British car magazine EVO has tested two of the most desirable Audi’s of our time, the RS6 Avant and the R8 to find out which is the fastest; the 426kW V10-powered family orientated estate or the 309kW mid-engined supercar. Officially, the German automaker claims that both cars post identical zero to 100km/h and zero to 200km/h times of 4.6sec and 14.9sec respectively, but let’s see what the GPS receivers of the VBOX had to say about that.
In terms of sprint times, the R8 is faster than the RS6 Avant up to 145km/h as it needs 4.1sec to go from zero to 100km/h and 8.0sec to 145km/h; while the RS6 Avant stopped the clock at 4.3 and 8.3sec respectively. From 145km/h and above, the RS6 takes the lead sprinting from zero to 193 km/h in 13.8 seconds and to 241km/h in 23.0 seconds (R8: 14.6 and 25.0 seconds respectively). The two cars manage to achieve the same time of 12.7 seconds in the quarter mile sprint.
However, the R8 proves to be the ‘king’ of in-gear times crushing the RS6 Avant: 80km/h to 110km/h in fourth takes 3.4 seconds -0.3 seconds less than the RS6, while 180km/h to 210km/h in sixth gear, 7.2 seconds or a whopping 2.6 seconds faster than the Avant. Same goes for stopping power as the R8 came to a standstill from 160 km/h in 4.1 seconds and 88.3 meters compared to the RS6 Avant’s 4.3 seconds and 91.2 meters.
EVO also tested the two range-topping Audis on the Bedford Autodrome race track. Once again, the R8 proved to be faster with a lap time of 1:26.5, or 1.4 seconds less than the RS6 Avant.
So overall, it’s safe to say that the R8 is the quickest – and apparently the more rewarding from a driver’s point of view. But, before you make any judgments, just hold on a minute and think about this; we’re talking about a luxurious, full size station wagon that combines supercar-like performance and enough space to haul your entire family and a fortnight’s worth of luggage…
