A car columnist spends half a decade testing the fastest, swankiest, most technologically advanced rides on the road - and declares a winner.
By John Tayman, Business 2.0 Magazine columnist
September 21 2007: 5:47 AM EDT
(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- After five years of writing this column, I'm about to shed all objectivity. Before I do, however, let's review some numbers. During the past half decade, I've tested - though not always written about - almost 200 cars, worth a cumulative $20 million or so. Although I've logged as many as 1,000 miles in a single car, on average I've driven the things between 100 and 200 miles before handing them back to their corporate overseers, thus clearing the decks for the next new ride.
This translates into 30,000 miles of hands-on experience with some very expensive iron. (Happily, I've not wrecked a one.) When people discover that you've done time in almost every nice car in existence, they tend to ask which is your favorite. To date, I've ducked the question. But now, at long last, I'm ready to spill. So, Audi, could you please send me one 2008 S6 sports sedan, preferably in phantom black? It's my kind of car.
The FSI V-10 cranks out 435 HP, enough to thrust the S6 to 155 mph and beyond.
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A brief caveat. Were money and highway patrolmen not factors, my choice would be the $1.4 million Bugatti Veyron. But since they are, I've settled on something more sensible. Not that the S6 doesn't scoot. Audi took its race-proven 5.2-liter FSI V-10 engine - a brutish power plant similar to the one used in the Lamborghini Gallardo - and camouflaged it within the S6's demure sedan form.
FSI is an acronymic way of designating that this engine utilizes a high-tech fuel-injection system wherein precisely measured and atomized gasoline is blasted directly into the combustion chambers, a technique that boosts torque and horsepower and ups the engine's overall weight-to-power efficiency.
Though it weighs but 485 pounds, Audi's V-10 cranks out 435 horsepower, more than enough to effortlessly thrust the S6 to 155 mph - and far beyond, were the engine not electronically limited. Unfortunate, that.
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