Fast wagons are a dying breed. For most
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00:00Let me ask you a question, what is your dream car?
00:06Now I'm not talking about your $50 million Ferraris, your Le Mans winning Porsches, I'm
00:10talking about your achievable, attainable, that car would be my car for the rest of my
00:15life because it does absolutely everything car.
00:19This is mine, the Audi RS6 Performance, a more practical, powerful, pretty, perfect
00:26vehicle I don't think has ever been made.
00:29But here's the thing, I'm on my way to drive a new, limited edition RS6 and I'm wondering
00:36what could Audi have possibly done to make my dream car any better?
00:48Oh, I can see what they've done, they've made it look 10,000 times cooler, wow!
00:53This is the Audi RS6 GT Avant, a very special, special edition from the guys at Audi Sport.
01:03Now let me tell you about it, just 660 examples of this car will be built and of those 660
01:08only 85 will come to America and they will all be finished in this wonderful Audi Sport
01:14inspired livery, which I think looks spectacular.
01:18Now let me tell you about what is new on this car specifically, we've got the carbon fibre
01:23front hood, painted carbon fibre and you can actually see the carbon fibre here on
01:26the black insets, beautiful.
01:28We've got a redesigned front grille, gloss black, we've got an extended front splitter
01:33there, really menacing, very good looking, very subtly different to the RS6 but different
01:38nonetheless.
01:39Now, continuing the carbon fibre theme we come around to the front wings which are also
01:44carbon fibre, beautiful, and they've got these spectacular motorsport inspired car
01:49vans here, which this front end is perfection and I don't say that lightly.
01:55Look at these wonderful Avis Concepts inspired 6 spoke wheels, white on white, I mean, chef's
02:01kiss to you Audi.
02:03We've also got carbon fibre on the wing mirror, that's a nice touch.
02:07Now coming down the side here we've got more carbon fibre, the front wing, the side splitters,
02:11look no roof rails here, interesting aerodynamics, why have they done that I wonder?
02:16Well that's because they have gone to town on the Sporia, look how much bigger this thing
02:21is than on the regular RS6, it's spectacular.
02:25Coming around the back there's a couple of other little flourishes, we've got a redesigned
02:28lower splitter here and that's about it.
02:30I'll tell you about the driving dynamics when we get in the car in just a moment because
02:33oh yes, we are driving this, but first I want to tell you about where this car came from.
02:38A few years ago Audi gave a pre-production RS6 to 12 junior apprentices who were working
02:43at Audi Design learning the craft of car design and they said go nuts, make us something
02:49which is incredible, something that inspires us.
02:51They made the Audi RS6 GTO, a concept that was based loosely on the Audi 90 Quattro IMSA
02:58GTO from 1989 and I am amazed to say that we have it here today.
03:04This, and I say this with absolute seriousness, is racing royalty, this is a hero of mine,
03:10let me tell you why.
03:11This car absolutely revolutionised road racing as we know it today.
03:16Now in the late 1980s Audi were dominating rally racing with their pioneering all-wheel
03:23drive Quattro system and they thought to themselves, hey, this is really good on the dirt, maybe
03:27it'll be good on the asphalt too, so for 1989 they entered the IMSA racing series with
03:33this car.
03:34Now it's worth bearing in mind that at the time IMSA was dominated by V8 powered rear
03:38wheel drive cars.
03:40This has a 2.2 litre inline 5 and a turbo the size of my torso.
03:46Now all-wheel drive plus all of that stuff, 720 horsepower to the road, that meant that
03:52this car could overtake on the outside of corners.
03:56The V8 had no hope.
03:59Of course with that kind of power on display this car was very successful.
04:04In 1989 with Hans-Joachim Stuck behind the wheel they won around 75% of the races.
04:11Before IMSA banned all-wheel drive.
04:12That is an all too familiar pattern, right?
04:15Revolutionise the game, win at a canter, get cancelled.
04:19And sadly that was the case for a few years.
04:21But the damage had already been done, Audi had already absolutely shown the world what
04:26Quattro and small displacement engines with giant turbos could do.
04:30So we've seen the race car, we've driven the GT Performance, I think it's time we take
04:36the RS6 GT Avant for a run.
04:39Here at glorious, very hot, Willow Springs Raceway.
04:47So I've taken you through the aesthetic changes, but there's far more to this car than a body
04:52kit, some carbon fibre and a rather nice Audi sport-inspired livery.
04:58Let me tell you a little bit more.
05:01So let's talk power first, and crucially this car does not get a power update.
05:06It has the same 621 horsepower, 627 pound-feet of torque that you'll find in the RS6 Performance
05:15that I was driving a little bit earlier.
05:18But that isn't to say that Audi haven't been busy under the body of the GT.
05:28As you can hear we've got an Audi sport exhaust as standard, we've also got carbon ceramics
05:33as standard with those rather charming red painted calipers.
05:38Now the significance of having carbon ceramics is that Audi can now change the top speed
05:44up to 190 miles per hour.
05:46That's quite a bump over the regular RS6.
05:49Now this car also has a pair of new, or new-ish, differentials.
05:55It's got the same centre locking differential that you'll find in the Performance version
05:59of the RS6, and that allows the power to be split in this car 40% to the front, 60%
06:06to the rears as standard.
06:08But as much as 70% can be directed to the front wheels and as much as 85% can be directed
06:13to the rear wheels depending on when the car feels certain slip across certain corners
06:17of the car.
06:18So, pretty nifty.
06:19Now, so the reason for all that fiddling around with the differentials is because Audi have
06:23done a lot of work at the suspension level of this car.
06:28In fact, the RS6 GT Avant has fully adjustable, manually adjustable I should say, coilover
06:36suspension.
06:38You can set it to one of three settings to firm up the ride for when you come out to
06:42a racetrack such as this, which is pretty cool.
06:46Now, as well as that, we've got uprated dampers and we've got stiffer stabiliser bars.
06:52This car is actually 30% stiffer at the front and a whopping 80% stiffer at the back.
06:58How does that make sense?
07:00The RS6 already handled its power spectacularly well, but now the GT with that manual coilover
07:06suspension, the uprated stiffness, the centre and rear diff both being bespoke for this
07:12car, that means that this car can really put the power down.
07:15Now, the car does sit 10mm lower as standard because of that coilover suspension, and I've
07:21got to say, you can feel it.
07:23You really can feel it.
07:24There's an appropriate firmness to the ride now.
07:27You can tell that the work they've done to the rolling gear and the suspension has had
07:32a really nice effect in the way that this car portions out its weight, which is not
07:38insignificant.
07:39Let's not forget, this is a pretty heavy car.
07:41Carbon ceramic brakes feel nice.
07:43Wouldn't it have been nice for there to have been a power increase?
07:45Yeah, I would have liked that, but hey, you can't win them all.
07:51What Audi have done, far better than what they could have done, which would have been
07:53to slap some stickers on an RS6 and charge 20g more, no, no, no, they've worked very
07:58hard to offer meaningful updates in the way that the car puts its power down.
08:04Not that that was something the RS6 particularly had trouble doing, but you can feel that there's
08:08even more solidarity between the engine and the inputs that you're giving it and the differentials
08:15all the way through to the tyres, which, by the way, are unique to this car.
08:19The idea of firming up the front end was, of course, to help with understeer at the
08:23limit.
08:24I'm not driving at the limit right now, but I can tell you that this car's got a great
08:28amount of bite.
08:29It's wonderful at turning in.
08:31Yeah, that's really, really nice.
08:38So look at that, hard on the carbon ceramics.
08:40You can feel the front end tense up, 30% stiffer, as I said.
08:45As we rotate round here, no understeer.
08:48We have to really cut in there for that apex, and again, we're already putting power down.
08:54That central locking differential pushing more and more power to the rear wheels as
09:01it senses a slip.
09:02Of course, the rear diff, operated also for this car, can handle that power and deal it
09:07out.
09:08As we're going through, the uprated tyres, shod on the new wheels, and that wonderful
09:15uprated, manually adjustable, stiffer suspension, it's harmonious.
09:21Everything is working in unity to hustle me round.
09:26This is so cool.
09:27We'll turn our attentions to the inside.
09:29Now, there's not an awful lot that's changed on the inside, and that's not really a bad
09:34thing.
09:35The RS6 has a wonderful interior.
09:37We've got these slightly more supportive seats here with this shoulder bolstering.
09:40These are slightly different to the all-carbon bucket seats that you'll get in Europe.
09:45These are made for the American market, but they're still a lot more supportive than the
09:50seats in the RS6, so that is great.
09:54Of course, we've got a lot of Alcantara and carbon fibre touches, but for the most part,
10:00it's just an RS6 in here, and that is the beauty of it.
10:04It's worth bearing in mind at this moment that this is going to be the last gasoline-powered
10:08RS6.
10:09I already made the announcement a little while ago that all the cars with even numbers in
10:14their names are going to be moving to EV, so the next RS6 will be a full EV.
10:21However, don't despair, because there will be a plug-in hybrid gasoline version of the
10:27new RS7, called the RS7 Avant, which will, for all intents and purposes, be an RS6 Avant,
10:35which is confusing, but ultimately a good thing, right?
10:39We love fast station wagons, and we're very happy to hear that Audi will essentially be
10:44giving us twice as many options.
10:47Moving forward, we'll have the electric RS6 and the hybrid-powered RS7 Avant.
10:53How exciting.
10:54I could be inclined to have been slightly upset that there wasn't a power increase for
11:00this GT model, but hey, I don't think you need it.
11:03The RS6 has a spectacular amount of power.
11:07What Audi have done is perfected the way it puts it down.
11:09They've also made it look badass at the same time.
11:12What a way for my dream car, the gasoline-powered Audi RS6, to go out in a flurry of spectacular,
11:24solid handling.
11:25Woo!
11:26Oh, wow.
11:27Oh, they didn't tell me about this.
11:32I'm being joined by the IMSA GTO, and that is special.
11:40I tell you what, there's not many people that have seen that car in their mirrors for more
11:43than a turn or two.
11:45I am honoured to share a track with a true motorsport icon.
11:52Wow.
11:53It really can't be stated how much of an impact that car had on motorsport as we know it today.
12:01As much as the rally cars did, that car also pioneered quattro, and it's nice to see that
12:06this spiritual tribute to that car is also one that Audi have placed huge importance
12:11on their all-wheel-drive architecture and their suspension work.
12:14It would have been wrong for this car not to handle like a dream, and it does.
12:20It's amazing.
12:21So there you have it, the Audi RS6 GT Avant, and the Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO.
12:29What an icon.