Lift the five-cylinder turbo 250 kW, 450 N.m engine from the TTRS, add the seven-speed S tronic, double clutch gearbox and, just for good measure, throw in Quattro four-wheel drive. Now that’s a sports package. Just what every man (and quite a few women) wants. But then sense prevails and you remember that you have children, and, um – stuff. Well, Audi says the answer to your enviable dilemma is to take your R525 000 and spend it on this exciting blend of A3 Sportback family hatchback and TTRS underpinnings and Bob’s your uncle. Difficult to argue with this as it really is a Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde car.
Easy to drive slowly, pottering around and doing the shopping, going on a holiday. But on the Killarney racetrack where Audi launched the RS3, it proved that it can hold its own. The driving position is, as on all Audis, very close to perfection. Comfy, Napa leather seats, wheel and gearshift well positioned, lots of adjustment. Choose your mode – Drive, Sport or Manual and off you go. Paddle shifts are the best way to shift gears and of course the sound of that five-cylinder is fantastic. The 25 mm lower suspension and 19-inch wheels add stability and when cornering mild understeer lets you know the car’s limits. This switches to mild oversteer if you start planting the throttle but it’s easily controlled and you get the distinct feeling that the car’s Quattro system is very well engineered to give the driver feedback on what’s happening without suffering the drawback of some four-wheel drive systems that grip as much as they can and then suddenly all the tyres lose their traction simultaneously. The brakes smoked a bit from the heavy braking but no serious issues occured. in sport mode the car gives you a lower level of stability control, intervening only if you tend to put too much power on while the car is still cornering.
Styling and equipment includes flared wheel arches, a rear spoiler, silver side mirrors, Sports front seats and piano black interior inlays. The instrumentation includes a boost pressure and oil temperature display as well as a lap timer.
There are few options offered on the RS3. One is the addition of silver (more aluminium really) trim around the grille, oversized airdams and spoiler edges but I think the standard blacked out effect is more purposeful. The other is Sat Nav. Oh yes, there is another option. If you don’t want your car limited to 250 km/h you can offer a “bribe” of around R20 000 to have it switched off!
The front tyres are slightly wider than the rear as most of the time the drive bias is towards the front (235/35R19 front and 225/35R19 rear) and, talking of tyres, the RS3 is fitted with Continental’s latest development of the ContiSportContact family, namely the 5P which was especially designed for high performance cars with the difficult task of balancing low rolling resistance and good grip plus the most important being wet weather handling and braking.
We had the chance to compare the RS3 to the TTRS and a RS5. The RS5 is in a much higher ballpark with its 331 kW V8 and the sound is much more classic V8 than the (not much less exciting growl of the five). It pulls quicker but also has much stronger brakes so is a lot of fun with a bit more oversteer when exiting corners but easily controlled. The price of the RS5 is much higher too, at R907 540.
The TTRS, on the other hand has the same powertrain except for one less ratio in the gearbox but with the same power and torque outputs and remains the most fun of the trio due to the compact wheelbase (100 mm shorter than the RS3) and probably lighter mass. There also seems to be more exhaust sound that gives added effect around a race track. Price of the TTRS is R707 500.
