The new Audi RS6 has a tough road ahead. Arriving rather late to the party, the new RS6 has to battle two cars that have been receiving incredible reviews for quite some time now: the BMW M5 and the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. Both the M5 and AMG come with more “hardcore” choices, like the Competition version and the E63 S while the RS6 is available in just one guise for now. Therefore, the Ingolstadt-built model has to face some strong headwinds.

It’s a really good looking car though, no matter what some people may say. And it has plenty of performance from the 4-liter twin-turbo V8 under the hood. However, the video below shows a drag race between the previous generation model RS6 and a stock BMW M5 Competition. According to the video, the RS6 was slightly modified and is now delivering a bit more than the 605 HP it comes with in standard configuration, since it is a Performance model. The stock version had 560 HP to rely on.

Apparently, it will deliver 750 HP now thanks to the tinkering done under the hood. On the other side of the drag strip, the BMW M5 Competition is stock and performs pretty damn admirably going up against a car with over 100 HP. As you’re about to see, the winner of the race is determined by the reaction time. In the first race, the M5 driver seemingly fell asleep for a moment when launching, losing to the RS6.

The second race was won by the M5 which launched better while the third race went to the Audi, once again because of a faulty start. Nevertheless, you need to keep in mind that the M5 was running at a considerable power deficit and still managed to hang on. I just can’t get over how fast this car is even in stock guise.