- Doors and Seats
5 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
4.0TT/12kW, 8 cyl.
- Engine Power
463kW, 850Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (98) 11.8L/100KM
- Manufacturer
4WD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
5 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance review: Track test
The world's favourite aspirational school run load lugger just got faster, grippier and more expensive, but is Audi's RS6 Avant Performance super wagon still relevant in the electric age?
- Relentlessly capable at any speed
- Is there anything it can't do?
- New wheels and colours still ensure it looks a quarter-million bucks...
- It still costs a quarter-million bucks too
- More noise is great on a track, but not on every drive, every single day
- You can't explore all this performance ability on the road
2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance
How is it that one of the world's most aspirational cars is not a hand-crafted and sleek Italian two-door coupe but an over-engineered and functional station wagon?
Since 1994, Audi has embarked on an almost passionate journey that has combined the elegant and sensible lines of a long-roof wagon with fire-breathing supercar performance. From the original RS2 Avant, through generations of RS4 and RS6 wagons (including that bonkers 5.0-litre twin-turbo V10 one), the brand has sought to provide the ultimate zero-compromise family car, an attitude of Vorsprung Durch Kombi if you will.
The best thing is, Audi is showing no signs of slowing down.
For 2024 the Audi RS6 Avant Performance has more power, more grip, more noise and will cost you more money. There are new colours, a longer name and just as much ridiculous sensibility as you can handle in a thermonuclear labrador transporter. So what's the catch?
For a start, it's still priced beyond the reach of most of us, and with performance being somewhat democratised by the electric brigade, does the 2500kg flat-pack express still deliver the shock and awe it built a pedestal on?
We sample the new beast at Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit to find out.
How much does the Audi RS6 Performance cost in Australia?
We might as well rip the bandaid off.
The 2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance is priced from $241,500 before options and on-road costs. That makes it about $270,000 on the road (all states will vary), or more than five-times the average Australian new-car transaction price (approx $51,000). It also makes it the fourth most expensive station wagon you can buy today (Porsche Panamera and Taycan Cross Turismo models have entered the chat), despite being the most powerful station wagon you can buy today.
While this does rule many of us out of shopping contention, there's actually a good story here for those in the market.
The 2024 RS6 Avant is available exclusively as a Performance variant, which does push the list price $9300 higher than the superseeded 'regular' 2023 RS6 Avant, it also delivers more performance and equipment. Additionally, due to the increase in CPI inflation over the past 12-months, the RS6 has technically become cheaper as the 2023 model's list price of $232,200 should have theoretically increased by 5.6 per cent to $245,200, and that's without the Performance badge!
It seems some creative 'Vorsprung Durch Buchhaltung' has been the name of the game too.
For 2024, the RS6 Avant Performance gains an engine output increase from 441kW/800Nm to 463kW and 850Nm, faster transmission-shift programming, a lighter centre differential, and new 22-inch alloy wheels that are 5kg lighter than the previous rims and are available in four colour choices (machined alloy with gloss black inserts, wholly matte black, matte grey or matte gold). The fresh wheels wear new, grippier Continental Sport Contact 7 tyres too.
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There's also less sound deadening that, according to the press release, "ensures that passengers experience a thrilling next-level theatre of sound", but it also ensures that passengers experience a next-level theatre of sound each and every time they are in the car. That may be thrilling for them as you roar away from the lights, but let's see what they think on an interstate road trip...
As always, there are a range of personalisation and style options available, plus Ascari Blue and Grenadine Red replace Ultra Blue and Tango Red in the RS6 colour palette.
Key details | 2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance |
Price | From $241,500 plus on-road costs |
Colour of test car | Ascari Blue metallic |
Options | RS design package – $2900 Matt grey exterior styling package – $700 Inlays in carbon twill with blue thread – $2,100 |
Price as tested | $247,200 plus on-road costs |
How fast is the Audi RS6 Performance?
The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 TFSI engine's improved outputs come thanks to an increase in boost pressure from 2.4 to 2.6 bar. The peak power output of 463kW is still attained at 6000rpm, but the increased torque of 850Nm kicks in a little later than the previous iteration, offering the full whack from 2300rpm rather than 2050rpm.
This shaves 0.2 seconds from the car's claimed 0-100km/h time, which is now just 3.4 seconds.
There is a 48-volt mild-hybrid system used to help smooth the idle stop system back into action, and there's a cylinder deactivation system to help with fuel consumption on a cruising cycle.
That said, the claimed fuel use is 11.9L/100km on a combined driving program, up slightly from 11.8L/100km in the pre-update car.
None of this was tested during our drive program though, as we used the Phillip Island circuit to better understand the top-end of the RS6's performance capability.
2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance | |
Seats | Five |
Boot volume | 548L |
Length | 4995mm |
Width | 1951mm |
Height | 1513mm |
Wheelbase | 2929mm |
What's the point of the hybrid system in the Audi RS6 Performance?
The Audi RS6 uses a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that uses power stored in a small lithium-ion battery under the boot floor to drive the idle-stop system's starter generator as well as operate incidental facilities like the radio and airconditioning when the car is stopped in traffic and the engine is off. The system will also allow the engine to switch off or deactivate four of its eight cylinders in a cruising mode.
The battery is charged by the car's engine when the car is in motion, but the car cannot be driven on battery power, nor does the mild-hybrid system drive any dynamic suspension elements (as it does with the active anti-sway bars in the SQ7 SUV).
What's the Audi RS6 Performance like to drive?
The RS6 Performance, when left to run free in the 'good paddock' that is the Phillip Island Circuit, is like an animal released from captivity.
Point. Squeeze. Warp. Smile. Repeat.
Immense power from the twin-turbo V8 enables you to explode out of a corner, where the dynamic Quattro all-wheel-drive system and rear-axle steering setup make the car predictable and maneuverable enough to set up for the next one.
It is a tremendously capable car, in anyone's hands, especially in this environment.
Grip is as formidable as power, and it's always hugely impressive to note just how much pace the big wagon can hold through the Island's fast and technical sections.
But where it may be like an animal running free, it's also a heavy animal and with that come a few trade-offs.
The Audi tips in at 2150kg without a full load of passengers, fuel or luggage and while we're only running one-up around the track, pushing the RS6 even a little bit keenly on public roads will start to get the laws of physics sitting up and paying attention.
Large 419mm front and 370mm rear steel brake rotors do an excellent job of washing off speed in a controlled environment, but with more weight on board, and with that delicious engine, it does become incumbent on the driver to remember that real roads don't always have runoff. Note too that the $19,500 carbon-ceramic brake option is no longer listed as an option for the RS6 Performance.
Further, the new Continental Sport Contact 7 tyres work well, but do give their lives for your thrills. A few hot laps under our big blue wagon saw plenty of life stripped away from the rubber that, at approximately $900 a corner, won't last long when driven like this.
Make no mistake, these are just sensible thoughts given to what is a non-sensical car on a sensational circuit.
The long-roof Audi can keep up and intimidate plenty of seasoned sports and supercars in an environment like this. A full-tilt, brute-force fighter that punches hard in, through and out of any bend, corner, curve, chicane or straightaway in this blissful performance world, and that looks, sounds and feels good while doing it.
The thing is, how long can this last?
You can buy an electric MG hatchback for $60k that brings 320kW and a sub-4-second 0-100km/h time to the table. Sure, the performance doesn't quite match the RS6, but neither does the price. But what happens when someone works out a way to usurp the RS6's wagon-boss power-crown with say, a 478kW family-size five-door electro-hatch, for less than half the price.
Double down a little further and work out just how often you can deploy your cruise missile estate in full attack mode and then think about how much of the RS6's aspirational kudos is due to what it can do rather than what you will do?
Key details | 2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance |
Engine | 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol |
Power | 463kW @ 6000rpm |
Torque | 850Nm @ 2300–4500rpm |
Drive type | All-wheel drive |
Transmission | 8-speed torque-converter automatic |
Power-to-weight ratio | 215.4kW/t |
Weight (kerb) | 2150kg |
Turning circle | 12.1m |
Emotionally, I'm a huge fan of this car, in every way.
From the concept to the look to the pulse-racing performance, the 2024 Audi RS6 Avant Performance is still the family-car pinup of choice. That it exists is satisfying enough for most, offering a top-tier lotto-win purchase that won't change how you live your life, only making it all faster and louder.
The thing is, I can't live solely on emotion, and when pragmatism kicks in, I do wonder just how much longer we'll get to trade lanes with what is fundamentally a dinosaur of the new motoring age.
The RS6 delivers a body style few are buying, with a drivetrain few are supporting, at a price point few can indulge.
It's an evolved species on the edge of extinction, and while that makes the next phase of Audi's wagonista love affair all the more exciting to be a part of, in its current form the twin-turbo V8 RS6 Avant is destined to be one for the history books, most likely sadly, sooner rather than later.
The good news is, Audi is developing an RS6 E-Tron so even if the rumbling V8 hits retirement, the age of the megawagon should continue.