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27 January

Audi promises amazing grace

Dan Trent writes:

Greetings from Le Castellet – AKA Paul Ricard circuit – for the launch of the new 572bhp Audi RS6. A sleepless night beckons as we await our first go in the most powerful Audi ever made on a circuit famous for its high speeds and ultra grippy surface.

Since arrival at the adjoining hotel we’ve been serenaded by Hungarian singer Sheeda (no, we’d not heard of her either) who belted out Amazing Grace and proclaimed her ‘love at first sight’ for the A3 cabriolet, the other car we’ll be driving on the event. This slightly cringeworthy moment behind us we settled down to some good old fashioned gossiping at the bar.

Discoveries include the fact that each of the RS6 demo cars on the event is chewing through a full set of tyres EVERY DAY. Given that they’re 275/35R20s and the event has been running for nine days already you can only guess at the budget for rubber alone! Even this generous tyre allowance wasn’t enough for Tiff Needell though, here before us for 5th Gear and punishing the RS6 so hard the German Audi engineers threatened to have him forcibly removed from the car. Oops!

Check soon for our full first drive on what promises to be one of the most awesome cars of 2008!