MikeJ

Audi Finland's Quattro tour hit my town yesterday, and today I went to see the cars they had on display and see if it was actually possible to get to drive something fast. After all, their newspaper ad mentioned something about an S3 and S6 being there... The weather could not have been worse, it has been quite warm the last few days and today we had first sleet and then rain coming out of the sky, making driving conditions just about the worst imaginable. As I made it to the Audi dealer I spotted a yellow RS4 and a silver S8 side by side in the showroom.



I sat behind the wheel of the RS4, and I have to say that it's one place where I could certainly enjoy spending my time. The seats were snug, but not at all uncomfortable. I inquired if the RS4 was available for a test drive, but the answer was exactly what I had expected...



Next up, I took a look at the S8. Lovely car, but the extras are a bit expensive.



Now it was time to stop drooling and start asking about test drives. There was a nice lady behind a counter who told me that I would be able to have a 20-minute test drive of the S6, and that there were three people in line before me. Would it be possible for me to wait an hour? Of course it would... The test drive would take a predefined route and there would be a representative in the car with me. No problem. Apparently, there had been a 'slight mishap' with the S3, which meant that it was no longer available for drives.

I spent the hour taking a look at the cars in the showroom. Apart from the RS4 and S8, they had the Q7, the new Allroad, some A4's and A6's plus a base A3 that seemed a bit out of place with all the fancy cars surrounding it. They also had this A4 2.0T Avant with a sticker job that I would most likely have skipped myself. (Sorry about the shaky picture).

I also walked to the VW showroom in the other end of the building, where I took a look at the Golf R32 and the Eos... the R32 is a very nice-looking piece of kit indeed.

Then, finally, it was time for me to step outside where I was greeted with this sight:

As you can see, the conditions were quite bad indeed - it being 3:30 in the afternoon didn't help either, as it was already getting dark, and as it is the time when people leave work on Fridays, in the hope that they'll avoid the traffic jams... The guy who was to accompany me made sure that I was able to get a good driving position, and then we were off... my first impression was that the steering was incredibly light when I maneuvered the car out of the parking lot and onto the street. I was very cautious with the gas pedal, as I didn't know how good the grip was (Quattro or no Quattro, the conditions were absolutely horrific), but when I got comfortable with the car (which didn't take long), I found out that even in those conditions, the Quattro system and the Nokian winter tyres provided excellent grip. Some people have criticized the suspension of the S6, but I found it surprisingly comfortable.

As I maneuvered onto the motorway onramp with a learner driver dawdling in front of me, I scanned the traffic for a gap long enough for me to try out the acceleration, but unfortunately, there wasn't one. The traffic and weather did not allow me to go very fast, but I did get it temporarily up to 140 km/h which felt like walking pace, even though it was almost double what the other drivers were doing... As we headed back, I mentioned to the representative that I really would have liked to test the acceleration, and I was quite astounded when he suggested that I'd do a 0-100 km/h run... so, on the way back, I stopped the car on a bus stop, letting traffic pass, and when there was a gap long enough, I maneuvered the car back onto the road and floored it. On that wet, slushy road, the car catapulted forward with an urgency I would not have believed possible. 100 km/h on the speedo came up in what felt like far less than five seconds. There was no slipping or fidgeting of any kind.
As I maneuvered the car back into its bay, I felt like I'd experienced a revelation. I had liked the S6 before, but now I absolutely love it.

At the end of the test drive, the guy asked me if I wanted to take a picture of the engine... of course I did!

And that 'little mishap' with the S3? Apparently, someone had been driving it the previous day. He had criticized everything from the interior to the power delivery. Then, he had taken the car up to 200 km/h on the motorway, tried to change up to sixth gear but slotted second instead...

The Artist

wow the RS4 looks gr8 in that colour

Mr. M

That's a great read MikeJ! Thanks for sharing that with us!

How I wished Audi had more presence in Singapore... We don't even have a single S car to see!

Bruce

The RS4 does look fantastic in that colour and nice report and other pictures MikeJ

I've seen a few S6's now, love it to death, if only i could get a test drive in one

Karma for the great report.

cawimmer430

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience. It was very interesting and informative. Karma for you!

Awesome pics too! Try to keep your hands still though in some of them!

MikeJ

Thanks for the karma and the compliments guys!
I really enjoyed my experience and I'm glad I could share it.

Yannis

Reviews like this one with lots of pics are great for the forum, show that we have members that are true enthousiasts.

Mike you deserve tons of karma for this post (and some from me too).

donau

And I won't do anything different from the previous posters

Nice write-up and great pics too. Really have liked this car myself as well, and now am even more attracted to it.

klier

Very nice review Mike. Many thanks for posting this!

I believe that RS4 is in the same color as the one I made pictures of in Beijing??

Anyways, karma man!

Edit; 200k + Euros for an S6?

I sure hope you get free healthcare in return or something, because those prices are like 50k more than in Holland!

MikeJ

Thanks everybody!


That's the price sheet of the S8 and it had €43K worth of extras. The S6 retails at €120K here.