Made of Unicorn Tears, the 2025 Audi RS 6 Avant GT is Not for the Shy
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There’s rare, and then there’s chicken lips, Big Foot-sighting, unicorn tears rare. The 2025 Audi RS6 Avant GT, without question, falls into the latter category. Being the last hurrah of its formidable twin-turbo V8-motivated RS 6 platform, Audi has built just 660 examples of this extroverted station wagon, with only seven allocated for Canada. This one is numbered 385/660, and after a week behind the wheel, I can safely state that, aside from a Lamborghini Aventador perhaps, this wagon has spun more heads than any other test car that has graced my driveway. And it all started within a few hundred metres of leaving Audi headquarters when an SUV zoomed up beside me, rolled down their window, and pointed their smartphone at me.
Shy, retiring types need not apply, but I’m guessing anyone splashing out $250,000 for the RS 6 Avant GT would not be so afflicted. That ask is about $110,000 more than the RS 6 Avant Performance, and, as might be expected, Canada’s miniscule allotment was snapped up long ago.
Based on the “regular” 621-hp Audi RS 6 Avant Performance, which in itself is hardly regular, the GT’s calling card is its Arkona White body with orange, black, and grey graphics inspired by the Audi 90 Quattro race car that dominated IMSA GTO racing in the 1980s (driven by Walter Röhrl, among other luminaries). The RS 6 Avant GT also gets six-spoke white carbon fibre 22-inch wheels wrapped in Continental Sport Contact 7 tires, carbon fibre hood and front fenders, carbon side skirts, front splitter, revised rear splitter, and a big rear spoiler. Brakes? Carbon ceramic, naturally.
Any dictionary worth its salt should use this wicked wagon as the very definition of stance. The GT’s bespoke coil-over suspension has it crouching 10 mm closer to the road, further emphasizing the RS 6’s salacious rear haunches. Its 4.0L twin-turbo V8 retains the 621 horses and 627 lb-ft of the donor car, and believe me, that is plenty. Power goes to all four wheels through an eight-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission. Audi tweaked both the centre and rear differentials with a default power split of 40/60 front/rear, although up to 70 per cent of power can be sent to the front axle and up to 85 rearward. The electronic rear differential is tuned for more power oversteer action when blasting out of corners.
This over-the-top wagon is made for strafing apexes, howling down straightaways, and blurring the scenery on the Autobahn. I have a different plan for my week with #385, having become quite fond of my driver’s license and all.
It’s fair to assume that not one of the Canadian RS6 Avant GTs will ever put in an honest day’s work, which, last time I checked, was what station wagons are all about. Hence, it’s off to the garden centre to buy plants and landscape rocks. Blasphemy, you say? Oh, it gets worse.
My wife gets a violent reaction to fast, loud, fat-tired cars, which generally involves punching me in the arm. So the GT stays in comfort mode and I’m treating the gas pedal like there’s a Fabergé egg between it and my right foot. My wife is happy, but I sense the Audi is not.
“Was ist das?! I came all the way from Germany for this? Well, at least these rocks improve my front/rear weight distribution. Ja.” Of course, the guy loading the bags of rocks is gobsmacked and needs pictures with the car.
The GT’s next job is to take my bass gear and me to a blues gig. How ironic – driving a quarter-million-dollar car to a $100 bar gig. I’m getting used to stares, thumbs up, and occasional goading from drivers in other high-performance European hardware. A Lamborghini Urus was really trying to start something on the highway. Perhaps the driver was aware of Volkswagen Group’s strategy with this Porsche-design 4.0L V8. The GT might be the baddest Audi RS 6 ever at 621 horsepower, but there’s a pecking order here. In the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, this V8 makes 650 horsepower, and under the hood of the Lambo Urus Performante, it unleashes 657 ponies.
Time for a real road trip. I point the RS 6 Avant GT’s carbon-adorned snout north towards Wasaga Beach, where I’m meeting up with friend/bass player/photographer extraordinaire Paul Pasmore. Some open country roads await.
I haven’t mentioned the GT’s ride quality yet, because in reality, no one lucky enough to get their paws on this specialized wagon will say, “Gee, I wish my super-duper rare track-focused Audi RS6 Avant GT didn’t ride so stiff.” But it does, on anything less than perfectly smooth surfaces. No surprise here. The GT gets a higher spring rate and stiffer stabilizer bars (30 per cent at the front and 80 per cent at the rear) to reduce body roll. The coil-over suspension is also fully adjustable, and by gosh, this thing corners flatter than a squashed possum. Sticks to the road like one, too.
In dynamic drive mode and with the transmission in sport, the 2025 Audi RS6 Avant GT turns into a feral beast when poked. It is devastatingly fast, and unlike the recent proliferation of equally fast (and in many cases faster) electric vehicles, the GT’s aural assault, furious acceleration above 4,000 rpm, and aggressive shifts from the ZF eight-speed deliver an emotional wallop that engages and thrills in equal measure. This is something you’ll never get from an EV.
The GT feels more agile than the RS6 Avant Performance on which it is based; the suspension tuning and lightweight carbon fibre bits conspire to reduce the nose-heavy understeer-prone characteristics of this platform. Turn-in is quick, the front end has more bite, and you can feel the rear differential kick the back end out just a tad when powering out of a bend. That said, the GT still shows some Audi aloofness of old. The steering is numb and there’s no real seat-of-the-pants sense of what the chassis is up to. You’re along for the ride, but what a ride it is.
On the way up to Wasaga, I stopped by the famous Rosebud Motel of Schitt’s Creek TV show fame that is in its final stages of renovation before being open for business. I was lucky the gate was open and I could get into the parking lot. The caretaker (yes, he wanted a picture of the Audi) said on the weekends, there’s a steady stream of Schitt Heads (yes, that’s what they call rabid fans of the show) that park on the road in front to gawk and take pictures.
At Wasaga Beach, my friend Paul took some cool shots of the car, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to linger. At the previously mentioned bar gig, an organizer of the big Monday night Burlington Cruisin’ Car Show (BCCS) saw the Audi and asked if I’d bring it to the event. With the promise of a premium spot in the “paddock” where they put the featured rides, how could I resist?
There were more than 400 cars at the cruise, and the RS6 Avant GT shone bright. Many attendees knew the car from seeing it at the Canadian International Auto Show this year. The BCCS runs every Monday and raises funds for the Canadian Tire Jumpstart program.
Audi could very well have buttoned up the current RS6 program with the formidable 621-hp RS6 Avant Performance, but somewhere deep in the halls of Ingolstadt, someone decided to turn the whole thing up to 11. Bless them. As a swan song for this Quattro V8 platform, the 2025 Audi RS6 Avant GT spreads its wings, hisses, and kicks serious wagon ass in the most gloriously nutty way imaginable. The likes of this we’ll never see again.
