Road test review: Audi RS 6 Avant and RS 7 Sportback

Monday, 22 June 2020

Fastback or fast wagon? Audi gives you a choice of body styles, but both are brutally fast.

AUDI RS 6 AVANT and RS 7 SPORTBACK
Base price: $218,900 (RS 6) and $228,900 (RS 7)
Powertrain and economy: 4.0-litre turbo-petrol V8, 441kW/800Nm, 8-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 11.5L/100km, CO2 264g/km (RS 6), 11.4L/100km, CO2 262g/km (RS 7) (source: RightCar).

Wagon or fastback? When it comes to the biggest RS, Audi gives you a choice.

Vital statistics: 4995mm long (RS 6) 5009mm (RS 7), 1951mm wide, 1460mm high (RS 6) 1422mm (RS 7), 2929mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 565 litres (RS 6) 535 litres (RS 7), 22-inch alloy wheels.
We like: Brutally fast and superbly comfortable, sensational looks, awesome engine.

The RS 6 is a startlingly aggressive looking car. It's not to all tastes though.

We don't like: RS 6 doesn't sound as good inside, too digital and clinical to be truly engaging.

Audi's RS performance line up now has two range-toppers in the form of the RS 6 wagon and the mechanically-identical RS 7 fastback. The heart says the wagon is the best choice, but reality begs to differ…

The RS 7's slick fastback styling masks the fact that it is a very big car indeed.

Wait a minute. If they are mechanically identical, how is one better than the other?

Normally I would say 'the wagon is always better, because wagons are cooler', which in terms of looks is still very much true with the RS 6/7 twins - the RS 6 looks fantastic with looks that threaten violence and its square, squat wagon stance.

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The RS 7 looks like it wants to eat your children because it probably does.

* The five coolest Audi RS model ever made

And while the RS 7 certainly has its share of good looks, it's simply not as cool as a wagon. But it is the better RS.

The RS 6 and RS 7 share a gorgeous, high-tech interior.

I know, that sounds weird, as they are identical under the skin after all, and the wagon only weighs a fraction more than the fastback, so you can't claim the RS 6 is lardier (although at 2,075kg for the RS 6 and 2,065kg for the RS 7, they are both very hefty beasts).

But the RS 7 simply manages to pull the RS ingredients together better than the RS 6.

Wagons are just always cooler - here is proof.

So what exactly does the RS 7 do better than the RS 6?

The first and most obvious thing is it sounds way better from inside the car.

While both are very much muted over previous raucous RS efforts (damn you strict new Euro noise regulations…), the 441kW/800Nm turbo V8 sounds deeper and more resonant in the fastback, while the RS6's wagon body loses some of the bullish aggression in the noise, no doubt thanks to the extra space in the back.

Sound differences aside, that resonant, booming V8 is a thoroughly excellent thing in either car, with a staggeringly muscular and insistent power delivery literally everywhere in its rev range - nailing the throttle at any speed results in an eye-wideningly relentless surge forward.

Audi claims an identical 0 tp 100 sprint time of just 3.6 seconds for both. Simply put the RS 6 and RS 7 are staggering fast.

Fast doesn't automatically mean fun though. Is the RS 7 more fun?

While both leave you with no illusions about the fact that they are big, heavy cars that are extraordinarily fast, weirdly the RS 7 does feel more lively and responsive, particularly at lower speeds.

The RS 7's low-down throttle responses were livelier and more immediate, which is likely down to how both cars were run in, but the RS 7 unexpectedly felt slightly more agile and responsive at lower speeds as well.

Given that, according to Audi, only 10kg separates them, I can't blame a potential penalty for the RS 6's wagon body shape for this, but regardless, the RS 7 just felt more responsive at lower speeds.

Get them both on a winding back road, however, and the differences were far less noticeable, with both feeling frankly terrifyingly large on a tight New Zealand rural road.

Brutally fast though. But because fast doesn't automatically mean fun, both are typically 'fast Audi' in their level of driver involvement and sheer driving pleasure, in that they keep you at a clinically cold distance from the road, hammering their sheer speed down with a technically amazing efficiency that is a bit like playing a very good video game.

Still, these are big, comfortable autobahn-stormers, so that clinically detached attitude is somewhat more expected and actually even welcome here than in, say, an RS 4.

So the RS 7 is the pick over the RS 6 then?

No, of course not. The wagon is always better, we established that before.

Sure the RS 7 felt more responsive, sounded better and even had a better ride, but the differences were so small that sheer coolness of the RS 6's body shape effortlessly overrides them. For me, at least.

To be honest, most people wouldn't care about the differences, or possibly even notice, with the decision between the two purely coming down to body style. And, again for me, the RS 6 still wins every time there.

Any other cars I should consider?

BMW's upcoming refreshed M5 is only available in sedan form, while Mercedes-Benz's E 63 is available in wagon form, we don't get it here, so it is a sedan-only proposition for us as well.

BMW does offer a five-door fastback in the form of the M850i Gran Coupe alongside the two-door version, but at $261,900 it is both more expensive and less powerful, while the full-fat 460kW M8 is even more excitingly expensive at $326,900.

Likewise, Mercedes-AMG offers up its $332, 390 GT 4-door Coupe in 470kW/900Nm V8 63 S form, or 320kW/520Nm hybrid-boosted straight-six 53 S form for $240,900.