RS6 Tuning modifications

"Turn the impressive RS6 into the ultimate supercar beater"

For those looking for the ultimate sleeper then you would be daft to dismiss the Audi RS6.

The subtle styling hinting at performance is not in your face, and the RS6 badges and Quattro branding can be removed.

It's massive heavy body is propelled by a monstrously powerful 600 bhp engine.

(When I first wrote this article in 2011 the 4.2 L V8 40v DOHC 'biturbo' put out a then impressive 444bhp, how little did I know what the RS6 would become!)

Engine power has steadily increased, and Audi have kept the RS6 at a special performance point, offering great handling and practicality in a car that outperforms many supercars.

The last generation 4G from 2013-2018 is one of my favorite cars with a sub 4 second 0-60 time and the awesome Tiptronic gearbox.

If you are not going to reduce the weight then just increase the power to silly figures seemed to be Audi's mantra and it works really well.

So whatever generation of RS6 you own, firstly I salute you! Next we'll look at the mods on offer and consider which ones work best on the RS6.

Although a large car the Audi Quattro traction control system really helps the car feel a lot lighter than it is. It creates the illusion of a smaller car when it comes to handling.

If you get the mods right you should get the already impressive 0-60 time down by a second or so!

The large wheels offer massive levels of grip and it would be foolish to try to push beyond the limits of grip on the roads.

See our video which covers all the principles of tuning your Audi.

So how does one improve such a great car? Suspension mods can sharpen up the handling at the expense of a harder ride. If you do this right though and get the camber and toe right you really can make a big difference to the turn in.

Our aim in RS6 engine tuning should be to increase peak power and Torque at the top end and retain the current cars smooth power delivery through the power band.

Audi RS6 Tuning modifications.

The V8 engine in the RS6 has a twin turbo engine and the turbos would be worth upgrading to larger Garrett units with ball bearings. One of the best mechanical mods you can do is to fit a fast road cam.

When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel. An aftermarket fuel pressure regulator will almost certainly give a snappier throttle response than the standard Audi one!

To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine. Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned RS6s uprated injectors.

Engine Tuning.

The following performance mods are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

Getting the correct grade of uprated upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 competition upgrades just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 27mm - 36 mm.), Lighter flywheel, Remap.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Power/Sport clutch, high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam, Engine balancing, Sports gearbox.

Your aims when modding your car should be a wide torque output. You don't want all the torque to be at the top end unless you are creating a motor sport car.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best upgrades for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance part.One of the biggest mechanical modifications you can do on your NA (naturally aspirated) engine is to fit a fast road camshaft .

The exhaust and intake valve durations play a major role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car impossible to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a camshaft upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

When pushing up the power you will need to pay attention to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after tuning mods are done can usually be traced to timing or fuel delivery issues. To get sufficient fuel you may need to uprate the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Audi RS6 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Air induction kits are only beneficial to boost performance if your cars air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most stock engines will see LITTLE LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Derestricting the airflow into the engine is a primary goal of performance tuning so get a better flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound fun but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not do much to increase power and more often than not rob you of power.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you could very well end up with a reduced flow rate. So generally speaking, keep to 2.5 inches for best results.

Head porting and polishing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools Your clutch can fail if it starts to complain and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 30%. Fit a competition clutch to avoid power leak through the transmission. The best mods we recommend for your RS6 are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A tuned/remapped turbo will give large power gains and fully release the potential power of the engine. Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. Turbos are usually harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos increase power in exponential proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is simpler to map a supercharger because the boost is directly proportional to engine speed on a linear curve. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Expect power gains in the order of 40-70bhp on a tune/remap alone and up to 100bhp with other bolt on parts. With some internal head work there is no reason not to exceed this by a fair margin.

Audi RS6 Wheel & handling modifications.

Many RS6 owners uprate the handling of their cars with modified suspension as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

The  "Dynamic Ride Control" (DRC) added in 2002 was a very impressive setup, and mated to the traction control, ESP and Dynamic gear shift program you have a well sorted car that satisfies most drivers, although the springs can feel a little hard on some surfaces.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you RS6 often improving your drive.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 27mm - 36 mm bering in mind it already sports quite a low stance in OEM form. and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Alloy wheels will help the brakes cool down and are usually lighter than the steel ones. The downside to large alloy wheels on your RS6 is that you alter your effective final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration and performance. Although some people have gone larger we would stick to the 19 inch rim size as the absolute maximum. Larger sizes compromise the handling in our opinion especially on pre 2008 models, dropping to an 18 inch rim should also be considered if you really want the maximum handling and performance.

The 19 inch rims look nice and fill the arches, but they are quite heavy and I found the smaller 18 inch rims were better suited to the handling.

Now that you've made your RS6 go faster we should urge you to seriously consider uprating the brakes. 380mm vented discs should fit nicely under the front wheels and some RS6 owners have used Porsche derived brakes. You really can't beat ceramic breaks but the high cost puts most people off, aim for a bigger disc and high friction larger pads and calipers.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our car forums where you can discuss RS6 options in more detail with our RS6 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Audi tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Audi. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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