Into the red

AUDI’S LATEST RS6 AMPS UP THE AGGRESSION AND BACKS IT UP WITH A MONSTER 441KW. TIME FOR A HIGH-SPEED HAUL TO THE HIGH COUNTRY

- ANDY ENRIGHT

THERE’S A MOMENT to savor on the road to Mount Buller. Ditch the Hume at the Flowerdale exit and head east 11km along this road to the Murchison Gap lookout. You’ll crest a rise, the vista opening to a stunning panorama of rolling green hills as the road tumbles down a scarp slope in a series of lazy hairpins. Known informally as the Broadford Bends, it’s a well-trodden roadtesting spot, the scarred guard rail bearing testament to those with a surfeit of ambition and a shortfall of skills.

An Audi RS6 would be mighty here. I can’t say for sure because I’m stuck behind a B-double that insists on driving at 120km/h along any vaguely straight piece of road and then slowing to a virtual crawl for corners. Unbroken white lines stymie any attempt to power the 441kW Audi past the truck on corner exit. I could sit, take a ten-minute break and continue on my way. Problem is, the RS6 isn’t that sort of car. Like Truman with the bomb, if you’ve got it, you’re going to want to use it.

This C8 version is the fourth generation RS6, and you can get up to speed with a brief history in the sidebar overleaf. Like all of the others, it’s built around a twin-turbocharged engine that drives all four wheels via a Tiptronic automatic gearbox, in this instance using a 4.0-liter V8 developing 441kW and 800Nm. This version is the first to feature a (very) mild hybrid drive system, but the RS6 hasn’t gone all Prius on you. Anything that can propel 2075kg of the wagon to 100km/h in 3.6 seconds is anything but meek.