2016 Audi RS3 review: the hot hatch supercar slayer

[Express]

2016 Audi RS3 review: the hot hatch supercar slayer



25 November, 2015





The RS3 is a performance monster with hatch practicality.


Harry Tucker
news.com.au


TECHNOLOGY is amazing. You only need to look back 10 years ago at supercars of the time, legends such as the Ferrari 360 or the V8 Audi R8. These cars were, and still are performance monsters, they’re supercars that kids poster on their wall.

These cars with their 4.4 second 0-100 sprint time set you back up to $400,000 when they were released, but now, for less than the price of a Toyota LandCruiser, you can buy a car that’s even quicker.

Audi’s RS3 is the latest in a new line of ‘hyper hatches’, where the recipe is to chuck as much power as you can into the bonnet of a hatchback and tack on some other go-fast bits so it can go around corners at speeds that break the laws of physics. The RS3’s take on this is an absolute crack of a turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine that puts out 270kW of power and 465Nm of torque. It puts all that power down through a 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox and Quattro all-wheel drive that helps it to propel from 0-100km/h in 4.3-seconds. Faster than a V8 Audi R8, and faster than a Ferrari 360. That’s one bloody quick hatchback.

Thanks to its odd number of cylinders and how the car activates them, the RS3 even has a sound to match. When you turn it on, the car roars to life, waking up anyone sleeping within a 5km radius with a mixture of exhaust growls and grin-inducing pops and crackles.



Perfect for fanging the back roads after dropping the kids off. Source: Supplied


That same aural enjoyment continues when you’re driving. Flatten the throttle to hear it belt out a glorious five-cylinder tune and crackle away on up-shifts. It’s a different sound though, it’s not a deep burble like a V8 or a raspy sound of a screaming four-cylinder, it’s kind of a mixture of both and might just be my favourite sounding car this side of a Lexus LFA. It could even be too intoxicating of a sound - you’ll soon find yourself addicted with the temptation to be flooring it at every point possible.

But in those situations that you can actually plant your foot and drive it with some gusto, the RS3 is spectacular. The Quattro system gives you ample amounts of grip, so much so that you would have to significantly go out of your way to lose it around a bend. The amount of pace you can take through the corner is simply staggering, with precise and well weighted steering helping you to point it into the next corner.

Once you’re done with your fun, you can flick back out of dynamic and sport modes into comfort and the car is transformed into something much more acceptable for a daily driver. The exhaust flaps close to near silence, and if you have the optional Audi RS performance pack, the magnetic ride suspensions softens the car right up. Trust me, if you want to be using this as a daily driver, you’ll want to spend that extra $6490 on the performance package which also includes bigger wheels.

In terms of fuel usage, Audi claims it uses 8.1 litres of premium per 100km, but under our week of mixed use which included city driving, highway driven and some spirited runs, we finished with 10.2 litres per 100km. It’s not exactly the most economical, but as far as true performance cars go it’s definitely better than lot of others.



Nice, but could be nicer. Source: Supplied


On the inside it’s a typical quality Audi affair. Leather all around, with a well laid out centre console and screen that pops up on top of the dash. While it’s certainly not bad, as an RS model you’re left wanting a little bit more, with only special seats setting it apart from the cheaper S3. Being a 2016 Audi model, it would have also been nice to see the inclusion of Audi’s Virtual Cockpit digital dashboard as seen on the new TT, R8 and Q7. The Audi Connect infotainment system also still uses the German company’s proprietary adaptor to plug your phone in, which is frankly unacceptable in today’s cars, especially in something pushing $100k on road.

But in the end, you’re not exactly buying a car like the RS3 for its digital entertainment, you’re doing so for the driving pleasure. And for $78,990, you’re not going to find anything much faster outside of it and its German rival, the Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG.

Hatchbacks are officially supercar slayers and it is glorious.

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