We took it to Kyalami to see how lethal it really is.

It must be said that Audi certainly is on a charge. The latest A6 range is without doubt proof of that.

There isn't much to tell it apart from the old one besides those jewel-like lights, redesigned rear end and some new tucks and creases you'd likely never notice unless you were shown them. But under the skin — wow — these guys have pulled quite a move.

The A6 comes well pedigreed — especially in quattro form like this one — a lightweight all-aluminium chassis wrapped around a class-above supercharged V6 and all-wheel drive are all credentials its rivals would literally kill to have.

Look at it like this; this car kills two birds with one stone: It's priced to match its normally-aspirated six-cylinder rivals but it’s positioned to take on its class-above V8 rivals. The A6 4.2 FSI this car partially replaces makes 257kW and 440Nm. This one produces 213kW and 420Nm, but don't forget that at Highveld altitudes, the new blown V6 will probably be a bit faster.

So it's no surprise that the V8 has disappeared from a very clever new range that relies en-main on a set of smaller force-fed engines priced to fight their aspirated rivals but set to match their bigger, dirtier and pretty similarly endowed upmarket opponents.

Of course, by the time you spec the car to V8 rival levels, the price will also get far closer to them, but this certainly is a range for the times.

The A6 isn't devoid of shortcomings alltogether — pressed hard or driven in traffic, we find it to be pretty much as heavy as the old V8 it in part replaces (we had one on long-term test, remember) and that once again adds to our concerns expressed in the Fast Lane column this issue and an aspect we will very much put to the test in coming months.

And we wonder why Audi never went the whole hog and endowed this car with that 245kW S4 version of this V6. Probably to protect that car's sales...

Anyway, so much for the positioning — which by the way is this car's strongest suit — let's get on to what it's like to drive...

Driving the V6

The V6 is just a peach — especially up at Reef altitudes where force feeding really enjoys an advantage. Looking at the figures after I drove it brought out why I was so impressed — it has a flat power curve from four-and-a-half grand or so all the way to a lofty almost 7000rpm, while there's an equally flat torque curve from just above idle all the way until where that flat power bit takes over.

So power delivery is brilliant — it seems less urgent than it is, but it's always there, and then some.

Read more about the drive, and it's Kyalami performance on the next page

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