Audi RS6 set to receive “extreme” farewell in 2024

With a move to plug-in hybrid propulsion set to take place next year, Audi has hinted that the farewell version of the current mild-hybrid RS6 Avant will be its powerful ever made.

Although available in two distinct versions; the standard RS6 that develops 441kW/800Nm and the Performance revealed last year that delivers 463kW/850Nm, Audi Sport boss, Sebastian Grams, remarked that the Four Rings’ halo model will take a radical step forward before Ingolstadt ends combustion engine vehicle production in Europe in 2026.

Beginning of the end

In what has been viewed as a prequel to the end of Audi’s current era of RS models, Head of Design, Marc Lichte, remarked in an interview in February this year that the farewell models will be “mind-blowing” and that senior Audi executives “went crazy” when presented with a line-up of incoming models at an internal meeting in said month.

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“I promise you, both EVs and ICE will be impressive. Especially the last-generation ICE RS models, they will be bwoah… mind blowing. You will be surprised,” Lichte was quoted by Britain’s Top Gear as saying.

An extreme goodbye

Addressing the outgoing RS6 that will become the all-electric RS6 e-tron after 2024, Grams told Britain’s Autocar that the so-called “extreme” version set to be positioned above the RS6 Performance, will be “the model” as its importance within the RS range needs to vindicated fully.

“We are always trying to take the maximum out of the technology. This is how I challenge my R&D department. We can go even further. We can make the car even stronger, even more performance, even sharper,” Grams said.

“But don’t forget the RS models are used on a daily basis: we are not trying to lose our DNA. An RS model needs to be an all-day car, but it needs to give performance if needed.”

In making the announcement about the RS6 a day after confirming Audi’s commitment to the 2.5 TFSI five-cylinder engine, Grams said the pumped-up RS6 will debut next year, along with Audi Sport’s first electric model based on the PPE platform developed by sister Volkswagen Group marque, Porsche.

Despite Grams not disclosing any more details, Autocar reports that the apparent preview of what the hardcore RS6 could look like, had already been revealed in 2020 in the shape of the RS6 IMSA GTO Concept.

Could this be it?

A homage to the 90 IMSA GTO quattro that dominated the North American IMSA Camel GTO series in 1989 to such an extent that it got banned, the concept sported the same red, black, white and silver exterior colours, a single-piece gloss black lower air intake, retro white quattro branded wheels, a prominent rear bootlid spoiler, GTO badges, side exhaust outlets and a stripped out interior.

While the eventual production model is unlikely to come with the latter, some of the exterior elements could well be carried over, although as mentioned, nothing has been confirmed outright and will only become apparent towards the end of the year.

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