The Audi RS 6: Station wagon on the outside, Porsche on the inside

This August, Overton Prestige, a car dealer in Derbyshire, England, got overwhelming attention for a vehicle it listed for sale. The car in question — a one-year-old Audi RS 6, described by petrol-heads as a “high-powered estate” — made headlines because its owner was Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. He had driven the 552 horse-powered car for around a year before putting it on the block. It seemed fitting that the prince who has time and again defied convention would choose the RS 6, which is clearly an unconventional car.

The RS 6 looks like a station wagon but has as much, if not more, power as a Porsche 911, a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. The 2018 version of the RS 6, which is one of the eight CBU (completely built-up) cars that Audi sells in India, belts out 605 horsepower, as against the 550 hp in the earlier version.

While only the R&D wonks at Audi can tell why they’ve beefed the car up with so much muscle, here are some possible reasons. One, not everyone can take a car geared for suburban mothers and stuff it with suspension that would make Spiderman envious, and power it up with a drive-train that can hold out in a head-to-head contest with any sports car. Audi wants to prove it can. Two, because there is a tiny population that wants the combined benefits of being able to cart around kids in the backseat, stuff the trunk with grocery bags, office files and tennis rackets, and still have the ability to speed down a highway, touching 100 km an hour in under four seconds. And three, there's a select bunch of A-listers who prefer to be seen in an understated car with overstated performance.

Regardless of what inspired its creators, one needs to only tap the RS 6’s pedal (RS stands for “racing sport”) to get a sense of the hyper-engineering that can propel a two-tonne car into the 100-kmh zone in 3.7 seconds.

Slip into the car and you encounter interiors that spell class all the way — right from the quilted leather seats to the flat-bottomed steering wheel that comes with F-1 style paddle-shift gears. There's a Bose sound system, a fold-out LCD screen, and typically audified dashboard that resembles the A6. There’re also carbon fibre accents along with the leather and Alcantara patches, besides ample space for the driver to rest elbows and access control switches.

The generously-sized front grill says it all — RS 6 and Quattro in larger font — making this a permanent all-wheel drive that’s firmly planted on the tarmac. (“Quattro” is Italian for “four” and is an allusion to four-wheel drive.).

There's more tech in the form of cylinder on demand, or COD, which pushes the envelope further on fuel efficiency by temporarily deactivating half the cylinders on low and medium engine load. When the driver accelerates hard, the car switches back to all-cylinder mode.

In some ways, the car feels it is shouldering more than it should be, but that’s on account of the light-weighting technology that Audi has infused it with through aluminium composite body panels. These effectively convert the vehicle into a unit that is powered by a big engine in a light body — the classic way to create a performance car with alien strength. The other car that's evoked a similar sensation has been the Jaguar XJR — also built in aluminium with a large engine. On the highway, the Audi is shatteringly quick, bounding to triple-digit speeds in the blink of an eye, its over 16-foot-long body never once feeling unwieldy or coming in the way of handling.

The standard features, which you would expect in a car that costs Rs 16.5 million, especially one of German make, include air suspension that seamlessly absorbs the bumps and craters on the roads. Audi also claims the car knocks out a respectable 9-plus km per litre of petrol, but that, of course, depends entirely on how it’s being driven, which is why the car's 75-litre fuel tank is perfectly sensible.

Despite being low slung, not once does the RS 6 scrape over speed breakers nor does its undercarriage kiss uneven bumps — even when it is being driven fast. For mainstream manufacturers, that's the sort of technology worth acquiring and commercialising, especially if you sell hundreds of thousands of cars every year.

Take the RS 6 for a drive and you can’t help but notice the special treatment it gets. At one hotel, I was ushered past the security desk by the guard. And on a busy street with hundreds of Mumbaikars celebrating Dussehra, the revellers promptly made way for the RS 6 to pass. The car’s size and its throaty engine rev had clearly announced its arrival from a distance.