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2007 Audi S6 Road Test

Have you ever been in denial? Glancing over the twenty questions featuredon the white paper “How Do I Know If I'm a Workaholic?” offered online by Workaholics Anonymous, helped me to realize I have an addictive personality. Of course I should have seen it sooner, what with the five hours of sleep I get nightly and the constant cravings to accomplish even more. Those cravings go further than a need to work, mind you, and sometimes can only be satisfied by something more physically rewarding. Food occasionally gets my fingers off the keyboard. Expensive gadgets can satiate once in a while too, and, well, I suppose this is hardly the right kind of magazine to be expounding on sexual exploits. But now that we're on adrenaline inducing indulgences, there are few more exhilarating enablers than an outrageously fast car.

The sound of the new S6 at idle is every bit as intoxicating as I remember the old RS6, although the way Audi's going about generating power in its latest midsize muscle car is altogether different. Instead of

There's nothing like a fast car to whisk you away the realities of life... (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

a carbon-fiber shrouded twin-turbo V8, the new model features a rather exotic 435 horsepower V10 that's only more visually stimulating if you're an engineer. Still, it produces one of the most alluring rumbles I've yet to hearfrom ten cylinders, nothing like the obnoxious blat of a Viper or high-strung wail of a Carrera GT, no, and much more audibly pleasing than the ten-pot mill in BMW's M5.

Yes, you were probably wondering when I'd bring up the super sedan of super sedans, a car that once ranked amongst my favorites and now, due to overcomplicated electronics overload and a rather slow and clunky shift-paddle actuated sequential manual transmission, sits on my great lamentations pile of exceptional cars gone wrong,

It takes a lot of engine to move a big car like this, and Audi's 5.2L V10 is what we'd call a lot of engine. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

right next to the if only they'd built it concept car file cabinet. The S6 hardly makes as much power as the mighty M5, or Merc's outlandish E63 AMG for that matter, but then again if you're still adolescently thinking that brute engine output is what makes a car great you're truly reading the wrong magazine.

Power to weight is a key ingredient, and one that sees the Audi failing miserably, weighing in some 326 pounds heavier than the already robust Bavarian and 451 more than the comparatively lightweight Mercedes (two words that aren't normally associated), a 4,486-pound juggernaut that nevertheless feels fairly fleet onits feet. Yes, I was almost as shocked as when I first tested a Bentley Arnage T, a near three-ton mammoth sedan that almost dances as well as the aforementioned M5. Or maybe it was the shock of the Flying-B's

It's hard to run out of grip with these tires... plus quattro. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

willingness to gently drift through apexes at ridiculous speeds without biting back in uncontrollable oversteer that had me feeling as if I could take anything on the road, like Tim Birkin powering a '29 4 1/2 Liter Blower to victory at Le Mans.

But, of course, Audis dominate Circuit de la Sarthe these days, the brand's phenomenal R10 having silently blown past all contenders to claim victory in unprecedented oil burning fashion this year, not to mention an ALMS championship win that followed. Its current success hardly unexpected, Audi's R8 performed similarly throughout the prior half decade, a record that would have extended for seven years if it weren't for a particularly quick and reliable duo of Bentleys.

It must be the richness of the S6 interior that has me thinking about my favorite British brand, all of the stunningly detailed aluminum bits and pieces, exquisitely crafted switchgear and lustrous carbon fiber panels, each lacquered to such a high

Strong brakes? Yeah, it's got those too. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

gloss that they appear like pools of black liquid poured all over the dash and console. The new sport seats are fabulous, indelibly stamped with the S6 graphic on their backsides, and providing a near perfect combination of comfort and support that performed ideally for my body shape. They don't tease with electronic love hugs like the M5's active side bolsters, but I couldn't help but grow fond of them just the same.

Lateral support is critical in the S6, as the grip of its 265/35 Continental ContiSportContact 2s wrapped around nineteen-inch rims make the most of the car's accurate steering geometry and tightly wound coil spring suspension setup. It's not as punishing on the derriere as some sport sedans, but nonetheless you'll feel every pavement imperfection, even on relatively smooth sections of highway, while rough inner city roads might make you question whether all that high-speed control is really worth it. It is, of course, as I reminded myself on a particularly sweet stretch of highway. Sobering cliffs of solid granite tower overhead on one side, the opposite offering pristine vistas of open water

Silver, black and carbon fiber make an elegant interior sporty and sophisticated. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

and island life with only an abbreviated easement laying between the shoulder and that same rock face that plunges hundreds of feet to the ocean below. Between roadwork crews and slow moving traffic, mere pylons to the S6, I negotiated my way towards a favorite photo location, charging forward withevery tap of the throttle, the quad rear pipes playing bass and baritone to the engine's tenor, itself spinning effortlessly from four to seven thousand revs between shifts before the big vented discs reigned in the gallop to an I'll let you go with a warning canter faster than I could finish uttering the expletive needed when eyeing a plain white Crown Vic rolling around a corner towards me – only a false alarm.

Incidentally, that six-speed autobox shifts so quickly that I had to recheck the manual to make sure my fingers weren't paddling a DSG box, or as Audi now calls it, S tronic. The book says that intervals speed up in manual mode, but even in this sportier guise the process of swapping gears is such an equable experience that I only bothered flicking the lever over to Drive during heavy traffic. And it's in this stop-and-go quagmire, or even worse just following the steady flow around town that I found the

Unstoppable in the wet. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

M5 so irritating. Where the Audi performs like a better than average albeit normal European sedan in the thick of it all, the Bimmer lilts heavily between shifts, causing all aboard to bob back and forth in their seats ad nauseam. I can't say whether the S6 shifts as quickly as the M5 on the track, but to live with day in and day out there's no comparison.

I think that this is probably Audi's strongest suit in the super sedan segment. The S6 isn't the quickest at 5.1 seconds to sixty, nor the fastest at a rev limited 155, and probably isn't the most capable around corners, but overall it delivers performance that only a handful of four-door executive shuttles can exceed while pampering everyone onboard every minute of the ride. And if that bone dry roadway happens to turn nasty, as it did during the second day of my test, well, it'll eat M5s and E63s for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not to mention dessert, as its rear-biased 40/60 split quattro all-wheel drive, combined with sport-oriented traction and stability control, adds more grip to the front wheels and virtually eliminates the possibility of losing control. The perfect compromise for a workaholic trying to squeeze just one more meeting into a wet winter day? Being one who would know, the S6 just might be.

Specifications (S6):

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