RS3 brings an adult approach to the fast lane
If last year’s BMW M2 was something to get terribly excited about —and it was — then the new Audi RS3 has to be considered in the same brilliant bracket.
The M2 was a unanimous and worthy winner of the prized Irish Examiner Motoring ‘Performance Car of the Year’ and I have to tell you now that the RS3 is the hot favourite to take the same gong this year.
But, let me just issue a word of caution to the uninitiated here, as the RS3 is most assuredly a wildebeest, it is not however quite the singularly eye-popping unadulterated wide boy that is, say, the Focus RS or even the Golf R.
No, this is a much more adult approach to the fast lane and while it still delivers devastating performance and mind-blowing handling, it is still something which will be appreciated by the more mature driver rather than devil-may-care youth.
That is not to say the RS3 is for boring old farts, rather that its many attributes will sit easier with drivers for whom ultimate performance is not the be-all-and-end-all, but something which is very nice to have in the locker for use when and where it is needed. In other words, it is not necessarily a car which just has to be exploded away from every traffic light and every junction.
While it has many boy-racer characteristics, the beefy Audi saloon is nevertheless a more thoughtful iteration of the genre and therefore something that will sit comfortably in the driveway of a family and be used daily for regular family matters, while also giving mom and dad the opportunity to get their kicks away from prying little eyes.
It would never do, after all, to have little Johnny or Emily screaming from the rear child-seat about the man in the car in the next lane with blood coming out his ears after mummy carved him up on the entry to the last roundabout.
“Why is he waving two fingers at us, Mum?”
No, that’s not what the RS3 is all about. Instead it is about having a whole lot of punch and driveability served up in something that can easily pass muster as a regular family car. It is far from being an ass-out hooligan, but it can also be that too if you prod it enough. That said, the punch and driveability on offer here does bring to mind that generation of cars from eons ago, such as the Escort Cosworth or the Lancia Delta Integrale, which were truly road-going rally beasts, but they were all about clamour and mayhem and wildness.
No, the RS3 is an altogether more suave thing and particularly so when compared with previously muscular but suspended-like-a-crane versions — ie, there was no leeway on the ride. Crashingly predictable tooth-jarring moments were commonplace on good roads, so the Ring of Kerry wasn’t a great idea older RS3s.
This one is different — and not just because it lacks clamour, mayhem and madness, it embraces these wild things and presents them as a daily runabout (although I would recommend minding speed bumps very carefully and don’t get a puncture — believe me) and the very fact they’ve squeezed the bones of 400 brake horsepower out of this engine and made it a roadworthy thing is next to ridiculous.
This engine is a nailed-on gem — and it is not quite what you might have expected. You might have reasonably thought that they’d take the powerplant out of the Golf R, for example and shoe-horned it in here, but they’ve not done that.
Instead they’ve harked back to an older Audi trait with a 2.5 litre five cylinder petrol engine which produces a joyous, mellifluous and very individual soundtrack to proceedings and which, when you get serious with the car, results in a beautifully rude and fruity noise.
But that is only the start of it. The 0-100kph time is a devastatingly fast 4.1 seconds but even at that the RS3 feels civilised rather than savage.
Top speed is limited to 250kph, but for most people the sweetness of this car will be the incredible and ongoing power delivery rather than the top speed.
Indeed the fact that most of the power is on tap from just 1,700 rpm, makes this thing the ideal cross-country road burner rather than a highway star. Throw in a seven speed S-Tronic double clutch gearbox and the ubiquitous quattro four wheel drive system and you’ve got some car under your bum.
This engine has been to the health spa and as a result lost a considerable amount of weight (26 kg) thanks to an aluminium block and oil pump and a magnesium oil sump and the trimming of this excess fat means there’s less weight over the front axle, allowing the car to feel a lot more nimble than previous incarnations.
The engineers have also done a lot of work with the suspension, to the point where the car is necessarily firm to cope with the stresses of the high-speed work, but not jaw-breakingly irritating over rutted and broken surfaces.
Add all these characteristics together and you have something which is seriously stable at demanding speeds on demanding roads and is a real joy to experience over a flowing B-road as it demonstrates both scintillating accuracy and fleetness of foot.
The interior is that of an Audi, so there is little to quibble about — unless you’re a complete Grinch. The quality of the design and the materials used throughout are an object lesson in how to get it right and there are plenty of manufacturers out there — some of them supposedly premium brands — who could pick up a thing or two simply by sitting in this car.
The manner in which this RS3 goes about its business is seriously impressive and this is a car to lust after, without doubt.
Certainly it is expensive, but what it offers for the money is well worth the outlay.
It is a serious piece of kit with very serious ability and that, in my view, puts it in pole position to collect a couple of award gongs at the end of the year.
