Yahoo Sports An Interview With the Master of the Audi RS 6 Avant
What is it about a balls-out wagon? They're irresistible to folks like us, apex junkies who need a weapon for switchbacks but also have to drop the kids off at karate. It's that Goldilocks versatility that draws us in, but also some unique charm; the Uberwagon's shape and athleticism are so incongruous — a workaday roofline with supercar speed — the absurdity stokes our desire. If you heard about a pack mule winning Dancing With The Stars, you'd tune in with joy, right?
Of course, drawing parallels between Audi's line of bonkers-fast Avants and hoofed conveyance isn't the point here. Rather, the Four Rings gathered every generation of its RS 6 wagon (plus a sedan!) and framed them against a Rocky Mountain backdrop near Banff, Alberta, Canada. They invited out a few North American outlets to drive every single one, back to back, including the early forbidden fruit we Americans never got to sample.
Unfortunately, I can't offer a peak outside the edges of the envelope of each RS 6, no heroic tales of Quattro oversteer through Banff's many alpine hairpins. Most of these RS 6s are literal museum pieces at this point, and Audi needed them all back in one singular piece. So the pace was kept low as I dutifully rotated through each version of the RS 6, one breathtaking mountain peak after another marching through the windshield.
Even at legal speeds, throughlines emerged between the generations, namely a focus on smooth-yet-explosive torque delivery down low, a feeling of quiet solidity, and a balance of straight-line performance, comfort, and practicality that remain unmatched by vehicles with fewer than five doors, eight cylinders, and two turbos. Every RS 6 Avant delivers on that same promise of insanity with a practical bent, but each generation predictably extends the limits of its comfort and all-out performance. Progress marches on, that's no surprise, but our affection for every subsequent RS 6 also grows.
While we didn't do any driving at the wagons' limits, the exercise did provide ample time with Stephan Reil, former head of Quattro GmbH, which then became Audi Sport, Audi's high-performance division. Reil ran the show for decades, overseeing all of that progress across the RS 6 model line (among other fast Audis). Since 2020, he's worked as Head of Research & Development at AUDI AG in Neckarsulm. During his time running Audi's sporty subsidiaries, Reil produced a resume of performance cars that'd make him the envy of any automotive engineer (R8 V-10! RS 4! TT-RS!). Chatting with him was an honor.
I spent more than a few hours shoulder-to-shoulder with Reil, whether riding in his old company car (a pristine C6 RS 6 sedan), or at the dinner table. He was full of stories and perspectives about what makes the Audi RS models so special in general and the RS 6 Avant so desirable specifically.
On the morning of our final day in Banff, I was able to recount some of the conversations Reil and I had the previous day and nights. We lined up the newest RS 6 next to Reil's old company car, the frankly batshit C6 RS 6 sedan, which rolled out of the factory with a 5.0-liter smooth-as-glass twin-turbo V-10 lumped ahead of the front axle. The memories came rolling back out as Reil lead me around the car.
(Side note: Consider that at the time, Audi was producing three unique V-10s across its model range, and that Reil was the mastermind behind at least two of them. We endorse this exact brand of insanity, and I'll write up another story about how the C6 RS 6 was a moonshot in its own right.)
What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation, with Reil reflecting on his many years at Quattro and Audi Sport, two of his best cars resplendent before us, awash in the morning light. It felt like a deeply special retrospective for Reil, which in turn felt deeply special to share with you, the Road & Track reader.
If you're on this site, you probably dream of (or own) fast wagons like the RS 6. This is a rare conversation with a master of the form.
R&T: How does it feel standing next to all these cars, taking them all in, having twenty years of RS 6s gathered in one place?
Stephan Reil: The whole event is of course very emotional for me, because we are driving four generations of RS 6. And that represents a huge part of my business career. I had responsibility for all those cars.
R&T: You must be very proud. I want to hone in on this car in particular, the C6-generation RS 6 sedan. You told me this was your actual company car back in the day?
Reil: Of course this car is even more emotional for me, because it was my company car in 2010 [Ed note: Reil of course developed the car as well]. I didn't know that the car still existed because, after you use them, you give the car back to Audi AG and they sell it. It disappears.
Until Tuesday last week when I saw it. Of course, I immediately recognized it because of the special exterior painting in Nimbus gray, and of course, that was a special request color. There's maybe only two or three painted in that color and then it has the individualized interior. Yeah. I knew, well, this is my car from 12 years ago.
R&T: Tell me about the development of this car, how did you decide to cram a V-10 and two turbos into a sedan and wagon? That's insane, right? Somebody must have told you 'no' along the way?
Reil: There's a headwind with every project, you know?
R&T: Sure.
Reil: At that time, the S6 model was 10-cylinder naturally aspirated car with redline at 6,300- 6,400 rpm. So we had two possibilities. We could have gone for a high-revving V-10 that would give us the significant power and distance to the S model. But we thought a naturally aspirated high-revving V-10 is not the right concept for a business limousine. Therefore we went for, a completely new V-10 to turbo.
R&T: So you developed a whole new V-10 instead of just turbocharging the old one?
Reil: It gave us not only the significant power to distance the S6 from the RS6. But thanks to the turbo technology, we also had about 50 percent more torque. Yeah. So the torque peak at this engine is at 1500. Yeah. And then it stays just stable till 5,000 something. There's no better car to eat miles on the highway.
R&T: You talk a lot about that, the technology in service of character. I guess that's the amazing part, that you developed a new V-10 because it suited the car's character, rather than pursuing a cheaper option. A bespoke turbo V-10 in that engine bay must've been a wild development ride.
Reil: This is the most packed engine compartment in a passenger car I've seen. And, uh, and of course we needed, uh, well, that was a lot of work for the engineers.
R&T: I could only imagine...
Reil: We don't spend money like that anymore [laughs].
R&T: But you're still making fabulous cars like this new RS 6 Avant, and so much of that comes down to character, to intent. These wagons all serve as some expression of an idea, but in your own words, what does it mean to be an Audi RS model?
Reil: Well, we have a clear philosophy on how an RS model should behave, how it should perform, and how it should be on the track and in daily driving. Because an RS model is a daily sports car. Our philosophy when you go on a track is the car has to give the driver confidence.
R&T: You're talking about understeer?
Reil: Mm-hmm. When the car gets to the limit in every RS model, even in the R8, we will have an initial understeer because that is easy to control and we do not have just a hundred percent professional drivers behind the wheel. Therefore, if you are too fast and you get that initial understeer, the natural reaction is to lift off.
R&T: And a little bit of understeer saves your butt.
Reil: Yeah. And that's just the right correction. Because then your additional weight to the front that adds grip and the car will get out of the understeer and will corner. This is not the fastest application. Others want to have a car that at the edge is going to oversteer. But that is of course more work when you get the car to the limit, and that's not where the customer really feels confidence.
R&T: And that ties into something you said to me in the car, that an RS should be approachable and fun. That if a car isn't fun, it's not worth a shit. I thought that was a great sentiment, especially since so many automakers are focused on the numbers more than the fun factor.
Reil: [laughs] We are happy to give away a couple tenths of possible lap time just for driveability and for a car that gives confidence. And then the customer will have more fun.
R&T: I like that approach; a sports car as a partner, instead of a stallion to be tamed. What's the point of celebrating this anniversary in 2022, now that you're head of R&D at Audi and our electric future is looming? Aren't these wagons just dinosaurs now?
Reil: Well it shows the history of RS 6, which along with the RS 4, are the two main pillars of Quattro GmbH or Audi sport. And you really can see the development of technology here in the cars.
R&T: So it's a way to tell customers and automakers, ahead of a time when everything will be electric and all-wheel drive, "hey, we've been making super fast all-wheel drive missiles longer than anyone else, and doing a better job at it too?"
Reil: Of course, of course. What all these cars have in common, they have a high power output and they're all-wheel drive. And during the generations, the all-wheel drive improved. The vehicles became more efficient. But they all behave like an Audi RS. We will keep that behavior in a fully electric car. Sure. Because we have all the experience in the past that we will transfer to fully electric cars.
R&T: Well I guess I don't remember Tesla's all-wheel-drive system winning at Monte Carlo. Does that mean we should we expect an electric RS 6 Avant in the future?
Reil: Now that would be something interesting, yeah?
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