Review: Audi S6
T he motoring world is full of sheep in wolves’ clothing. There are a few genuine carnivores out there, but not as many as the number of ultra-low profile tyres and spoilers on display would have one believe. That’s why we found the Audi S6 so pleasing. A 4,2-litre V8 to listen to, 250kW and 420Nm to play with, and a pretty damn ordinary car to look at. Sort of like wrapping Nicole Kidman up in your old army greatcoat and balaclava and taking her off to the movies, knowing how much more fun you’ll have later if you’re not bothered for autographs all evening.
There are a few visual indicators that the S6 is special. Those fat, ultra-low profile P6000 Pirellis on their 17-inch rims look pretty businesslike, and the Recaro seats front and rear aren’t usually part of the package in a family saloon. A bit of fake carbon fibre on the door panels, and a discrete “Quattro” badge on the dash give the game away on the inside, to those in the know. Then, at the rear, those tell-tale twin drainpipes and the “S6” flash on the boot lid.
Where earlier S6 models used turbocharged five-cylinder engines, this generation of the beast sees a naturally aspirated 4,2-litre V8 tucked tidily beneath its aluminium bonnet. With output boosted from the A6’s 220kW to 250kW, it boasts more out-and-out power than the Jaguar XR8 Coupe, the Mercedes-Benz SL500 or the naturally aspirated Porsche 911 offerings. Not bad for a car that looks as ordinary as this.
Linking the engine to the all-wheel-drive is Audi’s five-speed adaptive Tiptronic transmission, which was about the only thing that we didn’t like about the car. Or let’s rather say, the only thing that we’d change, because the transmission itself is fine — we’d just rather have a lever to stir when we feel like getting down to business on a nice section of road. Something like a nice six-speed close ratio manual box would just be so much more fun.
Still, even with the auto box, the Audi’s fun to drive. Nailing the right-hand pedal to the floor gets the speedo galloping past the 100kph mark in well under seven seconds and 160 comes up in about twice that. On paper it’s slightly slower off the mark than BMW’s M3 and M5 duo, and our seat-of-the-pants impression goes along with that — the Audi doesn’t feel quite so brutal, thanks largely, we think, to the auto transmission. We never got to find out where the speedo finally stops climbing, but numerous specialised publications with large budgets for traffic fines and/or access to race tracks have recorded that the fun stops at around 260kph.
Handling? What’s that? The Quattro sticks to the road so well that staying glued to the tarmac isn’t something you ever have to worry about, even at speeds far beyond what you’d normally dream of reaching on a public road.
Of course, there is loads of computer assistance to help catch the car when you do put a foot wrong — the electronic stability control programme includes an electronic differential lock, electronic brake-force distribution and traction control. Despite all this intervention between squirming bum and squealing tyres there’s remarkably little noticeable intimation of how hard all these computers are working for you — there’s just a rapidly moving, well-behaved car and a happy driver.
Of course, we have to get to the most painful part — the price. The Audi S6, at R521 500, is an expensive car. But, when you consider the performance it offers and the price of its rivals it suddenly looks like being a worthwhile option for those in the market.