Audi’s Avant didn’t exactly have the best of starts with Autocar India. We initially got our hands on the car at our annual track day, but while all nine other cars landed up at the venue bang on time, the RS6 turned up a whole day late. The truck transporting it, apparently, had broken down. What a missed opportunity!
I did get to hurl it around the track and experience the otherworldly explosion of power and torque one balmy Chennai morning and that completely blew my mind, right then and there. But what the RS6 also did was impress the hell out of me as a driver’s car. Thing is, I wasn’t really expecting much initially, especially after the quite ‘wooden’ RS7, and then, this was a practical estate after all. But boy, was I wrong. The overall balance, the mega brakes and the fact that I could steer and guide it deftly, even with all four tyres howling; I was just blown away. Here was a car that looked like Mom’s wagon, with its large loading bay and insane length, but instead of being purely practical in its manner of operation, it boasted M5-busting performance. And then there was the fact that it was an estate: it was so anti-cool, I just loved it. Would have loved to see Narain bend it around the track in Chennai; elbows, wrists and steering wheel flaying wildly.
What also got me seriously scratching my head was the performance. Yeah, I did read the spec sheet, but the top-end just felt insanely savage. Turbo motors aren’t supposed to have such a strong finish. Santa Clause’s chariot, with 560 Bambies (hp) and 699 Thumpers (Nm) prancing away under the hood sure had me impressed.
So, I was thrilled when staffer Selvin Jose announced he was going to take it up to Amby Valley in Lonavala for a drag race. I was pretty sure he was going to cream some of the opposition, even though there were some seriously quick cars on hand. And it was no surprise really when he came back clutching a couple of trophies.
It was then that the slightly silly arguments started; around the chai tapri, as they inevitably do. This car, you see, weighs in excess of two tonnes; as much or more than many SUVs. It has four-wheel drive, massive 285 tyres on 21-inch rims and plenty of smart systems to prevent the wheels spinning the power away. So grip is massive. But there were some who claimed the weight actually helped the RS6 put the power down better by providing greater traction to the wheels; more weight can act like more down force, as it does on an F1 car. But would more weight actually help traction in a straight line? I was pretty sure lighter was better, but the question still rankled me: how much slower would a fully laden car be? You easily notice the debilitating effect of excess weight on a regular car, but would this car, with an overabundance of power and torque and relatively less grip, truly benefit?
