Why I Believe the C5 Audi RS6 Is the Ultimate Sleeper

I have been the owner of a C5 RS6 for exactly 6 months now. So here is a little background: my first actual car (first vehicles were trucks) was a 2000 A6 2.7t, and I must say the car was a piece of work that is for sure. It fulfilled the expectations of the early 2000’s Audi/Volkswagens very early into my ownership, such as oil leaks, misfires, transmission/torque converter issues, and vacuum leaks. Well I tried my best to keep that car alive and driving, but after 20,000 miles when the odometer was reading 212,000 miles I believe, there was a CV axle related issue one day on my way to class on the highway and I decided it was time. Time for a new car, and time for the A6 and I to part ways. That day and the day it was loaded onto a trailer were on the list for the top 10 hardest days of my life, but if I only knew what was coming. Shortly before the Audi went on to a new owner to fix him up and turn around to sell it, I bought a 2008 Subaru legacy, which in essence was to get me by for the time being and help me build credit and learn how to live with a car payment, that car is now taking care of my sister and brother-in-law and she has many more years to come for them. I won’t go into detail about it for it is not relevant to the subject.

While under ownership of my A6 I would every once in a while see pictures of these what looked to be wide-bodied a6’s, me not knowing a whole lot at the time I figured they were just the V8 models of the A6, but then I started reading more and more about this mysterious wide-bodied machine. Then I fell in love. I was in awe at every aspect of this car from the timeless looks, to the powerplant, to the suspension and brakes but it turns out that wasn’t even scratching the surface. This car happens to be the 2003 Audi RS6. For those who do not know, these discreet monstrous looking machines were exactly how they looked back in 2003. Monstrous. A 4.2 liter V8 with two turbos strapped to it with a curb weight of just over 4000 pounds was keeping up with and taking the egos of Ferraris and Porsches could still comfortably seat 4. Side note: that 4.2 twin turbo V8 mentioned before? It made 450 horsepower and 415 lb-ft of torque on paper, and could launch the car from 0-60 in approximately 4.2 seconds, the numbers could have been underrated, could have been overrated, either way it seemed as an act of anarchy to the sports car industry back in the mid 2000’s.

RS6… RS… What does that even mean? RS meaning Renn Sport (Racing Sport) is the pinnacle of what Audi is capable of. Combining outstanding performance, detailed aggressive styling, yet comfort and refinement when you sit down and feel all of the high quality materials sort of wrap themselves around you. Your typical modern Audi RS product is fairly simple, you get a gorgeously styled car with fantastic aesthetics interior and exterior, and most important of all you get what essentially is a weekend track car underneath all of it. Quattro GMBH manufactures these cars and they put the best of their best into it, such as big powerful brakes, advanced suspension, and the biggest difference of all from an RS to a regular model, the engine. With a range of 400 horsepower turbocharged 4 cylinder, up to a 605 horsepower twin turbocharged V8, with a turbocharged inline 5 and twin turbo V6 in between. It all started back in the early 1990’s when Audi and Porsche worked together and the first RS was born. The RS2 was in a nutshell, an Audi 80 Avant that had a big turbo, some internal work to the engine done, and quite a few Porsche helpings. But it worked, very well actually. The RS2 was a turbo inline 5 that produced 315 hp delivered through a 6 speed manual gear box rocketing the car from 0-60 in about 4.8 seconds. If only then in 1994 had the mad scientists at Quattro GMBH known what was coming…

I’ve been rambling on and on but it is now time to get to the actual “sleeper” aspect of this car. Yes, it has wide fenders, the notable brushed aluminum S/RS mirrors, huge 14.4 inch drilled front rotors hugged by 8 piston calipers surrounded by 18 inch wheels that had 255/40 tires wrapped around them. (255s? those are as wide as a truck tire but its on a 4 door sedan!) But to the untrained eye, it’s just another ordinary C5 A6 that probably nickel and dimes the owner on a weekly basis… Even if you are unfamiliar with the RS6 and see it as an ordinary car as soon as you open the door you may be slightly in awe, for the interiors of these are still impressive by todays standards. For example, my RS6 has “Silver Nappa” Nappa leather seats with black accent trim around all of the edges of the seats which also subtly has RS6 imprinted into the leather. There also was a black leather option for the RS6. Now as you’re sitting in a seat and are trying to get comfortable due to the seats being rather stiff after 14 years, you take a look up and see an odd sight. The headliner looks and feels to be suede, which it essentially is, just in synthetic form. The headliner is composed of Alcantara which to those who are not familiar with it, its a blend of polyester and polyurethane, the advantages are really only the fact that it’s more durable. Disadvantages: it’s REALLY expensive. Then as you look around you take a look at the interior trim and also for example mine has the carbon fiber trim (yes it is real) but there was also a wood option exclusive to the RS6 which I cannot think of the name of it right now.. Also, you get the option of the “Warm Weather Package” which mine turns out to have, that includes rear side window manual shades, an automatic rear windshield shade, and the coolest most oddball feature of this car. The sunroof is a solar panel… Yes, a solar panel, people may question why its there and think that its dumb or useless which the function is extremely clever actually. On a warm sunny day if you’re about to go into the store and you don’t want to have the car be blistering hot when you come back in, simply tilt the sunroof up and turn the car off and you’ll start to hear air flow. Yes, the solar panel on the sunroof powers the blower motor to help circulate hot air out of the car. No, it does not really make that much of a difference due to the fan blowing at extremely low speeds but that’s beside the fact. It is a very neat feature included in the car and I had never heard of such a thing until I got mine, still crazy to think that’s 2003 technology. But looking on the inside of this car it just looks like your every day high end luxury car that is alright in speed but made mainly for comfort and aesthetics. That is true to a point, but then the car is turned over and fires up.

When the key is turned and all 8 start firing, the world inside that car flips upside down, if it is your first time in one you have to stop for a minute and think “wait what am I in?” Then you, or whomever is driving puts the car in drive (sadly no manual option for the C5 RS6 due to the lack of a manual transmission capable of the power and torque at the time :( but there are swaps out there that can be done!) and you start cruising and it rides how you would expect a German made mid-sized sedan to ride thanks to the DRC suspension fitted under the car ( the DRC is actually very bad if you start to have problems with it), I’ll explain the suspension in a minute, but everything seems good and normal until you bury the throttle into the floor and I must admit, the first time I did that on a test drive, I felt like I was going into light speed. Yes, the car may bog a bit from a launch or before you are in boost, but when you get in that 2200 rpm range and the turbos are spooling up there is only one way to describe that feeling: you just go. And if you are on a track or an old airstrip, anything that is not a public road because speeding is bad and dangerous, if the electronic limiter has been tuned out and you just keep that pedal buried, you can reach up to over 170 miles per hour. And when you’ve had enough of that, hit the brakes and feel the big calipers and rotors go to work. If you are out with some friends cruising some windy, twisty roads, the DRC suspension becomes your friend. DRC (Dynamic Ride Control) is common to a lot of todays suspensions for either sports cars or even trucks, but different/primitive in some peoples eyes. The simple way the suspension operates is it has a damper that will push more fluid into the shock to help control body roll through the corners. But amazingly it does work, comparing it to modern examples such as: magnetic ride control, a brand new version of dynamic ride control used in the Audi RS7 performance which uses air instead of hydraulic pressure, it does seem very primitive, but back in 2003 it was space age.

Comparing this car to modern day sleepers and crazy high horsepower sedans the C5 will still be the ultimate one in my eyes. Yes, the charger hellcat, CTS and ATS-v cars, modern RS cars, AMGs, BMW M cars, and the Ford Taurus SHO Chevy SS/Pontiac G8, all of them are truly amazing in their own way and I have such high respects for all of them, I mean you just have to. But there just isn’t that sleeper aspect with them. For example, the charger hellcat, any enthusiast can pick one out of a crowd thanks to the giant scoop on the hood and the big cat badges on the side. Or the CTS-V and its big hood scoop and carbon fiber exterior bits. Whereas the C5 just looks well… normal in an odd way, no crazy hood scoop, the intercoolers/ducts are part of the shape of the bumper, a very subtle lip on the trunk. I am not claiming either of these cars are sleepers and that any one is better than the other. But at the end of the day if you’re at a stop light and a hellcat pulls up next to you, you will know that that thing is fast, loud, and ‘murican and that you probably don’t want to piss that kitten off (unless you know for a damn fact you could hurt feelings). I know I don’t want to… But if you are unfamiliar with the Audi history and models and you pull up to a C5 RS6 at a light, you might not think much of it considering you don’t see them ever so maybe you’re put under the assumption they’re nothing special.

To bring this review to a conclusion, no the 14 year old, heavy, astronomically expensive to fix, problematic, temperamental as a teenage girl, Audi RS6 is not the best sleeper or high horsepower sedan to drive this earth, but in my opinion is the ultimate sleeper/platform for most modern day fast sedans and sleepers. This car was labeled a “supersedan” and I still think it is and it was the first one to ever truly show that label is true in my eyes. With there only being a total of 1,435 of these cars brought to the United States, (mine being 1 of 64, Ebony Pearl Effect/ Silver Nappa) the next time you see one, or if you get beat by one or you beat one, please take a moment to just sit back and remember what that thing really is. I have searched and searched to see how many are left on the road in the US but have had no luck. But for those of you out there that have one of these future classics or know someone who does, appreciate it like I do. My RS6 means the world to me and is pretty much like a child to me. I have been daily driving mine for almost 3 months and have noticed the temperamentalness of this car, but so far she has not let me down. I plan on getting another car to drive in the winter and to daily drive for I do not want to take any risks of this car getting severe damage to the exterior or anything mechanical. A few weeks ago she was backed into and put a hole in the bumper and I’m still a little upset with myself about it. This car has taken me many places to make memories, friends, and see things I’ve never seen before, and I plan for her to take me many many more over a stretch of a lifetime

But to bring this to a complete close, as stated before, if you ever see one of these please just appreciate the moment. They truly are something special in my eyes as well as in the eyes of and Audi enthusiast or fellow RS6 owner. Thank you for reading!!

Nick Wilkinson
2003 Audi RS6 (Annika)