The 700hp Wagon War: Abt Sportsline, B&B, and Kicherer
While Audi, BMW, and Mercedes have thrown their RS6 Avant, M5 Touring, and E63 AMG Wagons into the boxing ring, there has been another, high horsepower battle. Yet this battle is a fight between various tuners over who can improve upon the most powerful production sport wagon ever created: the 2008 Audi RS6 Avant. German tuners B&B, MTM, Abt Sportsline, and Kicherer have all engineered serious performance packages that offer around 700hp, and push the RS6 to supercar benchmark of 200 miles per hour. We told you about the MTM RS6 R earlier this month, and its important numbers were: 656hp, 581lb-ft, 192mph top end, and sprint to sixty in about 3.9 seconds. Rival tuners B&B, Abt Sportsline, and Kicherer take similar approaches, each retuning the ECU and maximizing the potential of the twin-turbo 5.0L V10.
Abt Sportsline offers the smallest rims at 20 inches and the least power at 691hp and 590l-bft of torque, but delivers the best styling enhancements. Performance tuning enables the Abt tuned RS6 to rocket to sixty in less than 3.9 seconds, and continue on to 186mph. This power is achieved through a new intercooler and a thorough ECU remapping. Rival B&B offers 21inch rims, the most horsepower with a prodigious 705hp, and best performance, with a claimed “less than 3.6 seconds” sprint to sixty, and Ferrari F430 Scuderia beating 199mph. In addition, B&B installs a high performance sport exhaust and lowers the ride height by an inch. Lastly, Kicherer’s package offers 700hp and 577lb-ft of torque which the company claims propels the RS6 to an undoubtedly conservative 175mph and to 100 km/h (62.5 mph) in an additionally underestimated 4.3 seconds. Kickerer delivers on performance, but has abysmally failed on styling. Offering ostentatious 22inch black rims, the Kickerer RS6 offends the blind and upsets strong stomachs.
In the coming months, also look for Audi to release a higher-horsepower RS6 “Plus.” As the Avant manufacture did with the last generation C5 RS6, Audi will modestly improve the performance (probably to about 630-640hp) and offer a bulletproof warranty. Until that time though, Germany’s tuners have you covered. Regardless of which tuning package you decide on, rest assured that your children will never be late to school again.
August 21st (Source: Autoblog, Edmunds, and GTspirit)
Abt Sportsline
B&B
Kicherer
