The Audi S6: A Brief History
Fifth Generation (2018): The S6 Downsizes Its Engine Again, While the RS 6 Gets More Wild
When the latest S6 and S7 debuted in 2018 hot on the heels of the fifth generation A6 family, they came with a surprise under their hoods. The powerplant had been downsized again, losing two cylinders and dropping another liter of displacement.
For the first time since the first S6, there was a powertrain difference between what European buyers and other customers had; unlike in the early ‘90s, however, this time Continental buyers got the short end of the stick. European S6s came equipped with a 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6, making a comparatively small 339 hp but making up for it somewhat with 516 lb-ft of grunt. Elsewhere, gasoline power still reigned, with the S6 and S7 packing a 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 making 444 hp and 443 lb-ft. (That said, over in Europe, they could still opt for sedan, wagon and S7 fastback body styles, whereas Americans can only choose the S6 sedan and S7.) No matter the engine, the all-wheel-drive system still received power from an eight-speed automatic.
The RS 6 and RS 7, meanwhile, stuck with the VW family jewel of the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8, still tied to four wheels and an eight-speed auto. Horses were down a few versus the previous-gen Performance variants, coming in at 592 hp, but torque rose to 590 lb-ft. The bigger news was on the design front: while the S6 had remained rather staid, the RS 6 Avant — once again, the sole body style — and RS 7 wore delightful, almost cartoonish body kits, with wheels that seemed a size too big, angles sharp enough to cut flesh and air intakes and exhaust pipes worthy of a Le Mans car.
Delightfully for Americans, the RS 6 returned to our shores, Audi presumably seeing the success Mercedes-AMG had found with the E63 wagon amongst the super-high-end buyers. And delightfully for the world, in late 2022, Audi revealed that the RS would go Performance once again; the facelifted RS 6 Avant Performance and RS 7 Performance delivered a mighty 621 hp and 627 lb-ft of torque.
As for the next generation of S6 and RS 6, well, it’s a bit murky — made even more so by Audi’s decision to release an all-electric A6 E-Tron family alongside an internal-combustion one. There’s already a new S6 E-Tron EV, which generates 543 hp, but nothing is known for sure about whether there’ll be a new ICE S6, or if the RS 6 will be gas-powered, electricity-powered or both. One thing seems likely, however: whatever the future holds for the S6 / RS 6 family, the resulting cars are sure to be quick.
