This Three-Way Fast Audi Drag Race Is Consumer Journalism Done Right

Because these things are obviously very important, the staff of Top Gear magazine have raced three very fast Audis so that we as consumers can be better informed when placing our imaginary six-figure salary bonuses

Matt Kimberley

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

Audi has become a bit of a drag race specialist of late, thanks to the latest versions of its quattro four-wheel drive and pretty monstrous power outputs. To find out which fast Audi is the, err, fastest Audi, the man-children from Top Gear magazine took three of them to the handy runway at Dunsfold Aerodrome for a race.

Obviously, if you need your Audi to be fast then you probably want the fastest one there is, so this is valid consumer journalism. Or something.

The short and entirely predictable video is nonetheless good fun to watch, as the R8 V10 Plus goes wheel to wheel with the RS6 Avant and the S8. All have around 600bhp, but vary wildly in weights. The most notable outcome is that, after an earlier Audi-centric drag race we told you about, the RS6 yet again raises a few eyebrows with its staggering pace off the line. Grab a drink, sit back and enjoy.

Comments

I would like to point out that all three of these cars beat their claimed 0-60 times. Also, a massive luxury barge is barely slower than a huge estate that is barely slower than a supercar. These are some awesome cars.

Is this heaven?

Drag races are overrated

Your comment is partly true. It really depends on the cars youre racing. Would a drag race between a Dodge Charger and a Camaro be overrated, not really, because that is wha youd probably use these cars for.
Is a drag race between a Miata and GT86/BRZ pointless? Of course it is, because thats not what these cars are made for.
Same with the Audis - at least the RS6 and S8 - these cars are purpose built for shredding kilometers on the Autobahn or winning your nightly stoplight race. So having them in a drag race isnt so stupid. The R8 is more of a tool here to visualize how bonkers fast these both cars really are.

Lets just take a moment to appreciate that a luxury saloon managed to get a 1/4 mile time of 11.7 seconds

I can’t believe how the rs6 won the S8 even though the s8 weights around 60 kg less than the stock rs6 performance. That rs6 launch was crazy but hey we see how the s8 has a different tunning cause it had to win the “identical” rs6