Pahrump, Nev. – The Audi RS 3 is a type of efficiency fashions that feels extra like a ardour venture than a calculated enterprise case. Now that the TT-RS has bowed out of the market, Audi’s track-tuned compact sedan is the one automotive at the moment bought in North America that’s motivated by a five-cylinder energy plant. Provided that, it will’ve made sense for the second-generation RS 3 to have transitioned to a hopped up four-cylinder borrowed from the Volkswagen Group components bin – in spite of everything, the S3 already will get its grunt from a 2.0-liter that’s similar to the Golf R’s. Ratcheting up the efficiency of a broadly used engine for a high-performance utility is a standard method within the business, and that’s ostensibly what Mercedes-AMG did to develop the 4 pot within the RS 3’s closest rival, the CLA 45.
However Audi has rightfully recognized that there’s worth in being the oddball, particularly when these traits join on an emotional degree. The five-cylinder configuration got here to epitomize Audi efficiency through the automaker’s numerous motorsports efforts all through the Nineteen Eighties, and the 1-2-4-5-3 firing order produces an immediately recognizable soundtrack that’s nonetheless intently related to the model as we speak. The newest iteration of the RS 3’s turbocharged 2.5-liter scores an output bump of seven horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque over the outgoing mill for a grand complete of 401 hp and 369 lb-ft. The 0-to-60 dash falls by three tenths to three.6 seconds. Whereas these are astonishing numbers for a subcompact sedan, they’re hardly transformative. However they’re mixed with the engineering work that Audi has executed elsewhere within the platform, it ends in a extremely succesful efficiency machine that surprises on a number of fronts and delivers on the promise of a genuinely distinctive driving expertise.
There’s a brand new aesthetic to associate with it, too. Purposeful vents within the flared fenders up entrance are a refined homage to the Quattro S1 E2 utilized in Group B rally racing, whereas greater air intakes, a wider entrance monitor, and extra aggressive aero parts give the brand new RS 3 a much more purposeful look than its predecessor. Audi additionally included a small contact that provides to the sense of event by the use of the Matrix-design LED headlights, which greet you by spelling out R-S-3 every time the automotive is unlocked.
On the chassis entrance, the brand new RS 3 boasts greater brakes with improved warmth administration due to these bigger entrance air intakes and the flexibility to evacuate scorching air via the fender vents. The magnetic dampers outfitted on the outgoing RS 3 have been ditched in favor of the adaptive Dynamic Chassis Management setup discovered on different A3-based fashions, a transfer that Audi instructed us was made to supply a better vary of damping adjustability. There’s additionally the requisite RS-tuned springs, dampers, and sway bars, together with a experience top that’s 10 mm decrease than the S3 and 25 mm or almost a full inch decrease than the A3. The large information, nevertheless, is the brand new RS Torque Splitter: two electronically managed multi-plate clutches, one for every of the rear-drive shafts, that enables for totally variable torque distribution between the rear wheels.
That in flip has yielded two new drive modes: RS Efficiency, which is designed to attenuate understeer throughout exhausting cornering by sending torque to the surface wheel, and RS Torque Rear, which strategically distributes the facility between the entrance wheels and the surface rear wheel to assist induce managed oversteer. Yeah, this one’s obtained a drift mode.
Our first stint behind the wheel of the brand new RS 3 was on the street course at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, about an hour west of Las Vegas. It’s a demanding circuit with a shocking quantity of elevation change, and this explicit configuration included a quick sweeper that allowed the RS 3 to place its Torque Splitter tech via its paces. The take a look at vehicles used for monitor work had been outfitted with the carbon ceramic brakes that come as a part of the Dynamic Plus Package deal in addition to the optionally available, ultra-sticky Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires that had been used to set the Nürburgring compact manufacturing automotive lap document final summer season.
The latter present a surprising quantity of grip; the onboard telemetry registered lateral forces exceeded 1.26G in each braking and cornering on quite a few events as soon as we obtained comfy with the automotive and the monitor format. The RS 3 does a outstanding impression of a rear-drive automotive within the RS Efficiency drive mode – understeer was nearly non-existent, solely briefly showing when gradual corners had been overcooked. That’s simply physics. On the few events once we got here via that sweeper a bit too scorching, it was the again finish that stepped out first, but it surely instantly got here again in step with zero drama by merely dialing again the throttle. The steering is fairly gentle whatever the drive mode that’s set, and there’s not a lot in the way in which of helpful suggestions, however the ratio is fast and it’s correct sufficient to position the automotive proper the place you need it lap after lap. In that sense it doesn’t actually add to the monitor driving expertise, but it surely additionally doesn’t take away from it.
The carbon ceramic brakes are much less forgivable, although. Whereas they remained fade-free all through repeated lapping classes, they provided little or no preliminary chunk even when the pads had been contemporary, and the pedal mainly needed to be stood upon to get all the out there stopping energy from them. Audi’s Pre Sense security system hated it when that was executed and beeped its displeasure every time we went into the braking zone for the monitor’s huge hairpin, however to its credit score, it by no means intervened past flashing warning messages on the Digital Cockpit show.
After we’d had our fill of the monitor we headed out for a two-hour drive via the desert to get a greater sense of what the RS 3 is like in on a regular basis use. There’s a little bit of turbo lag when accelerating from idle, however there’s no scarcity of grunt when the increase is available in. It’s additionally type of exhausting to remain mad at this engine when its exhaust notice retains reminding you of the R8’s naturally aspirated V10 at decrease revs.
Audi’s determination to swap out the magnetic dampers for extra standard models got here as a little bit of a shock, however out on the street it was exhausting to argue with the outcomes, because the RS 3 was remarkably compliant on each the sunbaked pavement round city and the undulating stretches of freeway close to Loss of life Valley Junction. In additional spirited sections of the drive, urgent the RS button on the steering wheel switched the automotive from Consolation to the RS Efficiency drive mode in an effort to stiffen the suspension and enhance physique management because the tempo ramped up, but it surely by no means felt abusively stiff no matter how briskly or gradual we had been going. Our take a look at automotive was outfitted with the RS Know-how Package deal, which features a properly balanced Bang & Olufsen audio system and sharp head-up show which can be value springing for.
Returning to Spring Mountain, it was time to don helmets as soon as once more, this time on a skidpad autocross Audi set as much as totally display the RS Torque Rear drive mode. Anybody who has ever tried to float a strong rear-drive automotive is aware of that a lot of studying course of entails terminal understeer or spinning out – or perhaps a mixture of the 2 throughout the identical try – however the Torque Splitter system within the RS 3 is a authentic recreation changer. Managed drifts usually require a really measured method with the throttle, and in case you’re reacting to what the automotive is doing slightly than anticipating it, you’ve most likely already misplaced it. Not so with the brand new RS 3. Flip in, pin the throttle to the ground, dial in some reverse lock, and alter as vital alongside the way in which. With the system serving to to distribute energy the place it must be in an effort to maintain the automotive energy sliding with out letting the again finish come round utterly, it mainly appears like a cheat code. It’s additionally very addictive, so be sure you put aside a tire funds.
You possibly can argue the RS Torque Rear trick serves no sensible goal in a lot the identical approach that you may argue that producing a singular five-cylinder engine for a low quantity automotive is pointless, and therein lies the brilliance of the RS 3. That is simply as a lot about celebrating heritage and the sheer pleasure of driving as it’s about hitting numbers on the Nordschleife and injecting some character into your every day commute. When automakers make impassioned selections like these, all of us win.
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