Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. News

Jon Olsson’s 1000-hp Audi RS 6 Avant is a DTM-inspired dream wagon

Ronan Glon
By

With 552 horsepower under the hood, the RS 6 Avant is the most extreme station wagon that Audi has ever built. Swedish professional skier Jon Olsson believed that there was room for improvement, so he teamed up with Koenigsegg’s former chief engineer and designed an even more hardcore version of the family hauler.

Olsson’s first order of business was to squeeze more power out of the RS 6’s twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter TFSI V8 engine by making numerous modifications including adding a pair of beefy 18-karat gold anodized turbochargers and a straight-pipe race exhaust system designed by Milltek Sport. All told, the eight cylinder’s output has been bumped to a whopping 950 horsepower if it burns regular pump gas and over 1,000 horsepower if it is fed with high-octane race fuel.

Performance specifications have not been published yet. However, to put the aforementioned figures into perspective, consider that a bone stock RS 6 Avant sprints from zero to 62 mph in about 3.9 seconds, which is faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS.

Related

The wagon sits a lot lower than its regular-production counterpart thanks to a suspension system that has been upgraded with components sourced from Intrax, and the prodigious amount of power generated by the tuned TFSI is kept in check by upgraded Movit brakes on all four corners. Interestingly, Olsson’s RS 6 remains fully street legal – at least in Sweden – in spite of the extensive mechanical modifications and the skier plans on using it as a daily driver.

Visually, the RS 6 screams power thanks to a custom-built body kit inspired by the cars that compete in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) championship. The front end gains a deep front bumper with a sizable splitter made out of carbon fiber and a blacked-out radiator grille, while the rear end has been upgraded with a roof-mounted spoiler and a huge air diffuser that integrates a pair of oval exhaust outlets. Multi-spoke alloy wheels tucked under carbon fiber fender flares add a finishing touch to the track-inspired look.

When he drives up to the slopes, Olsson can keep the inside of his wagon clean by storing his skies in a clear-coated carbon fiber roof box manufacturer by 56 Nord. The box reportedly took the company over a year to design and build.

Spring is here and the skiing season is quickly coming to an end, meaning that the RS 6 likely won’t see snow until later this year. That doesn’t mean it’s going to sit in a garage, and Jon is planning on driving it in this year’s edition of the Gumball 3000 rally that will run from Stockholm, Sweden, to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon
Contributor
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Microeconomics and a little magic help bring the 2020 Audi RS 6 Avant to U.S.
2020 audi rs 6 coming to the united states with 600 horsepower avant 1

Previous

Next

Read more
Audi Sport will unleash 6 new, redesigned performance cars in the next 4 months
audi sport announces plans to show six new models before 2020 car teaser

Audi Sport is preparing a major lineup expansion that calls for the launch of six new or redesigned models. Automakers normally take years to release six cars, but Audi's go-fast division plans to unveil all of them within the next four months. Impossible? Don't bet against it. The company released a dark teaser image to announce the newcomers without fully revealing their identities.

While we can't ask Audi to turn the lights on, take another photo, and send it over, we can speculate about what the brand plans to launch by the end of 2019. At the bottom end of the range, the RS Q3 will return for a second generation and be available in two body styles. The first will be a sportier version of the regular Q3, while the second will be based on the more stylish Q3 Sportback that was introduced online recently.

Read more
2020 Audi S6 sedan with performance-enhancing mild-hybrid tech will come to U.S.
2020 audi s6 us specs and pricing

Audi is peppering its lineup with sportier versions of its existing models. It recently announced a raft of diesel mild hybrids that won't be sold in the United States, as well as the gasoline mild-hybrid S6 and S7. Those  last two models always seemed like a safe bet for the U.S. and, sure enough, the 2020 Audi S6 is about to go on sale here.

In Audi speak, S denotes midlevel performance models. The S6 is sportier than the Audi A6 it's based on, but not as extreme as the range-topping RS models. The 2020 S6 uses a mild-hybrid powertrain built around a 2.9-liter V6 engine. The V6 has a conventional, exhaust-driven turbocharger, as well as an electric compressor. Spun by an electric motor, the electric compressor can develop boost very quickly, eliminating the dreaded lag in throttle response associated with conventional turbochargers. Audi claims the electric compressor's response time is under 250 milliseconds.

Read more