The new Audi RS3 is the most powerful hot hatch on sale.
A five-cylinder, turbocharged, 362 horsepower rocket ship designed to make you question
why on earth you'd have a cramped sports car, when you can have this with five seats and
a boot.
This then, is the ultimate evolution of the hot hatch genre that the Mk1 Golf GTI started
way back in the seventies.
And, with 55kg less weight to carry around and 127 horsepower more than the old RS3,
well it should be supercar quick.
0-62 takes 4.3 seconds, which is three-tenths faster than the ballistic Mercedes A45 AMG.
But, those are just numbers.
What I want to know is what acceleration like that really feels like.
So, we've found a quiet bit of road to test the launch control function, and I'm told
it really is quite easy.
So, you simply press the ESC, turn that into Sport mode, check that we're in Dynamic mode
in the Drive Select.
We are.
Keep it in auto but make sure we're in Sport mode, and then it's simply a case of keeping
my foot on the brake, dialling up the revs to about 3,500-4,000.
The car does that automatically and holds it.
And let go of the brake and hold on tight.
Holy ***! That is 100km/h, that is what 0-62 in 4.3 seconds sounds and feels like and I'm
told that if I had the space and the balls, it would hit 0-124mph in 15.8 and go onto
174mph flat out.
The the RS3 always was a beast in a straight line.
What we want to know now, though, is whether its lighter chassis, faster gearbox and four-wheel
drive system capable of sending up to 100% of power to the rear wheels have brought it
to life in the corners.
Let's start with the good bits, and where else than this incredible 2.5-litre turbocharged
engine.
It's absolutely immense.
You've got 465Nm of torque so whenever you put your foot down, it just goes in whatever
gear and whatever revs.
And, of course, it sounds absolutely fantastic.
This car here's got the optional sports exhibit on it which I'd definitely recommend you'd
get and it's the law that you have to keep it on at all times.
The gearbox, well, it's a seven-speed, twin-clutch S tronic.
It's the only one you can get and I can't really pick any faults in it to be honest.
It's super-quick when you want to fire through the ratios, and it's smooth when you just
want to pootle around, so I don't really see how this gearbox technology can get any better.
The steering, well, it's a variable ratio rack, so changes its ratio as you increase
the lock, and that's your only choice so, whether you like it or not, you're going to
have to live with it.
It's OK, it's sharp, it doesn't have tonnes of feel but, it does the job as they say.
As for the suspension, well, it's firm, but not quite as firm as RS Audis of old, but
you might have heard just back there the wheels bumping and bouncing off these broken Italian
roads we're on here today.
This car is fitted with fixed rate springs and dampers, but you can get adaptive dampers
as well, which should make the breadth of the car's abilities that little bit wider
and that little bit more liveable with day-to-day.
Then we come to the bad stuff.
In a straight line, as I showed earlier, it is immensely quick.
The four-wheel drive system that can send up to 100% of torque to either axle, it can
brake the wheels at the back to make turn-in that little bit sharper, so it grips massively
hard.
It goes like an absolute missile, but when you push toward the limit or over it, it's
that same old Audi thing.
There's understeer waiting for you, tyres squealing away, scrubbing off your speed and,
we just had a go with it on track, and I'm going to be honest - it's not that much fun.
But this is the thing.
If you're after a track car, you're probably not going to buy an Audi RS3.
You want something that's a whole lot lighter, preferably rear-wheel drive.
But, if you're after a road car that's obscenely quick point-to-point one minute and then super-refined
the next, well then the Audi RS3 is it.
And in that respect, it definitely moves the game on from its predecessor.
Rumour has it that Mercedes is preparing an even more powerful A45 AMG to counter this
car, and then there's the 320bhp Ford Focus RS to consider, but even in the face of some
pretty punchy competition like that, the Audi RS3 has a unique selling point - its characterful
five-cylinder engine.
As for the price?
Well, it costs just under £40,000 and Audi claims the customers tend to put about 20%
on top of that with the options list.
Now that's not cheap but there's two ways of thinking about it.
It's either a very very expensive hatchback or, as I prefer to see it, it's actually a
bargain basement supercar.
Yes, it's not as adjustable as a rear-wheel drive BMW or something more exotic like the
new R8, but if you use it where it's intended to be, which is on the road, you're not going
to be disappointed.
To watch our track battle with the VW Golf R vs the SEAT Leon Cupra, click on the video
on the left, and for a drag race featuring the Mercedes A45 AMG and CLS63 AMG, click
on the video on the right.
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