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2007 Audi S6 Road Test

Silly Power: With Great Power Comes Great Silliness

Remember a few months ago when I wrote about the glory and subtlety of Audis A6 4.2? Well, incase you havent reread it recently, these were my closing thoughts: What more could you ask for? Keyless ignition? A power-operated trunk? A heart-stopping surround sound system? Theyre all available, but for me theyre unnecessary - I am, after all, a simple kind of guy. Like I said in the beginning, the only thing I would really ask for is a drivers door that opens itself. And more horsepower, even though it doesnt really need it - but hey, who can argue with more horsepower. While itll still be some time before my first request is granted, the second one is something Audi worked on since the time of writing.

For those who want something with a little more go, the 4.2-liter engine

And you thought that it couldnt get any better... (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

gained FSI, boosting power to 350 hp from 335, but for 2007 theres also a new A6 in town. Scratch that, a new S6 in town, and it will be available with a Lamborghini Gallardo-sourced V10. But that would just be silly. I love silly. Well, silly has arrived. It arrived with an S6 badge and that Lambo-derived V10, tweaked for slightly less power but more torque across the board, as befitting a luxury sedan outfitted for daily, year-round use. Much silliness ensued. Silliness on on-ramps, silliness on the highway, silliness on city streets, silliness

Its a tight squeeze, this one... New V10 has two extra cylinders and 1.0 liter on the next biggest engine. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

in my parking garage, silliness in underpasses and tunnels or near any close walls that would reverberate the engine and exhaust notes right back at me, although I wished for a longer, cleared tunnel to get the full operatic range of this tenor.

So how silly was it? It would be like Borat interviewing the Three Stooges on The Colbert Report. Yeah, its a big sedan, and does anyone really need 435 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque to get to and from work and drop the kids off at school on the way? Ill take it, thanks. This thing flies in the face of reason,

How many ways does ten go into six? One. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

it flies in the face of gravity and physics, and it flies on the face of traffic regulations in America - except maybe for Montana or one of the Dakotas, I forget which one has a "whatever conditions permit" speed limit (Montana - Ed.).

I was first introduced to the glorious S6 at last years NAIAS, where it cut through the presentation fog in an unmistakable Sprint Blue on the same day that I also had chance to witness the A8/S8s Bang & Olufsen stereo to end all stereos, with polished satin aluminum speaker covers and a pair of mind-melting death-ray mini-tower tweeters that pop out of the upper dash. The S6 is not available with

S6s cabin isnt as lavish as the S8, but it has all the basics nailed down, plus its stylish. Lots and lots and lots of real carbon fiber can be had... (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

the Bang & Olufsen sound system, yet, but heres hoping that in 40 years when I can take out a second mortgage on my condo to afford an S6 that Ill be able to get one installed.

You see, I would still take the S6 over the S8, despite the S8s better sound system and parking assistance (the rearview camera shows you the path your wheel angle will take you) and the adjustable air suspension (which doesnt seem to do much at all--all the settings are distinctly firm). The S6 is firm all the time, without the extra weight and cost of the fancy pumps and mounts that the air suspension requires. Just straight up multi-link coilover suspension components at the most sporting end of the

Perhaps the funkiest part of the exterior are the wheels. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

spectrum to which a true luxury car can aspire. The sound system was a mere Bose 9-speaker affair (my, how positively Bohemian...), that doesnt hold a tweeter (literally) to the B&O. Boo hoo. Believe it or not, I survived with my ear drums intact despite the volumes to which I pushed this system. Unless youre Beethoven, Im pretty sure youll be able to live with the difference.
In this class of cars, comparable only to other such rarities as the E63 AMG or perhaps the M5 (which almost completely gives up on the luxury side of the equation for the sake of a balistic commuter missile), details like the stereo take a back seat to the interaction between driver and car, the engagement a driver looks for from his $70+K super sport sedan. He or she may even want to spring for track days and sign up for Solo1

Rain meant that wringing out the S6 was not an option at Mosport... silly when you thnk that quattro is what sets it apart from its M5 and E63 rivals. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

classes where you can drive the wheels off your car at a racecourse like Mosport, which is also the first place I got to drive an S6.

After our coaching lap, we were allowed to pick our ride and drive the circuit ourselves, but we were held up behind a pace car because of the wet and treacherous conditions. So I drove around the legendary track in an S6 and an S8, but we were reined in severely and I never had the chance to take it above 80-90 mph (I wasnt paying very close attention to my speed) on the back straight, and never did we seem to challenge the impressive abilities of these sedans, because not once did it seem we were approaching any sort of threshold where it might put a foot wrong, although in those conditions it can take less than a blink to be completely off track if youre pushing the limits.

Several weeks later, however,

Its hard to tell that theres anything more than a 3.2 liter V6 under the hood, just by first glance. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

I had an S6 all to myself, out from under the prying eyes of Audis driving-event staff and track nannies, with only my conscience and untold and unseen enforcement agencies to keep me in check. Hah. Of course I drove within the limit the whole week and never broke a single traffic law (my editor made me say that...), but I still managed to squeeze some performance out of that 5.2L V10. And I can tell you that I didnt get pulled over or cited for any offences, so in retrospect I must not have done anything wrong, right? Great, that makes me feel much better.

Anyhow, back to that gorgeous V10 that got me in the habit of leaving my door open when turning on the car, because the sound of that yawning lion made me shudder with anticipation or with fantasies of a dry, unlimited-lap session back at Mosport. Yup, when you get to drive the kinds of cars were lucky enough to drive, you fantasize about driving them faster, farther, keeping them longer

Corners, all kinds of corners - tight, wide, fast, slow - are all a blast in the S6. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

in a world paved with unblemished asphalt and ever-sharper hairpins, longer straightaways and countless esses... and no speed traps of course, or pedestrians or slow drivers to ruin our fun. For a few days, I felt like I was living in a partial fantasy world, because cars just seemed to drop out of sight, clover leaf ramps became skid pads, a couple of my favorite exits became hairpins  leading into a series of curves that you could, if one were so inclined, call esses, and each was decidedly overcome with complete stability and rapture, a state of grace and composure the likes of which I had yet to witness until the S6 came into my life.

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