That’s because the torque splitter allows the engine to slam one of the rear wheels with everything it can muster, allowing drivers to visit oversteer country on demand – with return visits encouraged via the ‘RS torque rear’ drift mode. It works magnificently and when Audi rolls it out across its bigger, more powerful RS vehicles, things are going to get really interesting, really quickly. The previous car’s Haldex mechanical multi-disc rear clutch pack is replaced by a Magna-sourced rear ‘diff’ that employs electronically controlled clutches on both the left and right drive shafts.Īudi calls it the ‘RS torque splitter’ and it can distribute up to 100 per cent of the engine’s torque to either rear wheel, making the car feel more like a rear-driver without understeer – something that hampered its predecessor during hard cornering. The most impressive – and important – piece of technology hidden beneath the smallest Audi RS model’s angular exterior is the heavily-upgraded quattro all-wheel drive powertrain, which makes the biggest difference to the way the new Audi RS 3 motivates its occupants.
This is the section of the review where we normally wax lyrical about the (admittedly excellent) 12.3-inch virtual cockpit digital driver’s display with bespoke RS modes, and all the latest tech and safety features.īut this is the latest and greatest Audi RS 3, whose claim to fame is its ability perform lurid drifts at the touch of a button. A pre-paid five-year service plan is priced at $3580.
Like all Audi models, the RS 3 is now backed by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, while service intervals are yearly or every 15,000km, whichever occurs first. But boot space is pretty miserly at 282 litres, although it expands to 1104 litres and is sufficient for a couple of suitcases or a decent load of groceries. Passenger comfort in the front seats is excellent and the rear seats aren’t too bad for a small car, offering reasonable roominess. Matt-aluminium exterior styling ($2000) and ‘RS dynamic package plus’ (for a cool $13,000) packages round out the options list, the latter essentially a track pack with ceramic brake rotors and a raised top speed of 290km/h. You can blame the global semi-conductor shortage for that.īut there are options, most of them pretty exxy, like the panoramic sunroof ($2600), an ‘RS design package plus’ ($2150) that buys you loads of red or green interior highlights and a carbon package ($6100 hatch, $5000 sedan) that carbon-fiberises everything – rear spoilers, side skirts and mirror caps – and adds gloss-black Audi rings and badges. The spec sheet also lists massage functionality for the front seats, lane change warning, cross traffic alert, exit warning and a 360-degree surround view parking camera system as standard equipment, but they’ve been left out of Aussie cars. Headline acts here include heavily bolstered, power-adjustable and heated sports seats, a digital screen triple-treat (12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, 10.1-inch central touch-screen, digital head-up display) and intelligent matrix LED headlights with a unique RS 3 start-up ‘dance’.Ī 15-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system delivers a big audio kick for what is a small car, while cool 19-inch black alloy wheels, adaptive dampers, adaptive cruise control and a menacing black styling package comprising a black grille, window surrounds, side mirrors and side skirts are also standard. The new Audi RS 3 Sportback tested here is very much a brute in a robo-suit, its high-tech angular design turning heads as its cruises past, but being an Audi it still delivers plenty of high-tech luxury trappings. Cop that!Īnd while both German rivals make more power, they lack the character of the new RS 3’s unique 2.5-litre inline five-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, which belts out an eye-watering 294kW of power and 500Nm of torque – enough mumbo to squeeze bodies firmly into its quilted leather sport seats. That makes both giant-killing packages around $8000 more expensive than before, but both new RS 3 models still undercut the price of their two main rivals – the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S (from $100,300) and BMW M2 Competition (from $102,900) – and also claim to be quicker to 100km/h.
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Now priced the high side $90,000, the new 2022 Audi RS 3 Sportback is once again available in more adult-looking sedan form for an extra $2500 ($93,891 plus ORCs), adding a larger boot but retaining all the aggression of its stubby-rumped hatch sibling.