honest it is not even that brilliant either. You really can't and never will exploit even half of this car's performance in Ireland, but for those that do buy one, little of that will matter. And for just that reason I admire them that bit more. Engine: 4991cc 10-cylinder with FSI petrol direct injection and twin turbochargers, putting out 580bhp and 650Nm of torque
FACTFILE
Performance:0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds
Top speed:250km/h, governed, 280km/h optional
Fuel economy:14.0L/100km CO2
Emissions:333g/km
Price:€161,300
On sale in Ireland in May, and available to order from dealers next week
FirstDrive: Audi A3 cabriolet
With all the flexing of muscles and talk of horsepower that comes with the RS6, it would be easy to lose sight of the launch of the A3 cabriolet, which was presented alongside the 580bhp Avant model. However, this is a much more significant car to our market, and will create an interesting head-to-head with the BMW 1-Series Cabriolet as featured in this week's Motors.
Much like BMW, Audi has chosen not to laden down the compact A3 with a heavy folding metal roof, as some more mainstream brands have opted to do. Instead, it has been given a z-shaped folding fabric roof that takes up very little luggage space. This roof opens in nine seconds, and comes in two versions: one is semi-automatic, which simply means you have to close the clasps at the final stage. The second is fully automatic and features improved sound and heat proofing.
The engine line-up will consist initially of either two TFSI or two TDI engines, ranging in power from 105bhp to 200bhp. An entry-level 1.6-litre petrol is also planned. We drove a number of versions at the launch and the highlight was the 2.0-litre TFSI petrol unit, with 200bhp.
The car was fun-to-drive, showed little of the bending and flexing that is so often a hallmark of such cars, and visually it is very appealing. It arrives in Ireland in April.
Prices are expected to start at "around €40,000" for the 1.8-litre TFSI version, and Audi expects to sell about 150 units of the car in a full year.
FACTFILE
Engine:1.8-litre TFSI petrol - 160bhp and 250Nm of torque
Performance:0-100km/h in 8.3 seconds; top speed 218km/h
Fuel economy:7.3/100km
CO2 emissions:174g/km
Engine:2.0-litre TFSI petrol - 200bhp and 280Nm of torque
Performance:0-100km/h in 7.3 seconds; top speed: 231km/h
Fuel economy:7.6/100km
CO2 emissions:181g/km
Engine:1.9-litre TDI diesel - 105bhp and 250Nm of torque
Performance:0-100km/h in 12.3 seconds; top speed 185km/h
Fuel economy:5.1/100km
CO2 emissions:134g/km
Engine:2.0-litre TDI diesel - 140bhp and 320Nm of torque
Performance:0-100km/h in 9.7 seconds; top speed 205km/h
Fuel economy:5.3l/100km
CO2 emissions:143g/km
Prices:starting at around €40,000