Saturday 17th November 2018

Audi RS6 Avant: Spotted

A stealthy 740hp, V10-powered Audi RS6 estate for a third of its original price? Yes please...

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As with a lot of things medicinal, your body can build up a tolerance to certain drugs and so be less affected by them. You could try something different or stop taking them altogether to reset your system, or, you could up the dosage. Take this Audi RS6, already rather potent in standard 580hp form, the previous owner decided to have it remapped to a borderline insane 740hp. Crikey.

Normally it is advisable to say that when you remap a vehicle, a manufacturer will get funny about it and tell you that it'll invalidate the vehicle's warranty - but since this 2008 example is well out of the original three-year cover period, why not unlock the full potential of the engine. To hell with being sensible.

When the RS6 came out many observed how accessible it made all that performance, promising a 0-62 mph time of 4.6 seconds. A 40:60-split quattro four-wheel drive system provides plenty of traction off the line, so it should still be able to take-off just as fast come rain or shine.

And this is perhaps the appeal of the RS6: all the go of a supercar with none of the impracticalities. The Avant version (like this one) adds an additional layer of practicality thanks to a big boot. To put it simply, it would take longer to load and unload a Billy bookcase into an RS6 than it would to drive it from the Ikea showroom to your home.

Are there any downsides? Well, it certainly won't be cheap to run, but what production car with such performance would be. No, it's the weight. At 2025kg, the RS6 is a bit of a porker and is really more of a blunt instrument than a back road hack. It'll cope with spirited driving well with stonking levels of grip from those 20-inch 275/35 tyres, but it won't have the delicacy of a contemporary M5 Touring - although the rarity, ruinous running costs and zippo-sized fuel tank of the BMW mean you'd have to be an ardent M5 fan to buy one.

No, if you want a fast estate car, an RS6 Avant is one of the best examples of its kind. More modern ones have gone to a downsized 4.0-litre V8, which is a great power unit, but it's not a V10, is it? Nab this one for £24,990 (over £50,000 off what it was ten years ago) and few other cars - past or present - will be able to deal with its brutal 740hp, nor its ability to plod across continents in comfort. Get the limiter removed, and you could see 200mph. Not bad for something that's the same price of a well-specified new Mazda 6 diesel.

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SPECIFICATION - AUDI RS6 V10

Engine: 5,204cc, V10, twin-turbo
Transmission: 6-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 580@6,250-6,700rpm (standard)
Torque (lb ft): 479@1,500-6,250rpm (standard)
MPG: 20.2
CO2: 333g/km
First registered: 2008
Recorded mileage: 76,000
Price new: £77,625
Yours for: £24,990

See the full ad here.

[sidesauce]

Tis a fearsome thing that - anyone buying and running that is far, far braver than me! That being said, knowing you're driving a car that has more power than a DBS Superleggera must feel pretty good...

I also like the way the engine looks, even with the shielding.

[AB]

Love it!

[big_rob_sydney]

I often wonder about the wisdom of adding bulk power to something heavy, compared to, say, medium power to something light.

I guess it depends on what kind of driving you really want to do, but I doubt I'd spend a lot of time exploring autobahn speeds, compared to the narrow back roads around Surrey. Perhaps the smaller, lighter car suits me personally better, so I kind of think this type of heavyweight blaster is wasted on me.

[Dr G]

Very hard to tell from the information provided but MOT history implies that someone has been staying on top of the work required. Most recent has a couple of easily remedied advisories but it appears it had THAT oil leak a couple of years ago and then it didn't. If that checks out OK (and coolant leaks), the brakes are good, and the suspension isn't too tired it may well be a good one.

A bad one however is ruinous. I wrote up a report for one recently that wanted something in the £10-12,000 are spending to bring up to scratch.

sidesauce said:

I also like the way the engine looks, even with the shielding.

The 'engine covers' really are just the two diddy bits you can see. Top of the inlet is styled to a point but it needs that flat top as it's pretty close to the bonnet. Otherwise you're looking at functional items. Cam covers just about peep through.

[Gecko1978]

I recall a ph thread on modified RS6 with the OP claiming 40k (I may be wrong) to fix engine after it went pop post a remap.

This is one of thoes cases where you should be the one to modify and know the risks rather than rely on someone else's judgements

[audidoody]

I can see it being a hoot booting it on motorway- joining slip roads, the scramble away from the toll booths on the drive to South of France and when being tailgated by a Renault Clio on the Autoroute de Soleil. Apart from that seems a bit pointless unless on an unrestricted autobahn. The dog sick in the back would be a problem as well.

[ZX10R NIN]

Good cars with epic performance but boy can these cars throw some bills. Check everything & check it again is my advice, saying that my mates MTM tuned one was epic 3 years of trouble free motoring but my other friend wasn't so lucky a coolant pipe issue opened a can of worms & (lots of pipes replaced which meant engine out then some preventative work etc) resulted in a 8.5k bill, he kept it a year & sold it he still smarts about it to this day.

[GTI16V]

740bhp you say?

[Arnold Cunningham]

IIRC (which maybe I don't), that was Ian H and he was running circa 900hp. A bit more than just a remap. In fact, that kind of jump up on power is pretty major and unlikely to be a reflection on any failings of the original car.

Gecko1978 said:

I recall a ph thread on modified RS6 with the OP claiming 40k (I may be wrong) to fix engine after it went pop post a remap.

This is one of thoes cases where you should be the one to modify and know the risks rather than rely on someone else's judgements

[sidesauce]

big_rob_sydney said:

I often wonder about the wisdom of adding bulk power to something heavy, compared to, say, medium power to something light

Well Mizuno-san's engineering wisdom goes against your wondering as weight never seemed to do the Nissan GT-R R35 any harm, hence it famously obliterated pretty much all of its peers when it first came out... Here he is explaining his philosophy here. No-one would say it's an particularly unreliable car to run, neither is it a mess when it comes to handling, despite its weight.

[406dogvan]

I work with someone who owned an S6 of this vintage - he owns and runs his own garage and he eventually sold it because he was sick of fixing it ;0

He bought it knowing it needed big work (inlet manifolds and some other big ticket maintenance items) which he did himself and that fine expected and fine (and quite pricey)

The problem was that there wasn't a week went-by when something didn't need fixing - usually requiring a pricey part (often Audi-only) - and he's the sort of person who likes everything to be working so...

When your car is in your workshop more than the customer ones - you know you're driving the wrong car I guess?

I prefer the previous gen RS6 - stupid fast but nowhere near as big/heavy - you won't see 740hp from one but you will be able to use what it's got...

[rtz62]

May I ask, without fear of being shot down in flames; is this car sales place anything to do with, is run by or was previously the pace that has a FB group dedicated to the bad experiences by customers?
I seem to think that the one I’m alluding to used to deal in lots of shonky Imprezas etc and was truly horrendous so I’m hoping this isn’t the same team or garage with a name change?

[banny650]

keighley trade centre motorhub but cheshire performance have nothing to with them. However cpc are also a shower of st

[dunnoreally]

Yes there's the M5 touring, but this money will also buy some very tasty E63 estates. Don't know how those compare handling-wise.

[Uggers]

These are the natural progression from my C5 RS6, but I just cannot warm to them for some reason. The Avant particularly looks massive and the arches didn't really have the flaring out of the previous version. Bit too similar to the regular models stylistically. The saloon looks better though.

The engine is a peach but pulling what felt like a lot of extra weight compared to mine, it didn't feel that much quicker until it started getting into silly speed territory. Perhaps why so many are remapped to 700+hp?

[Arnold Cunningham]

Yeah, I'm happy with my C5 too, FWIW.

Did a bit of work on it when I first got it and now it's sorted it just works.

I also like that the C5 generation is less plastic - the ali trim is real, not plastic, for example

[Arnold Cunningham]

Ah! Gripper1. 😁

[Niffty951]

That chap on the forum who's user name is '300bhp/ton' (or close to it) has a very fine point. Anything over that in my experience is 'an experience' and it's a surprisingly hard club to enter. At 360bhp/ton is doesn't matter to me how heavy the rs6 is. I imagine the engine makes it feel like it's made of paper when you put your foot down.

However, any daily cruiser that does less than 20mpg on a good day really starts to detract from the pleasure for me. Filling up my old m5 with £100 worth of octane and then starting it to see range 210miles appear with a 265mile journey to complete really used to grind!

[jp-sr71]

Niffty951 said:

That chap on the forum who's user name is '300bhp/ton' (or close to it) has a very fine point. Anything over that in my experience is 'an experience' and it's a surprisingly hard club to enter. At 360bhp/ton is doesn't matter to me how heavy the rs6 is. I imagine the engine makes it feel like it's made of paper when you put your foot down.

I've got one of these, Stage 2 mapped like this one.

Your last sentence is spot on.

Its ludicrous.

The kid in me likes pulling up behind Porsche Turbos on the motorway and......

[Harry Flashman]

I looked at these very carefully as they are great value for what they are, and frankly the wooden handlingis a bit irrelevant for my London/SE driving needs. And after looking at many, I decided that the potential for appalling bills just made it not worth it.

I also looked at the later RS6, and a lovely thing it is. But in the end I went for a CLS63 AMG in 2012 vintage. A whole lot more modern end entertaining than the V10 RS6, and a whole lot cheaper than the new V8 one. Much nicer inside and a far better noise than either, and 700bhp from the 5.5l V8 is easy. The whole package seems rather more reliable than the V10 RS6. Mine was £5k more than this example, and as Mercedes built them a bit shouty, you feel every one of its 560bhp.

Problems: my car looks nowhere near as cool as either RS6, and is a bit lairy in damp/wet conditions (rwd). Oh yes: and the gearbox is rubbish when attached to an LSD, frankly. My 1994 E320 potters more smoothly.

V10 RS6 is on the list, though - I mean, twin turbo V10? What were they thinking?! I'd want one that had been completely sorted out though. Engine out for a bunch of minor jobs? Scary.