Test drive: Audi RS6 (2002)

By topgear, 25 August 2019
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Overview
When the first Audi RS6 launched in 2002, the RS badge was in its infancy. Just two cars had worn it previously – the RS2 and RS4, both sold only as estates.

The ‘C5’ RS6 was sold as both a saloon and Avant, though fast Audis have always been intrinsically linked with the latter body style. In this model’s case, you can possibly thank pre-Bond Daniel Craig in Layer Cake for that.

It was a perfect bit of car casting for a cool gangster type, a hugely characterful and quite naughty car clothed in a crisp, subtle body. A whole 17 years after its introduction, we’d argue this RS6 is more appealing than ever.

And with prices of good C5s starting at £10,000 – about the same as speccing ceramic brakes on a current Audi RS6 – it looks temptingly attainable, too.

The RS6 launched with a twin-turbo 4.2-litre V8, co-developed with Cosworth in the UK, producing 444bhp. That was enough for a 4.9-second 0-100kph time and the de rigueur 250kph limited top speed so associated with German performance cars.

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It was also enough to seriously outmuscle the contemporary BMW M5 and Mercedes E55 AMG. The power wars between RS, M and AMG had truly started. And back then, Audi was your only option if you wanted your German sports saloon or estate with four-wheel drive.

Towards the end of the RS6’s life, Audi saw fit to boost its power output, launching the 473bhp ‘Plus’ version, which you see here. Its 0-100 is the same, but its top speed a more Autobahn-friendly 280kph. There was also lowered suspension, sharper steering and some nice anthracite 19in alloys.

The RS6 wasn’t just a hot rod with some boot space, though. There’s plenty of interesting tech beneath its irresistible wheel arches. Quattro AWD with a proper Torsen differential. A five-speed (wow, a whole five!) tiptronic automatic gearbox. An intricately set-up Dynamic Ride Control hydraulic suspension system and so-on.

Want one? Prepare yourself to be patient: Audi sold 870 C5-generation RS6 Avants, 271 saloons, and 77 Avant Pluses. So numbers on the second-hand market are pretty small.

Read on to see if you should resist or not…

Driving
This thing flings itself down a road with a pace as indecent-feeling as the 600bhp ‘C7’ RS6. Seriously.

Don’t go thinking you need to heave on the brakes and shed all that speed to have a vague hope of making it around a corner, though. RS Audis may not have the most prolific hit-rate of dynamic success, but this isn’t a car that immediately flops into understeer.

In fact, get the nose tucked into a corner and, as you get back on the throttle, it feels almost like a bigger, fatter Impreza. You can sense power going to the rear axle to propel you out the other side.

Glance down at the speedometer and the numbers aren’t quite as high as they’d be in the newer car, but the sensation of relentless acceleration is the same. For a car that’s so mature in premise, its kicks are brilliantly childish.

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There’s the slightest bit of turbo lag when you first prod the accelerator, then a huge surge of power. And it’ll happily rev right up to 7,000rpm, a classy eight-cylinder burble providing a backdrop to it all. No matter your previous performance car experience, it’ll make you smile.

Really ambitious cornering speeds will see a flicker of the traction control light, and on the tight, leafy lanes of Britain, I imagine the moments I’d feel brave enough to find the ‘off’ switch in a car this large would be few.

But for all its size from the outside, you don’t feel it on the inside. A C7 RS6 would have you thumping over the cats’ eyes to keep a nice distance from the kerb, but in comparison, this feels impossibly narrow. As a result, I’d argue you’ll use more of its performance, more of the time.

A special mention for the steering. It’s super: quick, intuitive and reasonably well weighted. Whether it felt this good when new I don’t know – car journalists tend to enjoy moaning about steering more than anything else (myself included) – but given how light on feel modern electric systems have become (told you!), this now feels fantastic.

It rides well, too, that Dynamic Ride Control system doing wonders to shake off some of the worse road surfacing Britain has to offer. There’s a bit more squidge in its tyres than modern fast German stuff, too, owing to its 19in wheels. Though they fill the RS6’s (sublime) arches wonderfully.

Complaints? The automatic transmission does not react quickly enough when you manually pull the paddles, but nor is it quite clever enough when left to its own devices. It may feel as exciting as a newer RS6, but by God, have gearboxes come along since the early 2000s. Though the simplicity of five speeds rather than the modern trend for eight or nine is a surprise pleasure.

If you plan on frequently driving this thing briskly, you might also want to upgrade the brakes. It only took a few passes for the cornering shots in this gallery for them to start to whiff a little bit, and this was at appropriate road speeds. All the weight it shrugs off in a straight line still needs to be slowed down…

On the inside
The availability of a television with Teletext would have struck me as witchcraft back in 2002. Of course nowadays the whole infotainment system doesn’t really work, to the extent you’re better off suckering your phone to the dashboard and using it for navigation, media and so-on, but that’s ok. This is 17-year-old technology, remember.

Audi has always been especially good at interiors – making them feel solid, well-wearing and unlikely to fall to pieces. The RS6 is no exception – admittedly this particular car has done very few miles, but a well-looked-after car ought to age pretty well, regardless of how many miles it’s done.

This generation of RS6 launched as an Avant, with the four-door saloon following later, so of course it’s massively spacious and practical. Families of five are easily accommodated, as is all their luggage.

Back in the day prices kicked off below £60,000 before options, of which there were many. Nowadays you can spec an RS3 up to that level.

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Verdict
Overall, this is an utterly beguiling car. And it feels so relevant today. Its performance hasn’t been hugely outstripped, it’s still good to drive, and the interior is laid out in a way that – obsolescence of Teletext excluded – doesn’t feel its age.

Given this generation of Audi A6 debuted in the mid-1990s, that’s seriously impressive. The materials are top notch, too. This Plus boasts some beautifully-weaved carbonfibre and ace suede and leather seats.

Can you tell we really liked it? In fact, it was the most talked about car in the TG car park that week…