Farewell Audi RS6 Avant will be called GT as first teaser emerges

Audi Sport has started teasing the farewell version of the current generation RS6 Avant by means of a single image confirming the final send-off will bear the GT suffix when it goes on-sale later this year.

“Extreme” goodbye

Hinted by divisional boss, Sebastian Grams, later year, the GT will also be the final iteration to make use of a combustion engine as part of Audi and Audi Sport’s move towards complete electrification before 2030.

ALSO READ: Audi RS6 set to receive “extreme” farewell in 2024

In addition, the GT will bring the curtain down on the A6 derived model’s use of a non-electric powerplant as a result of Audi’s new naming structure in which all even numbered models; A4, A6 and A8, will become dedicated electric vehicles, while the uneven A3, A5 and A7 will have combustion motivation with EV assistance.

“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 told Britain’s Autocar last year.

What to expect

Billing the final encore as “the model” in reference to Audi Head of Design Marc Lichte’s description of it being the most “mind-blowing” RS model Ingolstadt has ever made, Grams defended the division’s decision to model the GT on the RS6 by saying, “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”.

First noticed by Spain’s motor.es by way of an image posted on Audi Denmark’s Instagram page, the RS6 Avant is expected to retain the standard model’s mild-hybrid assisted 4.0 TFSI V8, but with outputs in excess of the 463kW/850Nm made by the already boosted-up RS6 Avant Performance.

Reported as far back as 2017 as becoming a alleged plug-in hybrid pumping out 515kW/850Nm, the GT will take reported styling hints from the RS6 IMSA GTO Concept that debuted in 2020 as a tribute to the 90 Quattro IMSA GTO that dominated to the IMSA Camel GTO series in 1989 in the United States to such an extent that it got banned.

As it stands though, no further details, including an expected date of reveal is known, though expectations are more details will be announced soon now that the official moniker has been disclosed.

NOW READ: Audi RS 6 and RS 7 pair packs a proper performance punch