Saturday Night Teh Tarik Session Part 2: Audi A6 3.0 TFSI driven

The thing about Malaysia is that we love our al fresco dining. Though not at expensive coffee joints most of the time but mainly at our local mamak stalls or shops and certain tomyam stalls too. Of course there are those who frequent pubs, bars and bistros too but that is for other things that most petrolheads seldom do if they want to talk about cars. 

And in continuing the tale of two cars driven a few saturdays back we now leave the Volkswagen Golf R Mk6 and head over to something akin to a world class bodybuilder in a well cut suit, the Audi A6 3.0 TFSI Quattro C7. Launched in 2011, the C7 Audi A6 is the fourth generation A6 and is Audi's mid-sized luxury car competing with the likes of the BMW 5 series and the Mercedes Benz E-class. The car in here is an early C7 A6 3.0 TFSI.

I have to say that when it comes to styling Audi just uses photoshop with only the zoom function working. Or the opposite. I believe the designer of all recent Audi sedans must have started with the current A4 and then magnified it up by 20%  to become the A6 and then magnified up the design by another 20% to create the A8. I think that this is quite correct as once my friend and I were tailing an officially imported A6 Hybrid and as we got closer we started guessing whether the car was an A6 or not. As we got closer that car turned out to be an A8. The thing was that my friend owns an Audi A4 so he isn't Audi illiterate. I mean you pay over RM600,000 for a brand spanking new A8 and someone thinks you're driving an A6? No one would make such a mistake if you drove up in either a BMW 7 series or a Mercedes S-class.

So the C7 A6 looks like an A8. This is a good thing if you own an A6 but it is definitely otherwise if you own an A8. The one we had a go in was black in colour and had 19 inch wheels and tyres. It looked big and felt big around the parking lot. Mid-sized luxury sedans are actually the size of full sized luxury sedans from the 1990s. They are nimbler to drive but you know there is some width to take into account these days.

This A6 is also fully equipped with everything you want and can want in a luxury car. The seats are comfy and supportive, the materials used were fabulous for its category and it felt very well screwed together. We scrolled through the Audi MMI (Multi Media Interface) and after a few minutes we decided to stop as there were too many options. Cars these days don't want us to drive them. Instead they just want us to scroll left or right, up and down looking for radio settings, USB ports, steering speed, suspension stiffness, throttle response, maps, voice activated systems and other what nots. Driving the car is secondary.

So we forgot all about that, went to the the most important bits, adjusted to the correct driving position (easy to do with all the seating options) pushed the start button, flicked the gear lever into D and drove off. Damn. The car went like a rocket. A stock C7 Audi A6 3.0 TFSI is equipped with a  3.0liter V6 engine that has direct injection and a supercharger and makes 310hp and 440Nm torque. Yes, this is the same engine used in the Audi S4 but clothed in a slightly larger body. It channels the power it makes through a 7 speed S Tronic dual clutch transmission to the all wheel drive Quattro system. This car however did not feel like it had 310hp and 440Nm torque. It had more.

You give it the boot and only the distant burble of the V6 is heard and suddenly you're already at the corner you were eye-balling. Stock acceleration figures put the A6 3.0 TFSI Quattro at 0-100kmh in 5.5seconds and a top speed limited to 250kmh. This one felt like something slightly faster. Low 5seconds at least but inside the car, it is a sea of calmness and serenity. It was putting almost 400hp and felt as fast as my friend's old 400bhp Lancer Evolution 7 I drove before. but its width, length and size as well as high levels comfortable soundproofing make this a serene place to be. This car, according to the chap who drove it was tuned up a notch. So stomping the accelerator makes ridiculously quick progress. I think this tuned Audi A6 has close to 500Nm of torque. So, close to 400hp and almost 500nm makes this A6 closer than before to the Audi S6. That has a 4.0liter twin turbo V8, 420hp and 550Nm torque. This could be a 'budget' supersaloon in my books.

It may not be chuckable. You don't chuck an A6 around like you would do a Lancer Evolution or a Nissan GTR. You could, but its not meant to be. The steering is nice and accurate although not as feelsome as the rear wheel driven Mercedes E-class (pure steering, uncorrupted by power to the front wheels). The dampers may have the usual Audi magnetic ride options but even set in Dynamic (or in layman's terms - sports) the car feels no difference to when you set it to automatic or comfort mode. When driving the A6, the best setting was the suspension to be in automatic so that it compensates for the slightly bad Malaysian road surfaces but put the S Tronic DSG into Sports mode to keep the revs optimum.

What you do with this car then is to pulverise the straights with its power and then brake hard, turn in gently and then mid-corner give it some booty. If you did this a little too early, there is power understeer to think about. The front end feels very nose heavy and wants to edge out of its line. I suppose this is inherently large sized Audi handling. Somehow, large Audi's still feel very traditional Audi in which they feel as if the weight of the engine in front sits way infront of the front axle. Much like holding an arrow by its tail with the pointy end up front and moving it left to right. So less scruff, but gentle movements. Just enjoy surfing the huge wave of torque.

You could buy a brand new one with only 310hp for RM500,000+ at the authorised dealers or somewhere in the region of RM300,000 for an unregistered grey imported one. Buy that and spend some money chipping the darn thing. And you would get what the chap who owns the Golf R Mk6 in the part 1 of this article a 'real world RS4'.

I call it working within what you've got. As here in Malaysia, the actual purchase price of an RS4 or an RS6 is astronomical. Road tax for a 4.0 RS6 is RM6,598.00. Road tax for a 3.0 A6 like this is only R,2,117.50. Add insurance, say RM3,000 for every RM200,000 (after NCB) and imagine insuring your RS6 for RM500,000 minimum and RM250,000 for your A6. Trust me, you need to insure these sort of cars close to the sum of your loan if not you're asking for trouble.

So there you have it folks. An performance Audi driven, and enjoyed. Anyone want me to review their personal cars and have it featured here like the ones featured here? Ada berani?

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