Progress report: Audi RS6 2002 vs 2008 vs 2013

A trio of Audi RS6s: a vision to strike fear into the otherwise happy, dappy hearts of lounging Labradors everywhere. Now, as progress reports go, this isn’t the most, well, progressive. 

Images: Rowan Horncastle

Since then there have been precisely no great leaps forward. The first RS6, the C5, featured a twin-turbo 4.2-litre V8 driving all four wheels and was available as a Plus model with an extra 30bhp.

Then the C7 was a twin turbo 4.0-litre… and you can guess the rest – although the Plus model added 45bhp. 

But this isn’t Audi stubbornly resisting advancement, it’s the firm nailing the formula first time out. OK, so since day one the RS6 has been criticised for not being as interactive as a BMW M5. Or to put it another way: it doesn’t oversteer. 

But people don’t drive like that in the real world. It’s a more safety-conscious motor, one that’s as concerned with looking after your family on a dark, wet motorway as it is charging across a moor with only you on board. It’s the all-weather everything car: stability, speed, space, stealth and so on.

And as power outputs have climbed (the 2013 car developed over 100bhp more than the first, even though they’re separated by only a decade), rivals are homing in on Audi’s position rather than vice versa.

The latest Mercedes-AMG E63 and BMW M5 are both four-wheel drive. They need to be, because a two-tonne wagon putting 600bhp through the rear wheels alone is just too much. Audi figured this out years ago. 

That said, the first RS6 was a bit of a blunt instrument. It steers sweetly enough, the hydraulically assisted wheel light and accurate in your hands, but driving first and last back-to-back you quickly realise just how far gearchanging and turbo response has come on. The C5’s five-speed auto gives the whole car a lazy feel. 

The C6 was the engine car. The one Audi built because it didn’t think it’d be able to get away with it again. The 5.0-litre twin-turbo V10 (pictured) develops 572bhp, which unusually means it’s more powerful than the car that replaced it. Imagine Apple launching a new iPhone with less processing power than its predecessor… 

The V10 in the 2008 RS6 is a special motor, not only revving harder than the V8 in the 2013 C7 (pictured), but also sounding sharper. However, the sense you get driving it is that the chassis is so busy keeping the rampant power in check, that it can’t spare the time to communicate with the driver. 

The next car has restored some balance. With a faster gearbox, uprated four-wheel drive and less weight, it more than made up for the 20bhp deficit. We’ve measured it at 3.4 seconds to 60mph – over half a second quicker than the V10. And the chassis has the ability to distribute that power more evenly and progressively. 

It’s a heavy car, the mass takes some managing (and the steering is unhelpfully gluey), but you wouldn’t believe the way it goes down a road, or the feeling of security it imparts. Families love ’em. That hasn’t changed since the RS6 first appeared, and it won’t anytime soon. We hope...

The new Audi RS6 is here. Read the full story this way