Being the only motoring publication to test at Reef altitudes, Cars in Action regularly manages to scoop first drives of many of the most significant cars. And few will be more significant this year than the Audi RS 6 ? a car we've been aching to get our hands on for months...

The reason for that is we always find there is a big difference in how any cars perform up here in the thin, dry air of Gauteng, so as soon as the RS 6 arrived at our offices on Monday morning we headed out to the hills and our test strip to pre-run the monster for our official test later in the week.

And no, this ain't no regurgitated international launch story some other car site quickly knocked up to steal the thunder, this is the real thing. And we've even got some interim figures for you to consider, too...

Firstly, let's discuss the drive. RS 6 fires up to a rather rumbly burble and on first pulling away, we noted a slight reluctance to get on the boil, but when it does so, wow!

It doesn't really work too well around town in drive and unlike the reports we read about it at sea level, it's quite lazy when caught at low revs trying to spool up those snails with anemic Jo'burg air. But slip it into S and use the paddles and it's much better ? even though it doesn't quite always want to select a lower gear you want.

On the open road this thing is incredible. RS 6's real character comes out whenever you ask it on the run and it returns overtaking acceleration of ? wait for it ? 3.1 seconds from 80 to 120km/h and a staggering 2.8 seconds from 120 to 160.

Both of those are new Cars in Action records - thrashing even the Merc SL65 AMG in both disciplines, the 120-160 showing the incredible potential ths thing harnesses...

All that's accompanied by a muted animal howl punctuated by a wild grumble every time it changes up and it all feels like going warp speed in a Star Wars pod!

RS6 rides like a dream, although it does tend to pogo just a little on rough B roads and its abundant weight always seems evident.

Straight performance

Getting down to straight performance, we were quite surprised to find ourselves battling to break the six-second 0-100 mark initially. The problem is that little bit of time it takes to get going off the mark. Nothing much happens until 20 or 30km/h ? it's not much better than any lazy old auto, but when it gets going, hell, she runs...

We managed to get RS 6 down to a 5.7-second 0-100 in the end with the quarter-mile coming up in a respectable 13.6 seconds at 181km/h. But that is not quite what it needs to trump its obvious rivals, Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG and Jaguar XF SV8.

So, our first impressions of the monster RS 6?

Well RS 6 is an incredible feat of over-engineering and OTT motoring that just has to be complimented just for that. It sucks fuel like a whale filters plankton and you never really get away from its mass.

But while it may suffer from that and Jo'burg's old thin air to spool up before it blasts off, when it's going, man, there is nothing to come close.

Yes it's flawed, seemingly particularly up here on the Reef, but RS 6 is brilliant ? it has some pretty sharp instruments needed to compete in its rather extreme little niche, but it has some rather extreme attributes nothing else on the road can quite deal with...

We still have to run all of our tests to formulate our final opinion ? its Kyalami Hot Lap is something we wait with interest to dissect, while the final figures will be run in more favourable conditions too. But for now, this thing has struck us as an automotive ultimate ? it may just be as far as anyone will ever go in a sedan supercar and, while compromised, it makes one hell of a statement.

For now let's leave it there ? you'll have to wait for our full test for the final verdict, but even now, despite its few foibles, we can't wait for the rest of the week to unfold with one of motoring's most extreme machines. Ever...

Audi RS 6 V10 quattro - Interim Road Test Results

Test Conducted: Johannesburg, 2 February 2009
Temperature/Conditions: 24?C - Sunny, no wind
Altitude: 1535m ASL

0-60km/h: 3.7 seconds
0-100km/h: 5.7 seconds
Quarter-mile: 13.6 seconds @ 181km/h
80-120km/h: 3.1 seconds
120-160km/h: 2.8 seconds

> Read more about Audi RS 6 on page two...