Supercar Review: 2021 Audi RS 6 Avant

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Ruined.

I am absolutely ruined now.

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Go ahead, ask me what single car I would buy for daily life, price no object… okay, the answer is patently obvious and sitting right across the top of this page. Perfection. Everything else I drive from this point on will be either too slow, too impractical, too sloppy, or just plain ugly by comparison. (Well, maybe there is one exception.)

And let’s face facts here, there might be a handful of readers that stumble on this review that are legitimately still making up their mind about what 500+ horsepower $150K family car to get, but chances are, if you had that budget, and you had that predilection, you already would have ordered your Audi RS 6 Avant the moment the order books opened up after decades of being deprived of gloriously overpowered Audi wagons .

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Mercedes has been much kinder to performance wagon fans, with its E 63 AMG serving as the sole überwagon in North America for untold years (in case it’s not obvious, this would be that aforementioned exception). Even Volvo put its full Polestar prowess into a V60 for one glorious generation, but wagons are rare enough to count on one’s fingers and performance wagons even Yoda can count on one hand.

If you are one of the rare birds sitting on the fence wavering between a land-missile SUV or one of these wagons, get the wagon — you are far more likely to use and appreciate the performance advantages of one of these wagons on a daily basis than you are to need the ground clearance of the utility vehicle.

To be honest, I would be more than happy with any of the above options replacing my own wagon, but the RS 6 Avant earns the top spot over the E 63 on looks. The performance of these machines is all spectacular, so there is nothing wrong with picking the prettiest one. Normally I stay well away from describing everything you can clearly see with your own eyes in our photos, but this being one of my favourites, I will take a sentence to point out its modern, edgy contours, low-slung stance, big wheels with even sharper lines, and the spectacularly sinister contrast of the blacked out-grille (try to ignore that confounding front plate) against the candy red metallic paint. I confess that I find myself just staring at this car and daydreaming about it instead of writing the rest of the story.

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But months later and after several false starts, I think I can finally let go and write about it. It’s hard though, because this car is so good, so perfectly me, that I don’t want to share. When I finally write it down and tell its story, I feel like I’m giving it away, and of all the cars, this is the one I never want to give away.

To make it easier, I’ll start with the mundane, but in this case, the mundane is the spectacular. You see, the RS 6 Avant isn’t special in its 591 hp or sub-four second sprint to 100 km/h. Pfft, every other luxury car these days seems to have a 500-hp version and eye-melting acceleration. What makes the RS 6 special is that superb practicality. Cargo capacity is about 850 litres (30 cubic feet, though European media site lists it as 565 L/20 cu. ft., which seems grossly underselling it according to my eyeballs and all the stuff it fits), over a metre across (1050 mm) and a metre deep (1176 mm), with a trunk lift-over height at 60 cm so it’s easy to load but plenty spacious, easily accommodating at least a couple hockey bags or four golf bags. Maximum cargo capacity with the rear seats folded is 1,680 litres (though again this varies depending on the source — no matter the number, it’s big, though not as tall as an SUV, obviously, so bikes gotta go an a roof rack), but a better cargo trick is the ski pass-through, so that a family of four can easily schlepp skis or hockey sticks without messing with roof racks or bags, or cramming it over the seat tops. That trunk is a large space, easier to access than a sedan because of its tall opening, but also easier than most SUVs because of that low floor.

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Like the cargo space, the passenger compartment is very spacious — the A6 on which it is based is, after all, a midsize luxury vehicle. Rear seat passengers will have plenty of head and legroom, pampered with quilted, red-stitched bucket seats. Parents with young children will appreciate the easily accessed child seat anchors and sunshades, but older passengers will enjoy the fold-down armrest and its pop-out cupholders, heated seats, climate controls and USB-C charging ports.

As much as passengers might enjoy the trimmings, the driver is still king, with a spectacular seat adjustable in myriad ways, but best of all includes adjustable bolsters that lock your thighs and torso in place, perfectly balancing sportiness and long-haul comfort should a road trip or twisty canyon road — or both — be the order of the day. The cockpit surrounding you is a digital haven, and most of it is seamlessly ergonomic, although the learning curve for the dual touchscreen is slightly greater than previous editions of the knob-controlled MMI. There just seems to be more lag between selections and a little more attention required when moving between menus.

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Interior quality is impeccable, with a mix of alcantara on the steering wheel, door inserts, and shifter, leather on the dash and seats, raw, unlacquered carbon-fibre mixed with piano black plastics and bright metallic trim. While it is mostly monochromatic, the red stitching runs throughout the cabin and the large colour touchscreens, digital gauges and head-up display add a pop of colour and at night, you can pick from a selection of colours for ambient lighting that suits your personality or mood. With heated, cooled and massage front seats, the mood was usually pretty relaxed.

Well, at least until you start the thing, because from the very first rumble, the 4.0L twin-turbo V8’s siren song lures you into a red-misted haze that is so hard to rein in. On startup, it rumbles and burbles like an avalanche churning under the hood, held back and just waiting to be released and flow to the wheels. While Audi has ceased plans for development of any new combustion engines , I’m okay with that, because it’s really not necessary to get any better than this. This twin-turbo V8 is rated at 591 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque, the torque available from 2,050 rpm up to 4,500 rpm, making for smooth or frantic launches as your foot dictates, and power keeps ramping up until it peaks at 6,000 rpm. You really don’t need anymore power than that, even in a porker like this that weighs a scale-crushing 2,250 kg (4,960 lb), and you don’t need to work your foot very hard to get absolutely explosive acceleration.

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The V8 is hooked up to all-wheel-drive via an eight-speed automatic transmission and governed by as many computers as it takes to land a space rocket. In your average comfort or auto modes, a gentle flex of your ankle raises the rumble to a growl and the RS 6 Avant just eases off the line effortlessly but suddenly every other vehicle is in your rearview mirror and you’re grateful for the head up display showing your speed because chances are you have already well exceeded the speed limit. Flick the switch for Dynamic mode and drop the transmission into Sport mode and you need to be hyper-aware of your right foot’s slightest prod. The engine howls and by the time it has settled into a thunderous chuckle, you’ve obliterated any traffic regulation imaginable short of the Autobahn. Audi’s official timekeepers pronounce its acceleration to 100 km/h at 3.6 seconds, but Car & Driver pegs it at 3.1 to 60 mph (96 km/h). Any way you slice it, it is fast. There are faster cars out there, but as I mentioned before, this is faster than any car needs to be here in North America, and just keeping your foot in it for those three or four seconds is a thrill of crushing g-forces and giddy butterflies and lightheaded giggles. Some time after this test drive, I did drive a car that was faster, and it catapulted right past thrilling and right into sheer terror, so I think I will remain forever content with these three-second cars.

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Of course, at some point you are bound to encounter a corner, so the car must also turn. Before you turn, you must brake (well, actually, on public roads and close to the speed limits, not so much, but when you do), and the RS 6’s massive front brakes (ventilated and cross drilled) have enough bit for the job. At first, they might seem to have too much bite and just as with acceleration, your right foot needs conscious attention not to send you and all our passengers snapping into the seatbelt pretensioners. after an adjustment period you learn to ease into the left pedal, but when you stomp on it you best have your neck muscles flexed and ready to keep your head back. Braking force is up to the task despite the Avant’s huge weight.

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And once that speed is in check and you are ready to dive into the corner, the RS 6 Avant’s weight imposes some limitations. Steering is actually quite light (in comfort mode you can spin it with one finger no problem) and very precise, with more weight and quicker response dialled in as you switch to Dynamic mode. At average speeds the response is completely linear and direct, and the grip of the four fat tires (295/30 R 22 – winter tires when I drove it) was absolute and the body did not budge from its attitude. Push it to another level however, and you will feel the massive weight over the front end trying to pull the car off your line, but the air suspension, anti-roll bars and adaptive dampers firm up to almost completely stifle body roll — I was nowhere near 10/10ths but I still managed to eke out over 1 g of grip at one point according to the performance meter in the virtual cockpit. Side note: the variety of formats and info in the trip computer and head-up display was also a fun perk of this car.

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Once you’ve gotten through the tightest part of that turn, it’s back on the power, and here the all-wheel drive shifts power to the rear wheels and a Quattro sport rear differential (part of the $2,950 Dynamic Package) even shifts power between the rear wheels to balance out the dynamic forces working against the car’s grip and gives the RS 6 Avant an extra little push from the rear outside wheel to straighten it out quickly. Here again the computers are working at a speed I cannot even comprehend to adjust for slips and spin to just make you go faster. It’s both a blessing and curse: blessed to look like a hero, but cursed that you know you don’t deserve the credit. Its performance is monumental, but with all that weight, it’s not the best car for track days unless you are limited to one car for family and track duties, which I find hard to imagine if you are buying at this price point.

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And that is my only reservation about this car, and it is not relative to any other car in its segment or of a similar mission. Few modern cars offer the joys of analog control any longer, so if it is the joy of shifting gears and unfiltered rear-drive power that so many driving enthusiasts like myself crave, you won’t find it here. What you will find is pretty much everything else. Granted, this is my personal, subjective opinion, but the the Audi RS 6 Avant is the most beautiful family vehicle on the market, and possibly ever penned, it has more power and performance than you need (but just as much as you want), delivers the sound and sensory experience that combustion fans adore, and it is graced with exceptional practicality and convenience for up to four passengers. A supercar for the whole family.