THE original RS6 Avant, launched in Australia 17 years ago, was a god. Not as pure as a manual-only, naturally aspirated E39 BMW M5, perhaps, but a legend all the same, and the car that kickstarted Audi’s RS legacy in this country.

Sporting Audi’s iconic ‘Avant’ body style, with quattro all-wheel drive and a wild 331kW twin-turbo V8, the first RS6 debuted Dynamic Ride Control – a diagonally interconnected damping system that transformed the one-note C5 A6 into a sophisticated, supersonic stealth mobile.

But hasn’t the RS6 has blossomed! Now twinned with a coupe-esque RS7 Sportback sibling (as per the previous generation), Audi says the latest iteration of these RS halo models are the most comprehensively engineered high-performance cars to ever wear an Audi RS badge.