This Audi RS6 Sleigh Takes A Christmas Tree For A Ride!
by Sidd Dhimaan
Hennessey Performance is celebrating Christmas by delivering Christmas trees as fast as possible. The company’s previous sleigh, a Jeep Trackhawk, managed to deliver it by touching speeds of up 181 mph. But, this time, they want to get it done even faster. So, they’ve upgraded their sleigh to an Audi RS6 Avant that’s been tuned to make 800 reindeer; err., I mean 800 horses. They tried the same with a tuned Porsche 911 Turbo S recently, but it failed. But, the Audi RS6 Avant managed to break the record and is now officially Hennessey’s fastest Christmas tree transporter!
The Audi RS6, Even With A Tree, IS F-A-S-T
The wagon was driven by seasoned driver Spencer Geswein, who also drove John’s Porsche 911 Turbo S in the Christmas tree run a few days back. The 750-horsepower Porsche managed to touch 175 mph, which was 31 mph less than the top speed without a tree on the roof.
Since it couldn’t break the Hennessey-tuned Jeep Trackhawk HPE1000’s record, John Hennessey brought his wife’s Audi RS6 Avant to the strip and decided to give it a shot. The 1,012-horsepower Trackhawk managed to touch speeds of 181 mph back in 2019 with a Christmas tree, so this was Audi’s score to beat.
In the stock form, the Audi RS6 Avant makes 591 horses and 590 pound-feet of torque from its 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V-8. A 48-volt mild hybrid system is also in place. An eight-speed automatic gearbox routes power to all four wheels. It can sprint to 60 mph from rest in 3.5 seconds flat. The wagon has a top speed of 190 mph.
In this Hennessey build, the engine is given steroids, and it now makes 800 ‘reindeer’ (it’s Christmas season after all!) – 210 more than the stock model. There’s no word on the other figures.
Ding Ding Ding… We Have A New Winner
As stated earlier, the hot wagon was driven by Spencer Geswein, who also piloted the Porsche a few days back. The RS6 is just 50 horses more powerful than the Porsche 911 Turbo S and has better aerodynamics, so it would be a task. But the V-8 lived up to its reputation and pushed through the air to touch speeds of 183 mph, breaking not just the 911’s, but also the Trackhawk’s record.
If you observe carefully, the car reached there in the seventh gear and had one more gear to go. If not for the heavy drag, I’m sure it would’ve gotten closer to 200 mph even with all the extra weight. The RS6 has a drag coefficient of 0.35, whereas the Porsche 911 Turbo’s is 0.33 – both without trees on their heads. By the way, this Audi RS6 had touched 205 mph in a run without the tree.
Watch the video to see 800 reindeers pull the Santa’s sleigh across the racing strip with a Christmas tree on top. We’ve linked videos of the other Hennessey Christmas tree delivery vehicles as well. Merry Christmas!
Audi RS6 Avant (2021) –183 mph
Dodge Challenger (2017) – 174 mph
Porsche 911 Turbo S (2021) – 175 mph
Jeep Trackhawk (2019) – 181 mph