PHWOAR WAGON

IMPARTIALITY BE BLOWED… ROBBO RECKONS THE 2020 AUDI RS6 AVANT IS THE CAR HE COULD BE BURIED WITH

- TIM ROBSON

THE AUDI RS6 AVANT SITS, OR more accurately squats in the small Hunter Valley town of Denham, its cartoonishly huge rims already shaded with the efforts of numerous hard stops. Its paint is battle scarred with the internal bits of a thousand insects. Its barely existent tyre sidewalls are caked in that curious ochre of dust and road grime. And yet, I am head over heels in love.

My first glimpse of Audi’s brand new uber wagon was in an abandoned Munich railway shed, polished to within an inch of its life and detailed to complete excess by its proud engineering team. But, here on a greying day in rural New South Wales, battle-grimed and primed for more, I don’t think I could love a car anymore than I love the RS Avant at this moment.

I’m a modest man. My idea of being rich is to be able to use a brand new razor cartridge every time I shave. I’ve also never really gotten in with the notion of having a garage full of cars for various occasions. Hey, sure, if the world’s biggest lottery ball dropped on my yard, I’d be as flush with hot metal for every day of the week as any of you would be.

But if I found a small pocket of lithium in my backyard, and I was able to buy just one car, the RS6 Avant has always been quite near the top of the list.

Let’s check off its basics in terms of desirability. Number one: just look at the damn thing. The design language with which it’s been imbued wraps up so many elements, yet uses so few. It looks like a homologation special, yet can hold its own in the driveway of any fancy winery. It’s got muscles for days, and yet there’s also elegance and a subtlety to its finer detail.