Leadie, these comments are in no way aimed at you personally, but are really much more general - we all hope the RS6 will be great, but all the expectations on the RS6 popping up on this forum are simply not realistic given what we know about the car as well as its intended role and physical limitations. We have seen this hype movie before - first with the RS4, then the S6 and finally with the R8. Of course Ingolstadt will try to hype its current and forthcoming offerings, but there is no reason to take their word for it too literally...
Torque plays a role in acceleration only if gearing is strange/very long, the powerband is very narrow or the driver (or the auto) is too lazy/sub-optimal - otherwise bhp is what counts in straightline acceleration with optimal gearchanges. Acceleration (i.e. against clock) and in-gear acceleration (i.e. real world) are two very different things as we all know. The fact remains: in 0-200, the RS6 will not beat the M6, which has seven tightly packed gears, relatively low weight and a highly potent engine with only 7% transmission loss - but it does not have to really and distance will not be too big and it will for now be the fastest road going Audi. This is realistic and should be good enough.
Btw, KresoF1's: I really appreciate and enjoy your in-depth analysis and there may well some truth to it - but is not trying to explain away/downplay the R8's very good - albeit not spectacular - NBR time essentially clutching a straw? Maybe the test car was flawed somehow, who knows - but as we all now, standards allow for a 5% tolerance from the quoted power for one thing and maybe the standard suspension and Corsas are better suited for HH and than NBR or EVO's Bedford. The same test car delivered big time in HH, which of course is a less flowing and lower average/peak speed track - is that not enough? Another test car, another day and the NBR time in HvS's hands might dip to 8 min dead from 8.04 - so what? It will not hit 7.46 in any circumstance...