RS6 Avant Performance

There is a moment, on the road between Arzachena and Baja Sardinia, when the family holiday and the urge to drive stop being at odds. It happens at the wheel of the RS6 Avant Performance: behind you sits four people's luggage in a 565-litre load bay, around you rises the granite of Gallura, and beneath your right foot wait 630 hp. No other bodystyle resolves that equation so naturally.

Many guests choose it precisely as the alternative to an SUV: comparable capacity, a lower centre of gravity and the manners of a genuine sports car. We weigh the two philosophies against each other in our guide to space and comfort in Sardinia's luxury SUVs; guests based in the north-east will find delivery points and destinations on our Audi rental on the Costa Smeralda page.

The 4.0 twin-turbo mild-hybrid V8 has a baritone voice: at a cruise it is little more than a vibration through the floor, a sonic backdrop that encourages conversation; under full load it becomes distant thunder, swelling until it fills the cabin. A 3.4-second 0–100 km/h time in a car that weighs as much as a limousine is a small paradox of physics, and the 280 km/h maximum tells you how much is always held in reserve, everywhere.

The RS air suspension filters out the joints and patches of Sardinia's provincial roads as though they did not exist, then firms up on command when the road turns interesting. The eight-speed tiptronic marshals the torque with Olympian calm, and four-wheel steering tightens the turning circle: manoeuvring between the quays of Porto Cervo, it feels like a car from a class below.

The Performance designation brings larger turbochargers, 30 hp more than the standard RS6 and a sharper overall calibration: the difference is felt above all in mid-range acceleration, where the extra shove shortens overtakes on the single-carriageway state roads of the interior. It is the definitive expression of an idea Audi has cultivated for decades: the family estate that humbles sports cars.

In Sardinia that duality becomes a way of holidaying: in the morning you take everyone to Liscia Ruja beach, in the afternoon you steal an hour alone on the corners towards Lake Liscia, and in the evening you sweep up to the villa without a crease. Its stablemates, from the compact to the fastback, are gathered on our page of Audi models for rent.