An Interview With the Master of the Audi RS 6 Avant

What is it about a balls-out wagon? They're irresistible to folks like us, apex junkies who need a weapon for switchbacks but also have to drop the kids off at karate. It's that Goldilocks versatility that draws us in, but also some unique charm; the Uberwagon's shape and athleticism are so incongruous — a workaday roofline with supercar speed — the absurdity stokes our desire. If you heard about a pack mule winning Dancing With The Stars, you'd tune in with joy, right?

Of course, drawing parallels between Audi's line of bonkers-fast Avants and hoofed conveyance isn't the point here. Rather, the Four Rings gathered every generation of its RS 6 wagon (plus a sedan!) and framed them against a Rocky Mountain backdrop near Banff, Alberta, Canada. They invited out a few North American outlets to drive every single one, back to back, including the early forbidden fruit we Americans never got to sample.

Unfortunately, I can't offer a peak outside the edges of the envelope of each RS 6, no heroic tales of Quattro oversteer through Banff's many alpine hairpins. Most of these RS 6s are literal museum pieces at this point, and Audi needed them all back in one singular piece. So the pace was kept low as I dutifully rotated through each version of the RS 6, one breathtaking mountain peak after another marching through the windshield.

Even at legal speeds, throughlines emerged between the generations, namely a focus on smooth-yet-explosive torque delivery down low, a feeling of quiet solidity, and a balance of straight-line performance, comfort, and practicality that remain unmatched by vehicles with fewer than five doors, eight cylinders, and two turbos. Every RS 6 Avant delivers on that same promise of insanity with a practical bent, but each generation predictably extends the limits of its comfort and all-out performance. Progress marches on, that's no surprise, but our affection for every subsequent RS 6 also grows.

While we didn't do any driving at the wagons' limits, the exercise did provide ample time with Stephan Reil, former head of Quattro GmbH, which then became Audi Sport, Audi's high-performance division. Reil ran the show for decades, overseeing all of that progress across the RS 6 model line (among other fast Audis). Since 2020, he's worked as Head of Research & Development at AUDI AG in Neckarsulm. During his time running Audi's sporty subsidiaries, Reil produced a resume of performance cars that'd make him the envy of any automotive engineer (R8 V-10! RS 4! TT-RS!). Chatting with him was an honor.

I spent more than a few hours shoulder-to-shoulder with Reil, whether riding in his old company car (a pristine C6 RS 6 sedan), or at the dinner table. He was full of stories and perspectives about what makes the Audi RS models so special in general and the RS 6 Avant so desirable specifically.

On the morning of our final day in Banff, I was able to recount some of the conversations Reil and I had the previous day and nights. We lined up the newest RS 6 next to Reil's old company car, the frankly batshit C6 RS 6 sedan, which rolled out of the factory with a 5.0-liter smooth-as-glass twin-turbo V-10 lumped ahead of the front axle. The memories came rolling back out as Reil lead me around the car.

(Side note: Consider that at the time, Audi was producing three unique V-10s across its model range, and that Reil was the mastermind behind at least two of them. We endorse this exact brand of insanity, and I'll write up another story about how the C6 RS 6 was a moonshot in its own right.)

What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation, with Reil reflecting on his many years at Quattro and Audi Sport, two of his best cars resplendent before us, awash in the morning light. It felt like a deeply special retrospective for Reil, which in turn felt deeply special to share with you, the Road & Track reader.

If you're on this site, you probably dream of (or own) fast wagons like the RS 6. This is a rare conversation with a master of the form.

R&T: How does it feel standing next to all these cars, taking them all in, having twenty years of RS 6s gathered in one place?

Stephan Reil: The whole event is of course very emotional for me, because we are driving four generations of RS 6. And that represents a huge part of my business career. I had responsibility for all those cars.

R&T: You must be very proud. I want to hone in on this car in particular, the C6-generation RS 6 sedan. You told me this was your actual company car back in the day?

Reil: Of course this car is even more emotional for me, because it was my company car in 2010 [Ed note: Reil of course developed the car as well]. I didn't know that the car still existed because, after you use them, you give the car back to Audi AG and they sell it. It disappears.

Until Tuesday last week when I saw it. Of course, I immediately recognized it because of the special exterior painting in Nimbus gray, and of course, that was a special request color. There's maybe only two or three painted in that color and then it has the individualized interior. Yeah. I knew, well, this is my car from 12 years ago.

R&T: Tell me about the development of this car, how did you decide to cram a V-10 and two turbos into a sedan and wagon? That's insane, right? Somebody must have told you 'no' along the way?

Reil: There's a headwind with every project, you know?

R&T: Sure.

Reil: At that time, the S6 model was 10-cylinder naturally aspirated car with redline at 6,300- 6,400 rpm. So we had two possibilities. We could have gone for a high-revving V-10 that would give us the significant power and distance to the S model. But we thought a naturally aspirated high-revving V-10 is not the right concept for a business limousine. Therefore we went for, a completely new V-10 to turbo.