It's always interesting to see how the RS6 compares to a dedicated sportscar. Yes, it's a big wagon with four comfy seats, but it's got a sledgehammer under the hood. Unfortunately, the Jaguar F-Type R AWD is more than a match for it, as you are about to find out from this drag race.
Neither the XE nor the XF have true performance versions at the moment, so it's up to the F-Type R to carry the mantle. The engine it uses is the same 5.0-liter supercharged V8 as in the XFR-S and other such models. However, the big difference is that Jaguar engineers have found a way to squeeze all-wheel-drive into their sexiest car.
The result is a thrilling soundtrack combined with mental acceleration available for a lot less money than an Aston Martin. The addition of AWD also nullified the only major advantage the RS6 always had over conventional sportscars.
On paper, Audi's smaller twin-turbo 4.0 TFSI packs 10 extra horsepower and 20 Nm more than the Jaguar. However, that doesn't matter when they have to lug around hundreds of extra kilograms.
You may notice that the F-Type left a fraction of a second earlier, but the Audi put down a huge strip of rubber from the rear wheels, proof that it was trying really hard.
The battle between fast Audi wagons and sportscars is never going to end, and we are totally okay with that. However, for the sake of being fair, we'll mention that the new RS6 performance would probably win this race. It has 605 horsepower and a few other small revisions, plus the latest version of the ZF 8HP transmission.
Considering it has almost the same output as a Lamborghini Huracan, we're not surprised that the mightiest RS model costs €117,000. However, the sexy F-Type R AWD is also an expensive toy at €112,800. To make things even more complicated, Jaguar is going to launch the F-Type SVR soon and it will have around 600 horsepower.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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