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Audi to launch 600-hp RS6 Avant Plus?

Much to the dismay of many - but apparently not enough - there's a whole category of power wagons available overseas that we just can't get our hands on. While the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Estate and Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon are both available Stateside, the recently revised Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG Shooting Brake, the Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake we recently drove at the Nürburgring and the Audi RS6 Avant remain out of reach for American buyers. They all stand on more-or-less equal footing, with forced-induction V8s producing around 550 horsepower. But Audi is apparently taking things over and above with a new RS6 Plus.
Revealed ahead of schedule on a British dealer's website (which leaked details accompanied by a stock photo of the existing model), the RS6 Avant Plus will apparently keep the same 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, but upgrade from 560 hp to a nice, round 600 to put it ahead of the competition and in league with supercars. Considering that the existing RS6 Avant is already capable of cracking the four-second barrier to 60 and tops out at over 190 miles per hour, we're sure the Plus version will positively annihilate the Autobahn, all while bringing your whole family along for the ride.
Unfortunately it doesn't look any more likely that Quattro GmbH's latest Plus model will make the transatlantic journey to American showrooms, but we can hope that maybe Audi will perform similar modifications on the RS7 Sportback we do get here.

Notes from Day One of the 2013 Twelve Hours of Sebring

The 61st edition of The 12 Hours of Sebring is on, and Autoblog has come to central Florida with Audi to feast on jumbo boiled peanuts, pickled eggs and the final race for the LMP1 class at the oldest road course in North America. As Audi has been doing for more than a decade now, it's brought its latest endurance race car, the 2013-spec R18 etron quattro, to Sebring to begin testing for Le Mans.
Why the commitment to Sebring? Audi Sport executives have repeatedly called Sebring "punishing," "extremely demanding" and "one of the toughest tracks in the world." It is a 3.47-mile circuit that, in places, feels like it was made from the leftover bits of other circuits. Doing the 12-hour distance in Florida is thought to be a good start on lasting the 24-hour distance in France, and we can't think it a coincidence that Audi has won ten times here in the last 13 years and 11 times in Gaul.
Where there's rhyme - and victory - there is reason. We think we found a few of them on our first day where preparation, technology, fastidious attention to detail and sweat fit right in with swamp cabbage...

Wagons make a bit of a comeback, with new models, sales on the rise

Consider this an official invitation to hop on the wagon bandwagon. There's still tons of room because, well, it's a wagon (and market share is still extremely small). But according to new data, the segment is growing. According to a report from Bloomberg, using data from Edmunds.com, roughly 211,600 Americans purchased wagons in 2018. That is technically down from the 237,600 sold in 2017, but wagon sales in the U.S. are up 29 percent from where they were five years ago. It's also the third year in a row that wagon sales broke the 200,000 mark. The sales trends have been somewhat representative of the availability of wagons. New models have debuted during the past 5 years and therefore offer more opportunity at more brands to buy wagons. In addition to more modest cars such as the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen, several luxury and performance brands are offering wagons today, such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Volvo and Buick. (Bloomberg's headlines make the point that "crossovers are for the Kardashians," and wagons are just, well, classier.) This uptick in brand-name availability, as well as extremely well-executed design on most of the wagons currently available, has helped increase the segment's desirability. That, and its ability to better accomplish the same tasks at hand while standing out from the crossover and SUV crowd. Still, the posted numbers represent a small fraction of the total vehicles sold. According to the data, wagons only held a 1.4 percent market share in 2017, the segment's best recent year. Wagons hold a steadfast place in America's past, and they're writing an interesting new story. With the downturn in traditional cars, they may continue to create an unexpected narrative. Related Video: News Source: Bloomberg, Edmunds Audi BMW Buick Volkswagen Volvo Wagon station wagon