SEE | 5 crazy high-performance wagons we still dream about

• We choose five bonkers high performance wagons from yesteryear.

• The Audi RS4 is currently the only performance wagon on sale locally.

• From the E61 M5 Touring with a V10 engine to the Audi RS6 Avant that shared an engine with the Lamborghini Gallardo these are our favourite performance wagons. 

We love wagons; in fact, some team members prefer them more than SUVs. We also have a fondness for performance wagons. These cars blend practicality with genuine red-eye performance. 

The cars on our list are some of our favourites from yesteryear, and all were on sale in South Africa at one point.

We start off with the outrageous E61 BMW M5 Touring; a 5.0-litre V10 engine with 375kW powers it. The S85 engine drew from the brand's link to the Williams Formula 1 team.

Image: Wheels24

It is the carmaker's only first and only production V10 engine, it revved to stratospheric levels, 8250 r/min to be exact. Another favourite is the W204 C63 Estate. Again, a carmaker fitted a bonkers engine into a wagon, this time it's the 6.2-litre V8 engine. It's probably one of the best sounding normally-aspirated V8 engines ever produced.

The Audi RS6 Avant makes the list by virtue of having a 5.2-litre V10 twin-turbo engine with 426kW! Enough said then, ha! It uses a Quattro four-wheel drive system to put down the power. 

Another Mercedes on the list is the CLS 63 Shooting Brake. It has arguably the most distinctive design of any cars on the list and is powered by a 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 engine. It had 410kW and 800Nm and was part of the new generation of forced induction AMG motors. 

And finally, the Audi B7 RS4. This is a car I have loved ever since I saw it as a crazed teen. The wide wheel arches, massive twin exhausts and the prominent grille were going to rumble a few feathers wherever it went. 

Add a six-speed manual gearbox, 4.2-litre V8 engine with 309kW, and a thunderous soundtrack, and that's the perfect recipe.