Audi RS6 v S6 Dragparison: Is the RS6 worth $60,000 extra? Drag race & sound tests!

CarExpert

Acceleration tests, exhaust sound, plus drag races. Paul Maric puts the 2021 Audi RS6 up against the 2021 Audi S6 to see which is louder and quicker. This is a series we call the CarExpert Dragparison! It's a comparison at the drag strip.   Let us know if you like it and what else you'd like to see. But, until then, watch the all-new Audi RS6 drag race against the Audi S6, see how well the carbon ceramic brakes on the RS6 hold up in our brake test and finally see which of these two cars sounds louder.  Performance figures: 2021 AUDI RS6: 0-100km/h (0-62mph): 3.6s 1/4 mile: 11.7s @ 193.3km/h 100km/h (62mph) - 0: 2.6s @ 34.2m  2021 AUDI S6: 0-100km/h (0-62mph): 4.4s 1/4 mile: 12.8s @ 177.1km/h 100km/h (62mph) - 0: 2.6s @ 34.5m  Read the full story: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-comparisons/2021-audi-rs6-avant-v-s6-sedan-dragparison/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=drag-race&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=drag-race  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Styling and Specs: 00:43 Sound Comparison: 04:59 S6 Acceleration: 06:23 RS6 Acceleration: 08:23 Drag Race: 11:06 Brake Test: 12:17 Verdict: 13:06  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #audi #rs6 #dragparison #s6 #dragrace

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Behind me are two red cars. One is a fire-breathing V8. It is an estate,

00:06 a station wagon, a combi, whatever you call it, wherever you're from. It creates a reason to never,

00:10 ever, ever, ever buy an SUV ever again. It's called the Audi RS6. The other one will save

00:16 you $66,000, but still put a big smile on your face because it cracks and pops on upshifts.

00:21 That is the Audi S6. Welcome to the car expert, Drag Parison.

00:26 Today we're going to compare these two side by side and then do some performance testing.

00:29 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes up on

00:33 the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just use the chapters below. If you haven't done so

00:36 already, hit subscribe, press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single

00:40 time we drive two very red cars. Righto, let's start off by talking differences,

00:45 and we'll go top down and we'll kick off with the engine. So four liter, twin turbocharged V8,

00:50 441 kilowatts of power, 800 newton meters of torque. It's four kilowatts down on the previous

00:56 gen RS6, but importantly, it has 100 newton meters more torque. Over here, twin turbocharged

01:02 V6, it's a 2.9 liter, 331 kilowatts of power, 600 newton meters of torque. Both of these have

01:08 a 48 volt mild hybrid system, whereas this one powers some of the auxiliary stuff when it's off.

01:13 This one actually feeds the turbocharger down low, so you get a torque boost as the turbochargers

01:18 are waiting to accept those exhaust gases. Then the bonnets are different as well. This actually

01:22 shares a lot of parts with the A7, so you can see here you've got an extra set of bumpy things

01:26 there compared to this, which is all nice and flat. And then as you step down a little bit

01:30 further, have a look at these headlight differences. This is the standard A6 S6

01:34 headlight. This is the headlight from the A7, and while they're both matrix LED, this one has a set

01:41 of cool looking lasers in it, and you can tell because of that blue thing in there. Now we

01:44 actually did a headlight comparison, and if you want to watch it, you can click up here. We take

01:48 you through all the differences of the different types of headlights you can buy on the market

01:52 today. Now what about the rest of the styling changes? Well, have a look up here. It's like a

01:55 little letterbox here, so you can post letters if you want. I don't actually know what that does.

01:58 It'd be nice if it was exclusive to RS models, but you can get that on the A1 as well. You can

02:02 see here on the S6 it doesn't actually have that. Beneath that you have this kind of 3D printed

02:08 looking grille. It looks really nice and aggressive. This car has the optional black

02:11 package and also the carbon package. If you jump over here to the S, it's got a bit more

02:16 chrome highlight there to make it look a little more executive rather than, you know, scary.

02:21 If you then jump back here, this is where air comes into the engine. There's big radiators on

02:27 each side of the RS6. There are radiators on either side of the S6 as well, but you can see

02:31 they're partly blocked off. This just wants to suck in as much air as it can because it has a

02:36 top speed of 305 kilometres an hour, which is clinically insane. Here's the bit I love the

02:41 most though. You're going to know that this is an RS6 and not a standard A6 because of this.

02:47 It is 40 millimetres wider on each side compared to the standard A6 and you can clearly see here

02:52 with the S6 you have a little bit of a flare there, but when you come over to the RS6 it's

02:57 almost like there's another postcode in here. It is huge and then if you look down the back

03:01 of the car, the rear wheels look like they stick outside like a jewel. Now let's talk brakes and

03:06 tyres. So 255 millimetre wide tyres on the S6 to 85 millimetre wide on the RS6, but the brakes,

03:15 these are insane. This is the optional carbon ceramic brake package. This is the equal biggest

03:20 brake on a production car ever. So you get 400 mil rotors and steel brakes on the S6 as standard,

03:26 but this optional package here on the RS6 measures 440 millimetres and it has a 10-piston

03:32 caliper. I would actually just love to have one of those rotors on my desk or something like that. I

03:37 think that'd be pretty cool. It's a 34 kilogram weight saving for the RS6 when you tick that box.

03:42 22 inch alloy wheels here on the RS6 compared to 21s on the S6 and in terms of ride height,

03:46 both of these cars sit 20 mil lower than their respective non-S or RS versions, but with the

03:51 optional Sport Suspension Plus package on the RS6, it sits an additional four millimetres lower,

03:56 so it has some proper stance. Righto, now let's look at the sides of these cars. You can see here

04:00 you've got some really cool side skirts again because this has the carbon package, it has carbon

04:04 side skirts here. They just sort of tuck in fairly normally and I know the question that's burning in

04:09 all your minds, "Why do we not have an S6 wagon to go up against the RS6 wagon?" Well, long story

04:15 short, RS6 is only available as a wagon globally. S6 is available as a sedan and as a wagon and also

04:21 as a yucky diesel. Australia gets the petrol version, it doesn't get the wagon version though,

04:26 so that's why this combination exists. Moving over to here, all S cars get quad exhaust pipes,

04:31 which is why you can see four there, and it also gets a fairly neat looking rear end compared to

04:35 the RS, which has a very sculpted and well-designed diffuser sitting there. And also, these are the

04:42 biggest exhausts on an RS car to date, and of course all RS cars get dual outlets instead of

04:47 the four outlets that the S does, but Audi didn't tell us how big their biggest exhaust to date is.

04:53 So, we have measuring tape, you want to see how big that is? 200 millimetres! That is absolutely

04:58 mammoth. All right, let's do a sound comparison, we'll kick off with the S6. I have my colleague

05:03 Scott in the car. Switch it on Scotty, give it a rev in dynamic.

05:07 Sounds okay, it's kind of got like an electronic limiter there of some sort,

05:22 and this is what it sounds like when the car is moving.

05:31 Time for the big daddy. Now, the last generation of RS6 sounded absolutely incredible. I hope this

05:36 sounds just as good. We're going to switch it on, these cars have been both warmed up by the way.

05:40 Go for it, Scotty.

05:41 Oh, that is so good. It's such a deep burbly sound. It does have an electronic soft limiter,

05:56 but you can override it by switching from drive into neutral, and this is what it sounds like.

06:01 And finally, while it's on the move, this is how meaty it sounds.

06:23 Okay, so first up is the S6. Keep in mind, this and the RS6 don't have dual clutches,

06:27 so when we do launch control, this isn't going to be sitting there bouncing off the limiter,

06:31 it's just a standard torque converter. What I'll do here first is just put this into dynamic mode,

06:36 which is the sporty setting, and then I'll just stand on the throttle. I'm not going to

06:39 load it up, just so we can see what our baseline is. So here we go, everything's set up.

06:48 Oh, pins you back nicely. Okay, a little bark from the exhaust.

06:52 Bang, and there's 100. Okay, so 5.1 seconds. Now, the official time is four and a half seconds,

06:58 and I noticed that when I stepped on the throttle, you can hear like a little whistling sound.

07:02 That is that electric compressor charging the engine. What it does is it develops all of this

07:12 oxygen that sits in between the intercooler and the turbocharger, and while the engine is building

07:16 up exhaust pressure to spin that turbocharger, this is actually feeding it air, so it pre-charges

07:22 it, and at low ends of the rev band, gives you that turbo boost much quicker. So this time around,

07:27 it is launch control. A little bit of information for you as well, we don't count one foot roll out

07:31 here, so this is literally the time it takes to get from standstill to 100 kilometres now. We're

07:36 not deducting anything, and then on top of that, this is an unprepped surface, so there is a little

07:41 bit of latitude here for wheel slip. So to engage launch control, you put it into dynamic mode. I'm

07:45 going to press the stability control button once it puts it into ESC sport, then all I'm going to

07:50 do is hold the brake as hard as I can, hold the throttle as hard as I can. It comes up saying

07:54 that launch control is active, then I simply let go of the brake, we shoot forward, and hopefully we

07:58 get that magical time of four and a half seconds. Here we go. So there it is there, launch control.

08:08 That's much better. That is quick. Wheel slip off the line, there's 100. Holy moly, 4.4 seconds.

08:16 That is impressive. So we bet the claim there, even with wheel slip off the line, that is bloody

08:21 good. Okay, next up, RS6. Now we're going to do a few different tests here. The first one is going

08:27 to be comfort mode, launch control off, and stop start running. So when I roll to a stop here,

08:33 the car's going to switch off, and all I'm going to do is just pound on the throttle. This is

08:37 simulating you turning up at the lights and someone in an M5 pulling up next to you. So let's

08:41 give this a shot. This is 0 to 100. All right, here we go. Starts off slow, but it eventually

08:56 gets moving. So where do we get to? 4.6 seconds. So this proves my theory. You don't need a dual

09:02 clutch. Even with stop start, this thing is stupidly quick. Okay, so we're going to do this

09:06 again now. Stop start is off. We're still in comfort, and I'm just going to pound the throttle,

09:13 and we'll just see what happens. So we've come to a stop there. Comfort mode, stop start off.

09:18 Here we go. Oh my God, it literally just pushes you back in the seat when the boost comes on.

09:32 It is crazy. Okay, 4.6 seconds. Again, same thing. So with stop start off and stop start on,

09:39 this is pulling the exact same time. It shows you that 48-volt system is able to fire the car much

09:45 quicker than a traditional stop start system that runs on a 12-volt. So that technology has its

09:50 merits, and it looks like it doesn't affect performance. Okay, at the moment we've all been

09:54 waiting for full attack mode. We're going to use launch control. So let me run you through how

09:58 this works. We put it into dynamic or using the steering wheel buttons. RS2 is full attack mode,

10:06 and it automatically puts the stability control into ESP sport mode, which is going to give us

10:10 that maximum thrust. There's also this cool RS monitor here. So this tells us when all of the

10:15 car's components are warm. So currently that's all warm, so we should be getting the best possible

10:20 time out of this. Foot hard on the brake, foot hard on the throttle, and then it should launch.

10:24 That's all set up. That's all set up. Here we go.

10:29 Seriously, lost for words. That was just squirming off the line there. It was like

10:48 fish tailing down the line in like a four-wheel drive burnout. That is seriously impressive.

10:54 Okay, what did we do there? Okay, so 3.7 seconds. The official time is 3.6.

11:00 All right, let's line up for the quarter mile. I'm determined to match or beat the official time.

11:05 Right at the moment we've been waiting for, quarter mile drag race with the S6. I think

11:09 we'll be pleasantly surprised with that, but I'm hoping this gives us a rocket ship launch out of

11:14 the box. What is there to say? I've got this in all the sport settings. We're going to use launch

11:18 control on both cars, and I have my colleague Scott in the other car. Scott, you good to roll?

11:24 Let's do it.

11:25 Okay, so I'm going to count him down and then we're going to punch it. So here we go. Three,

11:29 two, one, go. Oh man, I wish I could swear. There's one 21, 30, 140. We have left him dead.

11:41 160, 70, 80, 90. Holy crap. This thing is missile quick off the line. What did we do there? Holy

11:52 crap. 11.7 seconds, 193 kilometers an hour. That is bloody quick. Scott, how'd you go with the

12:01 quarter?

12:01 That was 12.8 seconds at 177 kilometers an hour.

12:05 There you go. So there's about a second difference between them. And what about your zero to 100

12:10 time?

12:10 4.6 seconds.

12:12 There you go. And we nailed 3.6. So we have hit that claim. That is impressive.

12:16 Okay, so it's brake test time. We're both going to be doing 100 k's an hour and then we'll brake

12:22 at the exact same time. Alrighty. Three, two, one, brake. Oh man, that hurt my face. Holy crap.

12:35 That is brutal. Okay. So 2.6 seconds, 100 to zero and 34.2 meters. Scott, can you give us your

12:43 reading?

12:43 That was 34.5 meters and 2.6 seconds.

12:47 There you go. That's still pretty impressive there from the S6, even without big carbon

12:52 ceramic brakes. And look, carbon ceramic brakes generally won't help you stop quicker. They're

12:56 there for fade resistance, but it does show you that all the money you invest in the brakes is

13:00 actually going to help you stop faster than the $60,000 cheaper car. But it also shows you that

13:04 the brakes on that thing are mammoth as well.

13:06 There you go. Another drag, Paris and Dun & Dustin. I absolutely love making these for you

13:10 guys. They are so much fun. I was really impressed with the S6. It is much faster than I thought it

13:14 was going to be. But ultimately, let me know in the comments below, do you agree with me that there

13:18 is literally no reason now you need to buy an SUV? Because that does everything you need it to

13:22 do. It is incredibly fast. It has a big boot, plenty of room in the second row. It just means

13:27 you never have to own an SUV again. And I also thought it was going to pip the M8 competition

13:32 that we had here recently, but just didn't quite get there. It is worth keeping in mind that this

13:36 is the base model RS6. There will probably be an RS6 Performance coming, and I think that's where

13:41 the Audi engineers are going to tune a little bit more out of that car and make it even faster

13:45 again. Now, if you did enjoy this video, I would love it if you could share it with your friends,

13:49 hit the like button, follow it up with a subscribe and press the bell icon. That'll

13:53 tell you every single time we do another Car Expert drag Paris and Dun & Dustin.

13:56 But until next time, take it easy.

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