Audi track to track

NH46, 11:30pm

There’s a steady flow of traffic on the dark highway to Coimbatore. Our three-car convoy is cantering along coolly, remaining stoically calm even as car after car slow down, their sleepy occupants peering incredulously at us and eventually zipping away as the trio remains impervious to any bait to race down the highway. I can’t blame them. Running into a menacing 553bhp Audi RS7, a subtle yet potent 420bhp Audi S6 and the timeless sportscar, the Audi TT, bunched together on an open highway, begs disbelief. This must be some kind of race, right? Nah, but we do have a date with the Kari Motor Speedway (KMS) early next morning. And to think, this intrepid trio will have tucked into 500km of public roads after the morning’s hammering at the Madras Motor Race track (MMRT). And this is just the beginning.

Earlier that day: MMRT, 7:55am

Fast and fragile. It is common wisdom that the faster a car, the more fragile it is. If so, how fragile would Audi’s frisky TT, svelte S6 and the wicked RS7 be? We are about to find out in excruciating detail as we embark on the ambitious Tri-Circuit Challenge. As if setting hot laps at three of India’s race tracks isn’t brutal enough, on the Tri-Circuit Challenge, the same three cars will be driven over 3700km of public roads to get to the three race tracks. The Audi India engineers and our planning team at Autocar India knew that it was a bit of a gamble. I am partial to the machines and feel that their reputation for being dainty is more because of overly protective and unadventurous owners rather than mechanical frailty.

I am yanked out of my thoughts as Aditya Patel walks into the pits. He’s early. Over the last four years, the Audi-backed driver has clearly inculcated a Germanic streak as he cut his teeth racing the VW Polo Cup, the VW Scirocco R Cup and the hyper-competitive ADAC GT Masters series in Europe. His young but seasoned hands are going to put the three cars through their paces at each track. After a quick hello, I show him out to the main straight, where the three hotties are posing for a photo shoot.

While we wrap up a few shots, Aditya and I chat about the running order, and discuss how these three Audis will stack up at the end of the day. The manic RS7 is the obvious favourite. I secretly hold a hope that the discreet S6 surprises us. Despite it having adequate horsepower, I am certain its soft suspension setup will undoubtedly hamper it on the track. The TT is a bit of a dark horse — it is the least powerful but its small dimensions, tight suspension and massive rear wing could spring a surprise.

The TT’s stiff, race-track-oriented suspension catches me by surprise as we head out on the warm-up lap. In the driver’s seat, Aditya is completely at home, having raced a TT and won at the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2012. “On a race track, it is beautiful. The cornering speeds are something else. See, you barely have to slow down,” he says, as we rocket through C6. The TT seems to switch direction without any intermediate transition phase. Bam. Bam. Bam. The only give-away is the squeal of tyres and a seatbelt that’s threatening to squish me as I get tossed around by the G forces.

Aditya is expertly using the TT’s power and agility and every millimetre of the track. The kerbs give me a ferocious massage every now and then as Aditya builds up to speed and heads into the flying lap. “This is like a big go-kart,” he quips as he attacks the chicane. “It’s so easy, I don’t have to put in any effort as long as I slow it down in time.” I expect the TT to be a bit understeer-y, necessitating a point-and-shoot style of driving. While it has a slight hint of understeer, the TT is surprisingly neat and adjustable in its track-attack mode. The first flying lap yields a 2min04sec time, close to Aditya’s estimates. A second and final attempt slices the time down into the high 2min03.7sec. The TT may be as fast as expected, but its composure is beyond my wildest expectations.

Next, it’s the turn of the Autobahn express, the S6. Despite selecting the Dynamic mode on the Audi Drive Select, we can barely feel it when we whack the kerbs! However, Aditya has bumped up rear tyre pressures and dropped front tyre pressures to be able to get the rear to step out and mitigate the softly sprung, nose-heavy sedan’s tendency to understeer. “It’ll hopefully help me line up the car before the apex, so that I can just drive it out,” explains Aditya. On the warm-up lap, Aditya and I seem to be on the same page — the S6, despite its power advantage, is unlikely to be faster than the TT.

On the hot lap, the S6 decides to show its hand. Aditya’s tweaking has improved turn-in; the V8’s torque is slammed into the tarmac by the quattro four-wheel-drive system. The longer and faster corners punish the S6 as the front pushes wide, taking a big toll on the tyres. “It’s not the easiest car to drive fast around a race track like this. But it’s doing well,” sums up Aditya. When we cross the finish line, the 2min0.05sec time means the S6 has proved both of us wrong, very wrong.

Oh. My. God. We’ve hit the track in the 553bhp RS7 and my brain has decided to take a giant pause. “When you hear 560-odd bhp, ESP off doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Aditya laughs, and chooses to keep the ESP partially engaged. Just to be careful, he insists. In the passenger seat, it sounds like a load of rubbish to me. The video cameras are rolling, but on the entire hot lap, I find myself incapable of coherent speech as the RS7 launches a frenzied, half-crazed attack on the MMRT. Two individual corners merge into one. Straight sections start to feel like corners. Distances shrink rapidly and the track feels a lot narrower. The RS7 is the most powerful car that Audi makes, more powerful than the R8 V10 Plus, and if you were expecting its part-luxury leanings to get in the way of being a car fit enough to wear the RS badge, think again.  

“Points into corners real quick! This thing really keeps you on your toes! It’s so much quicker than I imagined it to be!” interjects Aditya between corners. My brain clunks slowly back into operation as the smell of burning rubber seeps into the cabin. Speech slurring a little, I remind Aditya to nurse the tyres for our journey ahead. I can sense him holding back, and despite that, the RS7’s lap time is faster than the S6 by half a second!

Back in the pitlane, Aditya and I admit to have been pleasantly surprised by the S6. It may not be the quickest, but it is the biggest surprise for both of us. We say goodbye and promise to meet up the next morning in Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway. Aditya will be flying down to Coimbatore, but Audi’s intrepid trio have to get there on their own steam.

NH46, 11:30pm

There’s a steady flow of traffic on the dark highway to Coimbatore. Our three-car convoy is cantering along coolly, remaining stoically calm even as car after car slow down, their sleepy occupants peering incredulously at us and eventually zipping away as the trio remains impervious to any bait to race down the highway. I can’t blame them. Running into a menacing 553bhp Audi RS7, a subtle yet potent 420bhp Audi S6 and the timeless sportscar, the Audi TT, bunched together on an open highway, begs disbelief. This must be some kind of race, right? Nah, but we do have a date with the Kari Motor Speedway (KMS) early next morning. And to think, this intrepid trio will have tucked into 500km of public roads after the morning’s hammering at the Madras Motor Race track (MMRT). And this is just the beginning.

Earlier that day: MMRT, 7:55am

Fast and fragile. It is common wisdom that the faster a car, the more fragile it is. If so, how fragile would Audi’s frisky TT, svelte S6 and the wicked RS7 be? We are about to find out in excruciating detail as we embark on the ambitious Tri-Circuit Challenge. As if setting hot laps at three of India’s race tracks isn’t brutal enough, on the Tri-Circuit Challenge, the same three cars will be driven over 3700km of public roads to get to the three race tracks. The Audi India engineers and our planning team at Autocar India knew that it was a bit of a gamble. I am partial to the machines and feel that their reputation for being dainty is more because of overly protective and unadventurous owners rather than mechanical frailty.

I am yanked out of my thoughts as Aditya Patel walks into the pits. He’s early. Over the last four years, the Audi-backed driver has clearly inculcated a Germanic streak as he cut his teeth racing the VW Polo Cup, the VW Scirocco R Cup and the hyper-competitive ADAC GT Masters series in Europe. His young but seasoned hands are going to put the three cars through their paces at each track. After a quick hello, I show him out to the main straight, where the three hotties are posing for a photo shoot.

While we wrap up a few shots, Aditya and I chat about the running order, and discuss how these three Audis will stack up at the end of the day. The manic RS7 is the obvious favourite. I secretly hold a hope that the discreet S6 surprises us. Despite it having adequate horsepower, I am certain its soft suspension setup will undoubtedly hamper it on the track. The TT is a bit of a dark horse — it is the least powerful but its small dimensions, tight suspension and massive rear wing could spring a surprise.

The TT’s stiff, race-track-oriented suspension catches me by surprise as we head out on the warm-up lap. In the driver’s seat, Aditya is completely at home, having raced a TT and won at the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2012. “On a race track, it is beautiful. The cornering speeds are something else. See, you barely have to slow down,” he says, as we rocket through C6. The TT seems to switch direction without any intermediate transition phase. Bam. Bam. Bam. The only give-away is the squeal of tyres and a seatbelt that’s threatening to squish me as I get tossed around by the G forces.

Aditya is expertly using the TT’s power and agility and every millimetre of the track. The kerbs give me a ferocious massage every now and then as Aditya builds up to speed and heads into the flying lap. “This is like a big go-kart,” he quips as he attacks the chicane. “It’s so easy, I don’t have to put in any effort as long as I slow it down in time.” I expect the TT to be a bit understeer-y, necessitating a point-and-shoot style of driving. While it has a slight hint of understeer, the TT is surprisingly neat and adjustable in its track-attack mode. The first flying lap yields a 2min04sec time, close to Aditya’s estimates. A second and final attempt slices the time down into the high 2min03.7sec. The TT may be as fast as expected, but its composure is beyond my wildest expectations.

Next, it’s the turn of the Autobahn express, the S6. Despite selecting the Dynamic mode on the Audi Drive Select, we can barely feel it when we whack the kerbs! However, Aditya has bumped up rear tyre pressures and dropped front tyre pressures to be able to get the rear to step out and mitigate the softly sprung, nose-heavy sedan’s tendency to understeer. “It’ll hopefully help me line up the car before the apex, so that I can just drive it out,” explains Aditya. On the warm-up lap, Aditya and I seem to be on the same page — the S6, despite its power advantage, is unlikely to be faster than the TT.

On the hot lap, the S6 decides to show its hand. Aditya’s tweaking has improved turn-in; the V8’s torque is slammed into the tarmac by the quattro four-wheel-drive system. The longer and faster corners punish the S6 as the front pushes wide, taking a big toll on the tyres. “It’s not the easiest car to drive fast around a race track like this. But it’s doing well,” sums up Aditya. When we cross the finish line, the 2min0.05sec time means the S6 has proved both of us wrong, very wrong.

Oh. My. God. We’ve hit the track in the 553bhp RS7 and my brain has decided to take a giant pause. “When you hear 560-odd bhp, ESP off doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Aditya laughs, and chooses to keep the ESP partially engaged. Just to be careful, he insists. In the passenger seat, it sounds like a load of rubbish to me. The video cameras are rolling, but on the entire hot lap, I find myself incapable of coherent speech as the RS7 launches a frenzied, half-crazed attack on the MMRT. Two individual corners merge into one. Straight sections start to feel like corners. Distances shrink rapidly and the track feels a lot narrower. The RS7 is the most powerful car that Audi makes, more powerful than the R8 V10 Plus, and if you were expecting its part-luxury leanings to get in the way of being a car fit enough to wear the RS badge, think again.  

“Points into corners real quick! This thing really keeps you on your toes! It’s so much quicker than I imagined it to be!” interjects Aditya between corners. My brain clunks slowly back into operation as the smell of burning rubber seeps into the cabin. Speech slurring a little, I remind Aditya to nurse the tyres for our journey ahead. I can sense him holding back, and despite that, the RS7’s lap time is faster than the S6 by half a second!

Back in the pitlane, Aditya and I admit to have been pleasantly surprised by the S6. It may not be the quickest, but it is the biggest surprise for both of us. We say goodbye and promise to meet up the next morning in Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway. Aditya will be flying down to Coimbatore, but Audi’s intrepid trio have to get there on their own steam.

NH46, 11:30pm

There’s a steady flow of traffic on the dark highway to Coimbatore. Our three-car convoy is cantering along coolly, remaining stoically calm even as car after car slow down, their sleepy occupants peering incredulously at us and eventually zipping away as the trio remains impervious to any bait to race down the highway. I can’t blame them. Running into a menacing 553bhp Audi RS7, a subtle yet potent 420bhp Audi S6 and the timeless sportscar, the Audi TT, bunched together on an open highway, begs disbelief. This must be some kind of race, right? Nah, but we do have a date with the Kari Motor Speedway (KMS) early next morning. And to think, this intrepid trio will have tucked into 500km of public roads after the morning’s hammering at the Madras Motor Race track (MMRT). And this is just the beginning.

Earlier that day: MMRT, 7:55am

Fast and fragile. It is common wisdom that the faster a car, the more fragile it is. If so, how fragile would Audi’s frisky TT, svelte S6 and the wicked RS7 be? We are about to find out in excruciating detail as we embark on the ambitious Tri-Circuit Challenge. As if setting hot laps at three of India’s race tracks isn’t brutal enough, on the Tri-Circuit Challenge, the same three cars will be driven over 3700km of public roads to get to the three race tracks. The Audi India engineers and our planning team at Autocar India knew that it was a bit of a gamble. I am partial to the machines and feel that their reputation for being dainty is more because of overly protective and unadventurous owners rather than mechanical frailty.

I am yanked out of my thoughts as Aditya Patel walks into the pits. He’s early. Over the last four years, the Audi-backed driver has clearly inculcated a Germanic streak as he cut his teeth racing the VW Polo Cup, the VW Scirocco R Cup and the hyper-competitive ADAC GT Masters series in Europe. His young but seasoned hands are going to put the three cars through their paces at each track. After a quick hello, I show him out to the main straight, where the three hotties are posing for a photo shoot.

While we wrap up a few shots, Aditya and I chat about the running order, and discuss how these three Audis will stack up at the end of the day. The manic RS7 is the obvious favourite. I secretly hold a hope that the discreet S6 surprises us. Despite it having adequate horsepower, I am certain its soft suspension setup will undoubtedly hamper it on the track. The TT is a bit of a dark horse — it is the least powerful but its small dimensions, tight suspension and massive rear wing could spring a surprise.

The TT’s stiff, race-track-oriented suspension catches me by surprise as we head out on the warm-up lap. In the driver’s seat, Aditya is completely at home, having raced a TT and won at the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2012. “On a race track, it is beautiful. The cornering speeds are something else. See, you barely have to slow down,” he says, as we rocket through C6. The TT seems to switch direction without any intermediate transition phase. Bam. Bam. Bam. The only give-away is the squeal of tyres and a seatbelt that’s threatening to squish me as I get tossed around by the G forces.

Aditya is expertly using the TT’s power and agility and every millimetre of the track. The kerbs give me a ferocious massage every now and then as Aditya builds up to speed and heads into the flying lap. “This is like a big go-kart,” he quips as he attacks the chicane. “It’s so easy, I don’t have to put in any effort as long as I slow it down in time.” I expect the TT to be a bit understeer-y, necessitating a point-and-shoot style of driving. While it has a slight hint of understeer, the TT is surprisingly neat and adjustable in its track-attack mode. The first flying lap yields a 2min04sec time, close to Aditya’s estimates. A second and final attempt slices the time down into the high 2min03.7sec. The TT may be as fast as expected, but its composure is beyond my wildest expectations.

Next, it’s the turn of the Autobahn express, the S6. Despite selecting the Dynamic mode on the Audi Drive Select, we can barely feel it when we whack the kerbs! However, Aditya has bumped up rear tyre pressures and dropped front tyre pressures to be able to get the rear to step out and mitigate the softly sprung, nose-heavy sedan’s tendency to understeer. “It’ll hopefully help me line up the car before the apex, so that I can just drive it out,” explains Aditya. On the warm-up lap, Aditya and I seem to be on the same page — the S6, despite its power advantage, is unlikely to be faster than the TT.

On the hot lap, the S6 decides to show its hand. Aditya’s tweaking has improved turn-in; the V8’s torque is slammed into the tarmac by the quattro four-wheel-drive system. The longer and faster corners punish the S6 as the front pushes wide, taking a big toll on the tyres. “It’s not the easiest car to drive fast around a race track like this. But it’s doing well,” sums up Aditya. When we cross the finish line, the 2min0.05sec time means the S6 has proved both of us wrong, very wrong.

Oh. My. God. We’ve hit the track in the 553bhp RS7 and my brain has decided to take a giant pause. “When you hear 560-odd bhp, ESP off doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Aditya laughs, and chooses to keep the ESP partially engaged. Just to be careful, he insists. In the passenger seat, it sounds like a load of rubbish to me. The video cameras are rolling, but on the entire hot lap, I find myself incapable of coherent speech as the RS7 launches a frenzied, half-crazed attack on the MMRT. Two individual corners merge into one. Straight sections start to feel like corners. Distances shrink rapidly and the track feels a lot narrower. The RS7 is the most powerful car that Audi makes, more powerful than the R8 V10 Plus, and if you were expecting its part-luxury leanings to get in the way of being a car fit enough to wear the RS badge, think again.  

“Points into corners real quick! This thing really keeps you on your toes! It’s so much quicker than I imagined it to be!” interjects Aditya between corners. My brain clunks slowly back into operation as the smell of burning rubber seeps into the cabin. Speech slurring a little, I remind Aditya to nurse the tyres for our journey ahead. I can sense him holding back, and despite that, the RS7’s lap time is faster than the S6 by half a second!

Back in the pitlane, Aditya and I admit to have been pleasantly surprised by the S6. It may not be the quickest, but it is the biggest surprise for both of us. We say goodbye and promise to meet up the next morning in Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway. Aditya will be flying down to Coimbatore, but Audi’s intrepid trio have to get there on their own steam.

NH46, 11:30pm

There’s a steady flow of traffic on the dark highway to Coimbatore. Our three-car convoy is cantering along coolly, remaining stoically calm even as car after car slow down, their sleepy occupants peering incredulously at us and eventually zipping away as the trio remains impervious to any bait to race down the highway. I can’t blame them. Running into a menacing 553bhp Audi RS7, a subtle yet potent 420bhp Audi S6 and the timeless sportscar, the Audi TT, bunched together on an open highway, begs disbelief. This must be some kind of race, right? Nah, but we do have a date with the Kari Motor Speedway (KMS) early next morning. And to think, this intrepid trio will have tucked into 500km of public roads after the morning’s hammering at the Madras Motor Race track (MMRT). And this is just the beginning.

Earlier that day: MMRT, 7:55am

Fast and fragile. It is common wisdom that the faster a car, the more fragile it is. If so, how fragile would Audi’s frisky TT, svelte S6 and the wicked RS7 be? We are about to find out in excruciating detail as we embark on the ambitious Tri-Circuit Challenge. As if setting hot laps at three of India’s race tracks isn’t brutal enough, on the Tri-Circuit Challenge, the same three cars will be driven over 3700km of public roads to get to the three race tracks. The Audi India engineers and our planning team at Autocar India knew that it was a bit of a gamble. I am partial to the machines and feel that their reputation for being dainty is more because of overly protective and unadventurous owners rather than mechanical frailty.

I am yanked out of my thoughts as Aditya Patel walks into the pits. He’s early. Over the last four years, the Audi-backed driver has clearly inculcated a Germanic streak as he cut his teeth racing the VW Polo Cup, the VW Scirocco R Cup and the hyper-competitive ADAC GT Masters series in Europe. His young but seasoned hands are going to put the three cars through their paces at each track. After a quick hello, I show him out to the main straight, where the three hotties are posing for a photo shoot.

While we wrap up a few shots, Aditya and I chat about the running order, and discuss how these three Audis will stack up at the end of the day. The manic RS7 is the obvious favourite. I secretly hold a hope that the discreet S6 surprises us. Despite it having adequate horsepower, I am certain its soft suspension setup will undoubtedly hamper it on the track. The TT is a bit of a dark horse — it is the least powerful but its small dimensions, tight suspension and massive rear wing could spring a surprise.

The TT’s stiff, race-track-oriented suspension catches me by surprise as we head out on the warm-up lap. In the driver’s seat, Aditya is completely at home, having raced a TT and won at the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2012. “On a race track, it is beautiful. The cornering speeds are something else. See, you barely have to slow down,” he says, as we rocket through C6. The TT seems to switch direction without any intermediate transition phase. Bam. Bam. Bam. The only give-away is the squeal of tyres and a seatbelt that’s threatening to squish me as I get tossed around by the G forces.

Aditya is expertly using the TT’s power and agility and every millimetre of the track. The kerbs give me a ferocious massage every now and then as Aditya builds up to speed and heads into the flying lap. “This is like a big go-kart,” he quips as he attacks the chicane. “It’s so easy, I don’t have to put in any effort as long as I slow it down in time.” I expect the TT to be a bit understeer-y, necessitating a point-and-shoot style of driving. While it has a slight hint of understeer, the TT is surprisingly neat and adjustable in its track-attack mode. The first flying lap yields a 2min04sec time, close to Aditya’s estimates. A second and final attempt slices the time down into the high 2min03.7sec. The TT may be as fast as expected, but its composure is beyond my wildest expectations.

Next, it’s the turn of the Autobahn express, the S6. Despite selecting the Dynamic mode on the Audi Drive Select, we can barely feel it when we whack the kerbs! However, Aditya has bumped up rear tyre pressures and dropped front tyre pressures to be able to get the rear to step out and mitigate the softly sprung, nose-heavy sedan’s tendency to understeer. “It’ll hopefully help me line up the car before the apex, so that I can just drive it out,” explains Aditya. On the warm-up lap, Aditya and I seem to be on the same page — the S6, despite its power advantage, is unlikely to be faster than the TT.

On the hot lap, the S6 decides to show its hand. Aditya’s tweaking has improved turn-in; the V8’s torque is slammed into the tarmac by the quattro four-wheel-drive system. The longer and faster corners punish the S6 as the front pushes wide, taking a big toll on the tyres. “It’s not the easiest car to drive fast around a race track like this. But it’s doing well,” sums up Aditya. When we cross the finish line, the 2min0.05sec time means the S6 has proved both of us wrong, very wrong.

Oh. My. God. We’ve hit the track in the 553bhp RS7 and my brain has decided to take a giant pause. “When you hear 560-odd bhp, ESP off doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Aditya laughs, and chooses to keep the ESP partially engaged. Just to be careful, he insists. In the passenger seat, it sounds like a load of rubbish to me. The video cameras are rolling, but on the entire hot lap, I find myself incapable of coherent speech as the RS7 launches a frenzied, half-crazed attack on the MMRT. Two individual corners merge into one. Straight sections start to feel like corners. Distances shrink rapidly and the track feels a lot narrower. The RS7 is the most powerful car that Audi makes, more powerful than the R8 V10 Plus, and if you were expecting its part-luxury leanings to get in the way of being a car fit enough to wear the RS badge, think again.  

“Points into corners real quick! This thing really keeps you on your toes! It’s so much quicker than I imagined it to be!” interjects Aditya between corners. My brain clunks slowly back into operation as the smell of burning rubber seeps into the cabin. Speech slurring a little, I remind Aditya to nurse the tyres for our journey ahead. I can sense him holding back, and despite that, the RS7’s lap time is faster than the S6 by half a second!

Back in the pitlane, Aditya and I admit to have been pleasantly surprised by the S6. It may not be the quickest, but it is the biggest surprise for both of us. We say goodbye and promise to meet up the next morning in Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway. Aditya will be flying down to Coimbatore, but Audi’s intrepid trio have to get there on their own steam.

NH46, 11:30pm

There’s a steady flow of traffic on the dark highway to Coimbatore. Our three-car convoy is cantering along coolly, remaining stoically calm even as car after car slow down, their sleepy occupants peering incredulously at us and eventually zipping away as the trio remains impervious to any bait to race down the highway. I can’t blame them. Running into a menacing 553bhp Audi RS7, a subtle yet potent 420bhp Audi S6 and the timeless sportscar, the Audi TT, bunched together on an open highway, begs disbelief. This must be some kind of race, right? Nah, but we do have a date with the Kari Motor Speedway (KMS) early next morning. And to think, this intrepid trio will have tucked into 500km of public roads after the morning’s hammering at the Madras Motor Race track (MMRT). And this is just the beginning.

Earlier that day: MMRT, 7:55am

Fast and fragile. It is common wisdom that the faster a car, the more fragile it is. If so, how fragile would Audi’s frisky TT, svelte S6 and the wicked RS7 be? We are about to find out in excruciating detail as we embark on the ambitious Tri-Circuit Challenge. As if setting hot laps at three of India’s race tracks isn’t brutal enough, on the Tri-Circuit Challenge, the same three cars will be driven over 3700km of public roads to get to the three race tracks. The Audi India engineers and our planning team at Autocar India knew that it was a bit of a gamble. I am partial to the machines and feel that their reputation for being dainty is more because of overly protective and unadventurous owners rather than mechanical frailty.

I am yanked out of my thoughts as Aditya Patel walks into the pits. He’s early. Over the last four years, the Audi-backed driver has clearly inculcated a Germanic streak as he cut his teeth racing the VW Polo Cup, the VW Scirocco R Cup and the hyper-competitive ADAC GT Masters series in Europe. His young but seasoned hands are going to put the three cars through their paces at each track. After a quick hello, I show him out to the main straight, where the three hotties are posing for a photo shoot.

While we wrap up a few shots, Aditya and I chat about the running order, and discuss how these three Audis will stack up at the end of the day. The manic RS7 is the obvious favourite. I secretly hold a hope that the discreet S6 surprises us. Despite it having adequate horsepower, I am certain its soft suspension setup will undoubtedly hamper it on the track. The TT is a bit of a dark horse — it is the least powerful but its small dimensions, tight suspension and massive rear wing could spring a surprise.

The TT’s stiff, race-track-oriented suspension catches me by surprise as we head out on the warm-up lap. In the driver’s seat, Aditya is completely at home, having raced a TT and won at the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 2012. “On a race track, it is beautiful. The cornering speeds are something else. See, you barely have to slow down,” he says, as we rocket through C6. The TT seems to switch direction without any intermediate transition phase. Bam. Bam. Bam. The only give-away is the squeal of tyres and a seatbelt that’s threatening to squish me as I get tossed around by the G forces.

Aditya is expertly using the TT’s power and agility and every millimetre of the track. The kerbs give me a ferocious massage every now and then as Aditya builds up to speed and heads into the flying lap. “This is like a big go-kart,” he quips as he attacks the chicane. “It’s so easy, I don’t have to put in any effort as long as I slow it down in time.” I expect the TT to be a bit understeer-y, necessitating a point-and-shoot style of driving. While it has a slight hint of understeer, the TT is surprisingly neat and adjustable in its track-attack mode. The first flying lap yields a 2min04sec time, close to Aditya’s estimates. A second and final attempt slices the time down into the high 2min03.7sec. The TT may be as fast as expected, but its composure is beyond my wildest expectations.

Next, it’s the turn of the Autobahn express, the S6. Despite selecting the Dynamic mode on the Audi Drive Select, we can barely feel it when we whack the kerbs! However, Aditya has bumped up rear tyre pressures and dropped front tyre pressures to be able to get the rear to step out and mitigate the softly sprung, nose-heavy sedan’s tendency to understeer. “It’ll hopefully help me line up the car before the apex, so that I can just drive it out,” explains Aditya. On the warm-up lap, Aditya and I seem to be on the same page — the S6, despite its power advantage, is unlikely to be faster than the TT.

On the hot lap, the S6 decides to show its hand. Aditya’s tweaking has improved turn-in; the V8’s torque is slammed into the tarmac by the quattro four-wheel-drive system. The longer and faster corners punish the S6 as the front pushes wide, taking a big toll on the tyres. “It’s not the easiest car to drive fast around a race track like this. But it’s doing well,” sums up Aditya. When we cross the finish line, the 2min0.05sec time means the S6 has proved both of us wrong, very wrong.

Oh. My. God. We’ve hit the track in the 553bhp RS7 and my brain has decided to take a giant pause. “When you hear 560-odd bhp, ESP off doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Aditya laughs, and chooses to keep the ESP partially engaged. Just to be careful, he insists. In the passenger seat, it sounds like a load of rubbish to me. The video cameras are rolling, but on the entire hot lap, I find myself incapable of coherent speech as the RS7 launches a frenzied, half-crazed attack on the MMRT. Two individual corners merge into one. Straight sections start to feel like corners. Distances shrink rapidly and the track feels a lot narrower. The RS7 is the most powerful car that Audi makes, more powerful than the R8 V10 Plus, and if you were expecting its part-luxury leanings to get in the way of being a car fit enough to wear the RS badge, think again.  

“Points into corners real quick! This thing really keeps you on your toes! It’s so much quicker than I imagined it to be!” interjects Aditya between corners. My brain clunks slowly back into operation as the smell of burning rubber seeps into the cabin. Speech slurring a little, I remind Aditya to nurse the tyres for our journey ahead. I can sense him holding back, and despite that, the RS7’s lap time is faster than the S6 by half a second!

Back in the pitlane, Aditya and I admit to have been pleasantly surprised by the S6. It may not be the quickest, but it is the biggest surprise for both of us. We say goodbye and promise to meet up the next morning in Coimbatore at the Kari Motor Speedway. Aditya will be flying down to Coimbatore, but Audi’s intrepid trio have to get there on their own steam.