Audi RS6 v S6 Dragparison Is the RS6 worth $60,000 extra Drag race & sound tests
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00G'day, I'm Paul. Behind me are two red cars. One is a fire-breathing V8.
00:04It is an estate, a station wagon, a combi, whatever you call it, wherever you're from.
00:09It creates a reason to never ever ever ever buy an SUV ever again.
00:13It's called the Audi RS6. The other one will save you
00:17$66,000 but still put a big smile on your face because it cracks and pops on upshifts. That is the Audi S6.
00:23Welcome to the car expert
00:25drag parison. Today we're going to compare these two side-by-side and then do some performance testing.
00:30If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review
00:32you can use the time codes up on the screen there or if you're on YouTube just use the chapters below. If you haven't done
00:37so already hit subscribe, press the bell icon because that's going to tell you every single time we drive two very red cars.
00:43Righto, let's start off by talking differences and we'll go top-down and we'll kick off with the engine.
00:48So 4.0-litre twin turbocharged V8 441 kilowatts of power,
00:53800 newton meters of torque. It's four kilowatts down on the previous gen RS6, but importantly it has 100 newton meters more torque.
01:00Over here, twin turbocharged V6. It's a 2.9 litre,
01:04331 kilowatts of power, 600 newton meters of torque. Both of these have a 48-volt mild hybrid system.
01:10Whereas this one powers some of the auxiliary stuff when it's off. This one actually feeds the turbocharger down low.
01:16So you get a torque boost as the turbochargers are waiting to accept those exhaust gases.
01:20Then the bonnets are different as well. This actually shares a lot of parts with the A7.
01:24So you can see here, you've got an extra set of bumpy things there compared to this,
01:28which is all nice and flat. And then as you step down a little bit further, have a look at these headlight differences.
01:33This is the standard A6 S6 headlight.
01:35This is the headlight from the A7 and while they're both matrix LED,
01:40this one has a set of cool-looking lasers in it and you can tell because of that blue thing in there. Now,
01:45we actually did a headlight comparison and if you want to watch it, you can click up here.
01:48We take you through all the differences of the different types of headlights you can buy on the market today.
01:52Now, what about the rest of the styling changes? Well, have a look up here.
01:55It's like a little letter box here, so you can post letters if you want.
01:58I don't actually know what that does. It'd be nice if it was exclusive to RS models,
02:01but you can get that on the A1 as well. You can see here on the S6,
02:04it doesn't actually have that. Beneath that, you have this kind of 3D printed looking grille.
02:09It looks really nice and aggressive. This car has the optional black package and also the carbon package.
02:14If you jump over here to the S,
02:15it's got a bit more chrome highlight there to make it look a little more executive rather than, you know, scary.
02:22If you then jump back here, this is where air comes into the engine.
02:26There's big radiators on each side of the RS6. There are radiators on either side of the S6 as well,
02:31but you can see they're partly blocked off.
02:33This just wants to suck in as much air as it can because it has a top speed of 305 kilometres an hour,
02:39which is clinically insane. Here's the bit I love the most though.
02:42You're going to know that this is an RS6 and not a standard A6 because of this.
02:47It is 40 millimetres wider on each side compared to the standard A6.
02:51And you can clearly see here with the S6, you have a little bit of a flare there.
02:55But when you come over to the RS6, it's almost like there's another postcode in here.
02:59It is huge. And then if you look down the back of the car, the rear wheels look like they stick outside like a Julie.
03:05Now, let's talk brakes and tyres. So 255 millimetre wide tyres on the S6,
03:11to 85 millimetre wide on the RS6. But the brakes,
03:15these are insane. This is the optional carbon ceramic brake package.
03:19This is the equal biggest brake on a production car ever.
03:23So you get 400 mil rotors and steel brakes on the S6 as standard.
03:26But this optional package here on the RS6 measures 440 millimetres and it has a 10-piston caliper.
03:33I would actually just love to have one of those rotors on my desk or something like that.
03:37I think that'd be pretty cool.
03:38It's a 34 kilogram weight saving for the RS6 when you tick that box.
03:4222-inch alloy wheels here on the RS6 compared to 21s on the S6.
03:45And in terms of ride height, both of these cars sit 20 mil lower than their respective non-S or RS versions.
03:51But with the optional Sport Suspension Plus package on the RS6, it sits an additional 4 millimetres lower.
03:56So it has some proper stance. Righto, now let's look at the sides of these cars.
04:00You can see here, you've got some really cool side skirts again, because this has the carbon package.
04:04It has carbon side skirts here. They just sort of tuck in fairly normally.
04:08And I know the question that's burning in all your minds.
04:10Why do we not have an S6 wagon to go up against the RS6 wagon?
04:14Well, long story short, RS6 is only available as a wagon globally.
04:18S6 is available as a sedan and as a wagon and also as a yucky diesel.
04:22Australia gets the petrol version. It doesn't get the wagon version though.
04:26So that's why this combination exists. Moving over to here, all S cars get quad exhaust pipes.
04:31Which is why you can see four there. And it also gets a fairly neat looking rear end compared to the RS,
04:36which has a very sculpted and well-designed diffuser sitting there.
04:40And also, these are the biggest exhausts on an RS car to date.
04:45And of course, all RS cars get dual outlets instead of the four outlets that the S does.
04:49But Audi didn't tell us how big their biggest exhaust to date is.
04:53So we have measuring tape. You want to see how big that is? 200 millimetres. That is absolutely mammoth.
04:59All right, let's do a sound comparison. We'll kick off with the S6. I have my colleague Scott in the car.
05:05Switch it on, Scotty. Give it a rev in dynamic.
05:18Sounds okay.
05:20It's kind of got like an electronic limiter there of some sort.
05:22And this is what it sounds like when the car is moving.
05:30Time for the big daddy. Now, the last generation of RS6 sounded absolutely incredible.
05:36I hope this sounds just as good. We're going to switch it on.
05:39These cars have been both warmed up, by the way. Go for it, Scotty.
05:50That is so good. It's such a deep burbly sound.
05:54It does have an electronic soft limiter, but you can override it by switching from drive into neutral. And this is what it sounds like.
06:07And finally, while it's on the move, this is how meaty it sounds.
06:10Okay, so first up is the S6. Keep in mind, this and the RS6 don't have dual clutches.
06:14So when we do launch control, this isn't going to be sitting there bouncing off the limiter.
06:18It's just a standard torque converter. What I'll do here first is just put this into dynamic mode,
06:23which is the sporty setting, and then I'll just stand on the throttle.
06:26I'm not going to load it up, just so we're getting some nice power.
06:28I'll just put it in dynamic, and then I'll just put it into sport mode.
06:31I'll just put it in sport, and then I'll just put it into dynamic.
06:34I'll just put it in dynamic, and then I'll just pull the throttle.
06:37sporty setting, and then I'll just stand on the throttle, I'm not going to load it up,
06:40just so we can see what our baseline is.
06:42So here we go, everything's set up.
06:44Oh, it pins you back nicely, okay, a little bark from the exhaust, bang and there's 100.
06:54Okay, so 5.1 seconds.
06:56Now the official time is four and a half seconds, and I noticed that when I stepped on the throttle,
07:01you can hear like a little whistling sound.
07:07That is that electric compressor charging the engine.
07:10What it does is it develops all of this oxygen that sits in between the intercooler and the
07:15turbocharger, and while the engine is building up exhaust pressure to spin that turbocharger,
07:20this is actually feeding it air, so it pre-charges it, and at low ends of the rev band, gives
07:24you that turbo boost much quicker.
07:26So this time around, it is launch control.
07:28A little bit of information for you as well, we don't count one foot roll out here, so
07:32this is literally the time it takes to get from standstill to 100 kilometres now, we're
07:36not deducting anything, and then on top of that, this is an unprepped surface, so there
07:41is a little bit of latitude here for wheel slips.
07:43So to engage launch control, you put it into dynamic mode, I'm going to press the stability
07:47control button once, it puts it into ESC sport, then all I'm going to do is hold the brake
07:51as hard as I can, hold the throttle as hard as I can, it comes up saying that launch control
07:55is active, then I simply let go of the brake, we shoot forward, and hopefully we get that
07:59magical time of four and a half seconds, here we go, so there it is there, launch control,
08:09that's much better, that is quick, wheel slip off the line, there's 100, holy moly, 4.4
08:16seconds, that is impressive, so we bet the claim there, even with wheel slip off the
08:20line, that is bloody good.
08:23Okay, next up, RS6, now we're going to do a few different tests here, the first one
08:27is going to be comfort mode, launch control off, and stop start running, so when I roll
08:32to a stop here, the car's going to switch off, and all I'm going to do is just pound
08:36on the throttle, this is simulating you turning up at the lights and someone in an M5 pulling
08:41up next to you, so let's give this a shot, this is 0-100, alright, here we go.
08:53Starts off slow, but it eventually gets moving, so where do we get to, 4.6 seconds, so this
09:00proves my theory, you don't need a dual clutch, even with stop start, this thing is stupidly
09:06quick.
09:07Okay, so we're going to do this again now, stop start is off, we're still in comfort,
09:11and I'm just going to pound the throttle and we'll just see what happens, so we've come
09:15to a stop there, comfort mode, stop start off, here we go.
09:23Oh my God, it literally just pushes you back in the seat when the boost comes on, it is
09:33crazy.
09:34Okay, 4.6 seconds, again, same thing, so with stop start off and stop start on, this is
09:39pulling the exact same time, it shows you that 48 volt system is able to fire the car
09:45much quicker than a traditional stop start system that runs on a 12 volt, so that technology
09:50has its merits and it looks like it doesn't affect performance.
09:52Okay, at the moment we've all been waiting for, full attack mode, we're going to use
09:56launch control, so let me run you through how this works, we put it into dynamic or
10:01using the steering wheel buttons, RS2 is full attack mode and it automatically puts the
10:07stability control into ESP sport mode, which is going to give us that maximum thrust.
10:12There's also this cool RS monitor here, so this tells us when all of the car's components
10:16are warm, so currently that's all warm, so we should be getting the best possible time
10:20out of this.
10:21Foot hard on the brake, foot hard on the throttle, and then it should launch, that's all set
10:25up, that's all set up, here we go, so...
10:28Seriously lost for words, that was just squirming off the line there, it was like fish tailing
10:50down the line in like a four wheel drive burnout, that is seriously impressive, okay, what did
10:55we do there?
10:56Okay, so 3.7 seconds, the official time is 3.6, alright, let's line up for the quarter
11:03mile, I'm determined to match or beat the official time, right at the moment we've been
11:07waiting for, quarter mile drag race with the S6, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised
11:11with that, but I'm hoping this gives us a rocket ship launch out of the box.
11:16What is there to say, I've got this in all the sport settings, we're going to use launch
11:18control on both cars, and I have my colleague Scott in the other car, Scott, you good to
11:24roll?
11:25Let's do it.
11:27Okay, so I'm going to count him down and then we're going to punch it, so here we go, 3,
11:302, 1, go!
11:33Oh man, I wish I could swear, there's one 20, one 30, one 40, we have left him dead,
11:42one 60, 70, 80, 90, holy crap, this thing is missile quick off the line, what did we
11:51do there?
11:52Holy crap, 11.7 seconds, 193 kilometres an hour, that is bloody quick, Scott, how did
12:00you go with the quarter?
12:01That was 12.8 seconds at 177 kilometres an hour.
12:04There you go, so there's about a second difference between them, and what about your 0-100 time?
12:104.6 seconds.
12:11There you go, and we nailed 3.6, so we have hit that claim, that is impressive.
12:17Okay, so it's brake test time, we're both going to be doing 100 k's an hour and then
12:22we'll brake at the exact same time, alrighty, 3, 2, 1, brake.
12:29Oh man, that hurt my face, holy crap, that is brutal.
12:36Okay, so 2.6 seconds, 100 to 0, and 34.2 metres.
12:41Scott, can you give us your reading?
12:43That was 34.5 metres and 2.6 seconds.
12:46There you go, that's still pretty impressive there from the S6, even without big carbon
12:51ceramic brakes, and look, carbon ceramic brakes generally won't help you stop quicker, they're
12:55there for fade resistance, but it does show you that all the money you invest in the brakes
12:59is actually going to help you stop faster than the $60,000 cheaper car, but it also
13:03shows you that the brakes on that thing are mammoth as well.
13:05There you go, another drag, Paris and Dun & Dustin, I absolutely love making these for
13:09you guys, they are so much fun.
13:11I was really impressed with the S6, it is much faster than I thought it was going to
13:14be, but ultimately, let me know in the comments below, do you agree with me that there is
13:17literally no reason now you need to buy an SUV, because that does everything you need
13:21it to do.
13:22It is incredibly fast, it has a big boot, plenty of room in the second row, it just
13:26means you never have to own an SUV again, and I also thought it was going to pip the
13:30M8 competition that we had here recently, but just didn't quite get there.
13:34It is worth keeping in mind that this is the base model RS6, there will probably be an
13:38RS6 Performance coming, and I think that is where the Audi engineers are going to tune
13:42a little bit more out of that car, and make it even faster again.
13:45Now, if you did enjoy this video, I would love it if you could share it with your friends,
13:49hit the like button, follow it up with a subscribe, and press the bell icon, that will tell you
13:53every single time we do another car expert drag parison.
13:56But until next time, take it easy.