How Much Quicker Is The 552bhp Audi RS6 Compared To A 'Normal' Fast Estate?

In normal company, our trusty Skoda Octavia vRS longtermer would be considered a pretty quick car. 217hp isn’t a huge amount in Interwebz terms, but in the real world it’s more than enough to get you in trouble. However, at the other end of the ‘fast estate’ scale, I recently had an Audi RS6 on test. If you read my blog about the experience, you’ll know that it’s pointlessly fast but utterly bewitching - it’s by no means ‘normal company’, basically.

We throw these power figures around online to give you an idea of on-paper performance, but they don’t really mean anything without context. So just how much difference is there between a 552bhp, all-wheel drive mega wagon and a 217bhp front-wheel drive family estate? Watch the video above to find out… quite a big difference, right?

The test we conducted was a 0-60-0mph test to allow us to not only compare acceleration, but also how quickly the pair could gather themselves up and get stopped.

We didn’t have timing equipment available at the time, however the vRS scrabbled its way to a pretty decent 0-60mph time of around six seconds; the RS6 managed the same sprint in around half the time. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of our impromptu test was the fact that the RS6 managed to hit 60mph and get to zero before the Octavia had even started braking!

It’s no surprise that the big Audi absolutely destroyed the poor Skoda, but by quite how devastating the victory was is what’s so impressive. The Skoda’s no slouch, but it was left in the RS6’s dust. So next time you’re wondering how much of a difference big power (and Quattro, of course) makes, remember this video.