Now sporting a facelift and an extra couple of doors, the Audi S3 seems more demure in Sportback guise. But although its street racer appeal has diminished, the S3 still remains a highly desirable product with ultra-dynamic handling capabilities.
The Sportback version wouldn’t be my personal choice for Ingolstadt’s ultimate hatchback, but it does add a new dimension to the Audi S3, a matter I’ll attend to in a minute. The styling changes are subtle, but look more than once and you’ll notice the chrome-plated radiator grille, “xenon plus” headlamps, LED running lights in the headlamp clusters, a platinum-grey diffuser and twin ovular exhaust pipes.
As has always been the case with Audi’s interiors, the finest craftsmanship and quality can be expected – and the finish is indeed exquisite. From the drivers’ leather sports seat you never fail to feel involved because everything is centred around the person seated behind the flat-bottomed leather steering wheel with white stitching (the best example in the business in my opinion). The polished chrome/aluminium trim adds a touch of class, but I think the manual rotating rings around the facia air vents are a trifle passé.
The 2,0-litre TFSI powerplant wedged under the Audi S3’s bonnet is one of the most powerful four-cylinders in production and produces 188 kW at 6 000 r/min and 330 N.m of torque from 2 400 to 5 200 r/min. For the updated models, all the quattro all-wheel drive components have been reinforced and the shift travel of the six-speed manual gearbox has been shortened for more dynamic driving.
Dynamically the S3 is hard to fault, it just seems to anticipate every bend. Although capable of rapid acceleration and superb handling almost anywhere – racetrack, traffic-heavy freeways or deserted mountain pass, the S3 quattro is almost too accomplished for its own good – it’s a precision tool, but its steering feedback isn’t class-leading and because there’s no guttural six-cylinder exhaust note (such as that produced by the VW Golf R32), it takes some fun out of driving the car.
Crawling along the busy main street in Franschoek, I just didn’t feel the typical boyracer impulse to blip the throttle like a chop and have everyone stare at my “rad paintjob” and “excessive bodykit”. But then the S3 Sportback shakes that street-cred off for a far more executive feel and look that befits its R373 000 price tag. Those in the know looked passed the white paintwork and saw the S3-emplazoned calipers, eyebrow daytime driving lights and subtle S3 badges front and rear.
Yes, the S3 Sportback is a welcome addition to the rapidly-growing Audi stable, but I find it rather hard to classify it a proper hot-hatch in the true sense of the word – it’s just too refined, priced in the sports car bracket, and very classy. For primal hot hatch thrills, I think the three-door would better suit the bill.
Read South African circuit racing stars Hennie Groenewald and Philip Kekana’s track appraisals of S3 Sportback in the January 2009 issue of CAR magazine, in which we put 18 of South Africa’s hottest hatches to the test at Killarney.
Download wallpapers from the Track Shootout here: Batch 1, Batch 2 and Batch 3, or Batch 4.