Which of These Wild German V-8 Wagons Is Fastest?

“‘The station wagon has been dead for decades,’ they say. Well, they are wrong,” says Jason Cammisa in the latest episode of his Ultimate Drag Race series. And they are wrong, whoever they are, as Cammisa has a group of fast, handsome, and brand-spanking-new German long-roofs on the start line of Willow Run.

Vying to be first across the quarter-mile are the 2025 BMW M5 Touring, Audi RS6 Avant Performance, and Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. Meanwhile, Mercedes has promised the return of the hot E-Class AMG wagon, but it isn’t out quite yet, so a similar-enough S63 E Performance sedan stands in. Each car has a V-8, and three of them (the BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche) supplement their twin-turbochargers with an electric motor. There are plenty of fascinating and complicated differences between these fast wagon rivals, but they’re all heavyweights. In fact, only the Audi weighs less than 5000 pounds (!).

The wagons are also powerful and, as the quarter-mile times and trap speeds show, fast—like, supercar fast. Without giving too much away, the slowest of the bunch hits 60 mph in 3.1 seconds, and crosses the quarter-mile line in 11.1 seconds at 127 mph. In true German fashion, the quartet of luxury long-roofs achieve that kind of speed not just through brute force, but with trunkloads of sophisticated engineering, including all-wheel drive.

The Porsche, for example, has a 4.0-liter twin-turbo hybrid V-8 with 771 hp and 737 lb-ft to propel its 5260-pound heft, but what should really help it off the line is its dual-clutch automatic, which allows for launch control with a clutch dump and clean takeoff. None of the other wagons has the same sort of transmission.

The Mercedes-AMG is a monster at 5830 pounds, but its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 hybrid drivetrain manages 791 hp and 1055 lb-ft. It has a separate two-speed transmission in the back, while its main transmission has a multiplate wet clutch pack in place of a torque converter, which allows for a clutch dump that’s almost as violent as the Porsche’s, according to Cammisa.

The BMW is lighter than the Merc but still elephantine at 5430 pounds. Its 4.4-liter twin-turbo hybrid V-8 is up on displacement compared to the others but down on power, with 717 hp and 738 lb-ft. And the Audi, which weighs “only” 4830 pounds, is down even more with 621 hp and 627 lb-ft from its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8, which has no hybrid help.

After all have crossed the finished and all the dust has settled, the numbers for each of these monster luxo-barges are a bit staggering—a bit of a middle finger to physics. On the Drag Race leaderboard, they’re as fast as or faster than many sports and supercars that are way lighter and, of course, can’t carry four passengers and some luggage.

“They’re so fast that we had a hell of a time finding a camera car that could keep up,” Cammisa notes. What was this rapid camera vehicle? Which wild wagon crossed the line in world-record time? Watch the video to find out.