I believe that both naturally aspirated engines and bi-turbos are being tested. Someone very, very senior at Audi says that they're getting 600 bhp with no problem.

This is Audi’s long-rumoured V10-engined A6, according to our spies in Germany. Expected to wear the RS6 tag and caught testing at the Nürburgring circuit, this new model will offer a raft of new technology aimed at making it one of the best-handling Audis yet produced.

Audi has long been hampered by its transmission layout, with the engine mounted ahead of the front axle. In order to minimise the nose-heavy characteristics inherent in this layout (something amplified by the lengthy V10 engine) Audi engineers have developed two new ideas for the car.

First, the quattro four-wheel-drive system will send more torque to the back wheels. Also under development are ‘Magna-Ride’ dampers which are filled with a fluid that instantly changes its properties when under an electric charge.

Following hot on the heels of the well-published Tokyo debut for Audi’s V10-powered S8, Ingolstadt plans to continue the momentum with its S-car lineup by showing the new B7 S4 Cabriolet later this week at the Essen Motorshow in Germany, and climaxing with the all-new S6 early in January. With all of the clues and rumors at hand surrounding the S6, below is a report that best indicates what can be expected from the new Audi S6.

World Debut

Expect Audi’s S middleweight to have its official world launch at Detroit, though don’t be surprised if the car turns up at the Los Angeles auto show one week earlier. Audi and sister brand Volkswagen have both been known to make such moves in the past.

Whether or not the S6 will show as sedan, Avant or both remains to be seen. Audi has spread the unveiling of its S and RS cars previously. The RS 4 sedan has been around since March, while an RS 4 Avant could debut up to a year later. Digitally created photos of both S6 sedan and Avant have been created for this article, though there’s not yet been a clear indication on what to expect.

The S6, in its most recent form, was sold as both sedan and Avant in Europe, though it was Avant-only in the United States. While a US launch for the S6 means it’s more than likely coming stateside, specific information on which bodystyles are to be expected are believed to be forthcoming in Audi’s Los Angeles or Detroit presentation.



Packaging

From the outside, it can be assumed that the S6 will follow a similar formula set by the S4 and S8. The attached photos depict a standard S-line body kit already shown for the A6, though modified to accept S design cues such as larger crosshatch grille and quad exhaust tips. This also follows in line with early prototypes seen testing at Germany’s Nurburgring.

Audi has a new S-car wheel that is strongly reminiscent of the wheels on the Le Mans concept with some subtle changes that make the design more attuned for road car use. Namely, they use standard lug attachment with covers that hide the fasteners from view. This handsome new split-spoke design has been confirmed in photos of the S4 Cabriolet and the S8, and it is expected on the rest of the S-range by the end of next year… including the S6.

The final exterior detail to be expected is an engine badge just below the Euro side repeater. On the S4, the badge reads “V8”, though we expect the one on the S6 to read “V10” as it does on the S8.

Hardware and Equipment

All indications point to a version of the corporate V10 shoehorned under the hood of the new S6. If so, this is the same engine that will power the S8, though it will not be as highly tuned. Expect a figure of about 420 bhp for the S6, compared to the S8’s 450 bhp. A six-speed Tiptronic transmission will probably be standard issue for now.

Also shared kit with the S8 is the adaptive air suspension and shorter ratio steering rack. Each element should add to the sporting feel of the S6, giving it an edgier ride than run-of-the-mill A6 sedan and Avant models.



What to Watch For

As detailed above, the S6 will most likely see its debut at either or both the Detroit or Los Angeles Auto Shows. Audi could release photos and details prior to those events, both of which happen in early January. Expect live coverage from both Los Angeles and Detroit in these pages, as well as any preview Audi might release before that time.

5.2 liter V10 - 420hp, 540 Nm, 5.2 seconds from 0-100 km/h.

1000 Miles
The truck driver coming the other way was convinced: we were going to die. Headlights ablaze and horn blazing, just in case the ever larger wall of metal wasn’t enough of an indicator to get out of the way, he was still gesticulating long after I had dropped two cogs on the new Audi S6, hooked into the powerband, blasted past the three cars in my path and disappeared round the next bend.

Now such driving is not big or clever, but there were extenuating circumstances. This was the Mille Miglia, I had been chasing the DKW Monza disappearing round the next bend for the past two hours for one picture and nothing, nothing was going to get in the way.

It’s a crazy event, but earned its name ‘The Beautiful Race’ back at its inception in 1927 when two Brescian noblemen decided to race the train to Rome. What followed was 30 years of carnage, from the highs of Stirling Moss’s legendary win in 1955 and Alfonso de Portago’s crash that killed him and 11 spectators just two years later. The 1000-mile event was cancelled for safety reasons and revived as a classic car rally in 1977 with 375 cars aiming to hit predicted times, rather than walls.

But don’t for a second think it isn’t dangerous. Stages were cancelled on the final day after a massive accident.

Priceless classics, modern-day supercars and the support cast all dice for position in one direction, while the general public comes the opposite way. And the crowds got so close, urging us on along with the spectators, that the cobbled streets of Verona looked nothing more than a World Rally-style tunnel of people as Alex Zanardi’s 1957 BMW 507 disappeared ahead.

Yes, really, we were chasing Zanardi and even Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes 300 SLR from ’55. It was a crazy few days, and staring down a truck to make up the gap had all become fair game by then.

The police are ever present, to wave the rally through red lights, encourage law breaking activity at any given opportunity and potentially to sweep Audi drivers and trucks off the tarmac.

But the other guy was wrong, there was more than enough space to make that move. There generally is when you have a 5.2-litre Lamborghini-sourced V10 under the bonnet. This is the same engine that features in the S8, and it’s a peach.

It may ‘only’ boast 435bhp, compared to the Gallardo’s 500, but then it has 398lb/ft of torque, which is good because it weighs 1910kg. That’s almost 150kg heavier than BMW’s M5, and that wasn’t light, so this car has to come loaded with tricks to conceal its girth. And it does.

Despite weighing the same as a small moon, the S6 scorches to 60mph in 5.2s and the acceleration is fierce all the way to 155mph – all to the soundtrack of that sexy V10. Of course it’s not so loud at low revs, but slam on the gas, the valves open and this beast lets fly so hard the dogs of war would cower in fear. You need to rev it towards the 7000rpm red line, but at the top end of its powerband this car is a fiend.

It was a bizarre feeling lining up for the next checkpoint, the media pass atop the Audi giving us access to the full route, the crowds touching the car, taking pictures, begging us to rev the engine and feigning orgasm when we did. Girls even gave us the eye.

This car, seriously, has more pulling power than Porsche. That’s not a claim anyone can make lightly, but it really was true on Italian soil at the very least.

Maybe it was the novelty factor, this was a car-loving audience and they hadn’t seen the S6 in the flesh. Purposefully sold as an athletic design without a hint of aggression, the S6 still has something of the night about it thanks to those LED lights in the front spoiler.

A bit bling they may be, and that flies in the face of Audi’s conservative design philosophy that has won fans around the world and helped them take a hefty market share. But still, in the pale moonlight, those lights are wicked bad.

As is the carbon-fibre kit that adds a splitter, inserts under those mood lights and a rear apron Flared wheel arches, that V10 badge and more jewels with the five-spoke wheels mark it out as special. But it’s still a big, solid car that could have been hewn from granite, a dependable, well-engineered machine, that just happens to be fun to drive.

We’re talking degrees of relativity, this is never going to be a 911 beater on the entertainment stakes, buts it was an eyebrow-raising surprise every time this car took a corner for the first day. Then you just kind of knew the car would take whatever corner lay in front, at whatever speed was on the clock.

In normal daily conditions, 60 per cent of the drive heads to the rear to keep the sporting purpose. But the stunning four-wheel drive system can dump 65 per cent of the power to the front or 80 per cent to the rear depending on how sideways it otherwise would have gone.

You can feel the wheels scrabbling for traction in the slower corners, sharing the load and somehow pulling this giant barge through at speeds that would embarrass many a sportscar – and did.

On the high-speed bend it feels planted like a Redwood. A quick tug to load up the tyres seemed to help, but then set the car into the corner and it will hold it, flat and hard.

That suspension system is just firm enough to provide a sure foot at slightly more than the suggested 155mph limiter on a sweeping Autostrada, just for a while, to see what it felt like, and to coast over cobbled, quaint, Italian streets, yet soft enough to soak it all up.

And while some racers of yesteryear were forced to spend 1000 miles arm-in-arm to prevent falling out of the unprotected sides and suffering sunburn on bald heads, we had it easy. Those Alcantara and leather seats really are as good as they look, the SatNav got us through most crises, despite sending us down single-track roads in search of a new motorway, and all the controls are as logical as they will ever be on a system of this ilk.

So, unlike BMW’s M5, it can cruise in automatic mode. Yes it’s another clever semi-automatic gearbox, but this one really works. There are just four combos: soft and hard and manual or automatic. But you won’t even need that many.

A six-speed Tiptronic is a far simpler solution than some of its nearest rivals have come up with, but it’s mighty effective. The soft automatic is velvet smooth and the hardcore manual feels instant, just savage enough to spur you on and devastatingly effective. The middle ground is a nonsense, I either wanted to go fast or slow.

Sometimes on the Miglia, in an aborted move or a flying run into the hole after jerking out of traffic, past a slower car and almost into the back of something that cost several lifetime’s of journalist’s wages, the brakes got a monumental workout, too.

They were certainly big enough, at 385mm for the fronts and 330mm at the rear with an S6 logo winking through the front wheels. The stopping power for a car this heavy is outrageous and there’s more technology at work preventing the car diving on its nose as the anchors seemingly bite into the road. The pads didn’t far so well and the pedal was distinctly soggy on the final day, but then they did the Mille Miglia, they went to hell and back.

So did we, but it was an almighty experience. I bet that truck driver thinks so too.