Let’s be honest: Despite some amazing results, trying to make a lumbering SUV truly drive like a sports car is a futile exercise. Yet automakers around the world have over the past couple of decades collectively spent hundreds of millions of research and development dollars doing just that. That’s why the 2023 Audi RS4 Avant is such a joy to behold. It’s refreshing to find someone—anyone—in the auto biz who still believes lower and lighter is the best answer when it comes to building a load lugger that’s fast and fun to drive. In this case, Audi gets it.

Audi is one of the last defenders of the performance wagon faith in America. With the demise of the late Cadillac CTS-V wagon, and Mercedes-Benz’s decision not to bring the autobahn-storming AMG E- and C-Class wagons to America, the Audi RS6 Avant is, apart from Porsche’s Panamera Turbo S Sport Turismo, about the only option here. That is, if you want a car that’s fast enough to terrorize unsuspecting Porsche 911 drivers yet has room aboard for the family and a couple of Labradors.

We should be thankful for the Audi RS6 Avant. But we can’t help feeling disappointed Audi won’t double down and give us its kid brother, as well. After all, Audi offers the RS5 and RS5 Sportback here, the RS4 Avant’s two-door coupe and four-door hatchback cousins that are about the same size as the wagon and mechanically identical. Would the more practical, less expensive (it retails for about 6.2 percent less than identically equipped RS5s in Europe) and—dare we say it—cooler RS4 Avant really be an RS too many for this market?

Audi of America product planners obviously think so. Which means the 2023 Audi RS4 Avant is likely to remain forbidden fruit for American buyers for the foreseeable future. That’s a shame, because the recent Competition and Competition Plus packages just released for the RS5 Coupé and RS5 Sportback are also available on the RS4 Avant, and just as with the RS5s, they make the RS4 Avant even more desirable.

As in the RS5s, the Competition package unlocks a 180-mph top speed, more noise from the RS exhaust system, and adds new 20-inch aluminum wheels that each weigh 4.4 pounds less than the regular items. Standard tires are 275/30 front and rear, with ultra-grippy Pirelli P Zero Corsas available as an option.

More important, the Competition Plus package delivers all of this along with a carefully considered selection of serious handling hardware: upgraded Quattro sport rear differential, quick fixed-ratio steering, and RS Sport Pro suspension with coil-over steel springs on the front axle that is height adjustable and features adjustable rebound and compression damping.

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The Porsche-designed 2.9-liter twin-turbo V-6 engine under the hood of the 2023 Audi RS4 Avant has been left alone. Audi Sport insiders say chasing more power from an internal combustion engine in these days of ever tightening emissions and fuel consumption targets would simply cost too much money to generate a return on the investment.

Still, although all the engine’s hardware is unchanged, as are its outputs—444 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque—the remapped software that’s part of the Competition Plus package delivers better throttle response and quicker shifts from the eight-speed automatic transmission. Thanks also to the Quattro sport differential, the car shaves about 0.2 second off the regular RS4 Avant’s 4.1-second 0-60-mph acceleration time.

Driving a front-engine Audi fast has always been an exercise in managing understeer, but not in the 2023 RS4 Avant Competition Plus. It only took a couple of corners on the fast and sinuous Ascari Circuit in southern Spain to feel the front end’s extra authority, and the chassis’ improved responsiveness to throttle inputs.

At 13.1:1, the RS4 Avant Competition Plus package’s fixed-ratio steering is one of the quickest fitted to a modern production car, and the RS4 Avant’s front wheels react rapidly to commands from the helm. The more pronounced response dialed into the throttle mapping makes it easier to get the car to rotate when you lift off and easier to catch and hold the rear when you go to power.

What also helps on corner exit is the Quattro sport differential, which uses clutches to direct most of the torque to the outside rear wheel and punches the RS4 Avant hard out of corners. The stability control is remapped “so you can have a little more fun,” Audi Sport chassis development chief Andrei Filep said. But even with everything switched off, the car remains easily controllable at the limit.

The optional Pirelli P Zero Corsas have more rounded shoulders than the standard RS4 Avant tires to provide better steering accuracy and lateral support, according to Filep. The compound is so grippy that, working in conjunction with the remapped ABS, it helps to shrink the braking distance from 60 mph by about 6 feet.

For our track sessions at Ascari, the RS4 Avant Competition Plus’ adjustable suspension was dialed to what Filep called the “Nordschleife setting.”

In addition to the damper compression and rebound settings being adjusted to cope with the high speeds, high curbs, and massive compressions that dominate the legendary 12.9-mile German Nürburgring track, this setup also includes a 0.4-inch drop in ride height over the baseline Competition Plus setup. (The baseline setup itself rides 0.4 inch lower than the standard RS4 Avant suspension.)

In case you wonder, the Competition Plus package comes complete with a user’s manual that includes several recommended settings for the ride height and dampers, as well as the tools with which you can make the appropriate adjustments.

Forget pressing a button, this is how some serious driving enthusiasts roll when it comes to chassis tuning: “Whaddya doin’ under the car, Bob?” “Oh, just wrenching the Nordschleife settings for tomorrow’s track day.” (That is, unless you’re driving something like the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS and its more easily adjusted dampers.)

For the road loops we drove, our test cars were all in the default Competition Plus setting; that is, with the ride height 0.4 inch lower than the standard RS4 Avant setup. The primary ride is taut, but there’s a decisive and distinctly analog feel to the body motions that even the best air suspensions simply can’t emulate.

Despite ultra-low-profile tires, the secondary ride is surprisingly compliant, with little impact harshness felt through the steering wheel or heard in the cabin, even at low to middling speeds on indifferent city streets. That’s impressive when you consider that switching between Comfort and Dynamic modes does not alter the spring or damper rates at all.

The 2.9-liter V-6 is a decent enough engine, but it doesn’t deliver the old V-8’s gut-punch. When you’re hustling in Dynamic mode, with the transmission in the Sport and Manual shift settings, it really needs to be spinning at 4,000 rpm or more to deliver its best. In tight and twisty stuff, the slightly soft low-end response highlights the big gap between second and third gear.

If you left-foot brake, you’ll find the engine power cutout activated by pressure on the brake pedal can prevent a smooth and early transition to power with your right foot. The massive carbon-ceramic stoppers will shrug off merciless punishment, but the RS4 Avant’s pedal travels a little too far before the pads start gripping the rotors, making it hard to brake smoothly at slow speeds. (We found the same to be true with the new RS3.)

Audi’s method of changing drive modes—switching from Comfort to Auto to Dynamic by way of toggling a switch on the dash or hunting and pecking on the central touchscreen—is tedious. Fortunately, the RS button on the steering wheel provides a handy shortcut, though you have to punch it twice if you want RS2 mode, which allows you to configure throttle, transmission, stability control, and steering settings.

The best setup for fast and fun driving is to dial everything on the RS2 configuration menu to the max, but set the steering to Comfort. Because the steering ratio never changes, the steering weight is the only difference you’ll find.  There’s a delicacy and accuracy to the steering in Comfort mode that is simply dulled by the imposition of more weight in the default Dynamic setting. So what’s the point of the latter?

“Heavy steering is for drivers who use the steering wheel as something to hold rather than to control the car,” Filep grumbles.

In short, the Competition Plus package makes the 2023 Audi RS4 Avant much more engaging to drive, without compromising the everyday practicality that makes it so hugely desirable. It’s worth every cent because it delivers the critical pieces of hardware and associated software that transform this hi-po Audi wagon’s handling.

Indeed, the 2023 Audi RS4 Avant is the thinking person’s performance car, fast and fun to drive when you want it to be, yet a surprisingly useful load lugger when you need it to be. The Competition Plus package turns it into the thinking person’s monster.