Audi RS6 twin turbocharged, intercooled 4.2 DOHC 40 valves (5 per cylinder) 4wd

Hate to part with perhaps the greatest car I've ever owned. Damn it's fun and fast and sexy. But I'm getting a Tesla P85D and there's too much overlap with this. So. sadly. it's going. I will miss it. Drives like a new car. Solid. beautiful. Check out the BBS wheels and black-out grill. Had a new water pump put in it late last year and replaced the timing chain while we were at it. New rear brakes. New front brakes discs and pads around 20k ago. ABS unit replaced. From Car and DriverFrom Car and Driver:To use the new 450-hp Audi RS 6 as your grocery-getting daily driver is to use a broadsword as a butter knife. Looking very much like your average Audi A6. the RS 6 is glorious overkill. Audi claims this 4050-pound all-wheel-drive sedan--third in a line of RS hot-rod Audis and the first to be sold in the U. S. --sprints to 60 mph in 4. 6 seconds. That's faster than the Mercedes E55 AMG by almost a second and fractionally faster than the manual-transmission BMW M5. The Audi easily reached an indicated 174 mph on the unlimited portion of the A92 autobahn near Munich. And so easily and with such supernatural stability does it maintain that speed that we found ourselves noodling with the navigation system while our co-driver bumped against the speed limiter. The limiter is set at 155 mph for all markets. so our test car had either a lazy limiter or an optimistic speedometer. Either way. 155 mph or 174 mph. it doesn't really matter. Germany is the only place we know where one can fully exploit this car's greatest trick--providing great speed along with great composure. What we have here is a grand German game of wonderfully irrational one-upmanship. Mercedes offers 349 horsepower in the E55 AMG? BMW has 394 horses in the M5? Then Audi will produce 450. In the engine room of the RS is a hot version of the 4. 2-liter. five-valve DOHC V-8 that powers the A8 and the upper-level A6. It has been worked over by Quattro GmbH. "Quattro" is usually a reference to Audi's all-wheel-drive system. but here it applies to a performance arm of the company that is to compete with the M group at BMW and Mercedes' AMG. Two turbochargers have been bolted to the 4. 2-liter engine. which in stock guise makes between 300 and 360 horsepower. depending on application. They blow a maximum of 11. 6 psi of pressure and come with twin air-to-air intercoolers. The cylinder heads are modified for better airflow and cooling. The two exhaust valves per cylinder are sodium-filled to keep them cool. Freer-flowing intake and exhaust result in 415 pound-feet of torque delivered over a flat plateau between 1950 and 5600 rpm to go with the 450 horses. Its delivery is fluid and almost electric in its smoothness. And that performance comes while routing the power through a five-speed automatic transmission. the only gearbox available. Audi says there isn't a manual gearbox under parent VW's corporate umbrella that can handle this much power. So the RS 6 uses the tranny from the 414-hp A8 W-12 (a car not sold in the U. S. ). With this much torque and the quick shifts in either standard or sport mode. we didn't mind giving our clutch-pedal leg a rest. Should you want to choose your own gears. Audi provides shift paddles behind the steering wheel. When you need to slow the car more quickly than a downshift would accomplish--which you often will in this beast--Audi has you covered. Massive eight-piston Brembo calipers clamp down on 14. 4-inch rotors in front. and single-piston calipers with 13. 2-inch rotors handle the braking in back. Audi has upped the braking-technology ante as well. In place of a traditional rotor is a friction ring (the circular part where the pads contact) connected to an aluminum hub by 14 short pins. The pins allow the friction ring to move one millimeter either outboard or inboard. Audi says this allows the friction ring to stay in perfect alignment with the pad surface under extreme conditions. The arrangement also allows for better cooling and less unsprung weight. With full pressure on the brake pedal. the force of deceleration is nothing short of staggering. although the brakes on our prototype had a softer brake-pedal action than we'd like. We'll have to test a production car before we pass judgment on feel. The RS 6's suspension is equally trick. The car comes standard with a semiactive suspension system called Dynamic Ride Control (DRC). Unlike Mercedes' electronically controlled ABC pitch-and-roll-control active suspension. DRC is strictly mechanical--hydraulic lines that connect diagonally opposed single-tube shocks through a central reservoir and valve. Shock fluid can move around the car to selectively change the damping characteristics of the various corners. For instance. in an aggressive cornering maneuver. as hydraulic pressure in the shocks on the inside of the corner is reduced. hydraulic fluid and pressure move to the diagonal outside shocks. stiffening them to reduce roll. Yamaha developed the system for its racing motorcycles. The result is a reasonably soft ride (at least over well-maintained roads in Germany) and generally good body control for a two-ton sedan. Audi also stiffened the shocks by 40 percent and the springs by 30 percent. compared with the A6 4. 2 model. The entire suspension of the RS 6 is made of aluminum. including the front and rear subframes. To this Audi adds 18-inch aluminum wheels wearing 255/40ZR-18 Pirelli P Zero Rosso tires at all four corners. The wheels and tires are the visual clues that this A6 is something special. Otherwise. the RS 6 has restrained styling. There's a new front fascia incorporating intakes for the intercoolers. a new rear fascia to incorporate the large twin exhaust tips. a small rear spoiler to reduce aerodynamic lift at high speeds. and matte aluminum trim. The interior is near-standard Audi. but with the addition of special wood trim or carbon fiber as a no-cost option and perforated leather on the steering wheel and shift knob. Everything is standard but the navigation system and the rear side airbags. Standard equipment. however. will not be what motivates buyers to step up to the estimated price (Audi officially says only that it will be "less than $85. 00"). That estimate would make the RS 6 almost $10. 00 more expensive than a BMW M5 or Mercedes E55 AMG. With only 860 RS 6 sedans destined for delivery to the U. S. starting next year. Audi believes there are plenty of people who will happily pay that much for massive overkill and grand one-upmanship. From Jalopnik. Here's a fun game: can you name the car that. in 2003. offered a combination of power. handling and technology so potent it was able to obliterate the BMW M5. the Jaguar S-Type R. and the Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG? You might be forgiven if you don't remember the 2003 Audi RS6 right away. After all. we Americans only got it for a single model year. and we only got around 1. 00 of them. (If you think that's unfair. consider that our neighbor to the north only got 90 in 2004. ) While the RS6 may have been in limited supply. there was nothing limited about its performance. That's why it's the next great future classic. To say that the RS6 was simply a hotted-up variant of the A6 sedan is to completely sell it short. Imported here starting in 2002 as 2003 model. the car was developed by Quattro GmbH. Audi's performance subsidiary. the same set of mad scientists who birthed the RS2 wagon with help from Porsche and other insanemobiles for speed-loving German oligarchs. "RS" stands Renn Sport. or "racing sport" in English. and they meant it here. The RS6 packed a 4. 2-liter DOHC V8 good for a whopping 450 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque. That's an fabulous number today. But 10 years ago? 450 horses made the RS6 like some kind of Teutonic planet-destroying spaceship. a kind of all-wheel-drive Death Star. but better looking. At the time. it was the fastest and most powerful car Audi had ever built. (An Avant wagon version was offered in Europe; we did not get it. )The secret to all that power is that Quattro bolted two turbochargers and two intercoolers to the already potent V8 that saw duty a variety of other Audis. This boosted V8 was only ever used on the RS6. making it even more special. The acceleration it offered was nothing short of amazing by 2003 standards or modern ones. The RS6. according to Car and Driver. could rocket from zero to 60 mph in 4. 6 seconds. which was supercar territory in its day. That made it a few tenths faster than the M5 and a full second faster than the 2002 E55 AMG. Of course. a redesigned E-Class brought a new E55 in 2003. one with 469 horsepower. That car was actually a bit faster than Audi's beast. but according to a C&D comparison test. it still wasn't good enough. The RS6 was the whole enchilada. the magazine said: Flat cornering. plus Super Glue adhesion. plus beautifully weighted steering. plus abundant power. plus monster brakes—the front calipers grip with eight pistons—make the RS 6 a supremely composed performer at high speeds. It inspires confidence that goes beyond its rivals'—an endearing trait in a car in this performance category. Of course. this is an Audi. so plenty of toys were on tap. There was the five-speed Tiptronic gearbox with paddle shifters. implemented because Audi lacked a manual transmission that could handle so much power. It also debuted Audi's Dynamic Ride Control. a system that used hydraulics to control body roll. squat and dive. It kept the car remarkably flat during hard cornering. and coupled with Quattro all-wheel-drive. the car was a very potent handler in spite of its beefy 4. 00 pound curb weight. Massive Brembos helped it stop. too. It still looks great too. The design may not be as evolved as Audi's current stable of models. but it still looks bold and classy but also understated today. The RS6. and the A6. have aged rather well in that department. Reviews from back were glowing and effusive. Automobile said is the power is "so effortless. so jetlike. that you quickly find yourself hurled into a realm where no one can hear you scream. "Road & Track said it was like "driving a DTM car on the street. " Robert Farago of TTAC said "It's quick. quicker. oh-my-God-we're-all-going-to-die-quick!" Bascially. the RS6 is fast. Have you picked up on that yet?And like that — like a vengeful ghost come back to wreak havoc on its enemies in life — the RS6 was gone. The über-Audi was around just for 2003 as a limited production special. After the U. S. ran out of our allotment. they were never seen again. Don't get me wrong. there have been other RS6-es; the next generation famously had a twin-turbo V10. But they've never made it to our shores. In 2003. the RS6 came. it saw. it conquered. and then it peaced out. That's why it's a future classic. in my humble opinion. The E39 M5 and E55 AMG are both amazing machines. and probably classics too on their own. but this car is even more special because it's so rare and so limited. M5s have come and go since then in America. but this is the only RS6. Downsides? There are some. It's an Audi. so obviously. it has the potential to be a maintenance nightmare. The trick DRC system was known to be problematic. Also. it only ever had the Tiptronic gearbox. so sport sedan fans who like to shift their own gears will have to look elsewhere. And Quattro is extremely competent. but it tends to err on the side of understeer. But this is an amazing car. and one that's not as well-recognized as it should be. A search on Cars. com shows that they go for anywhere between $15. 00 and $40. 00 depending on mileage. which is an amazing cut from their original $85. 00 price tag. We should hope we get to see the RS6 in the land of the free and the home of the brave once again someday. Until then. this future classic will have to tide us over.