2025 Audi RS3 Sportback | PH Fleet
Fast, only occasionally furious
Amazing how cars can pull you in different directions, even on a day-to-day basis. Generally speaking, I’ve spent the last few weeks warming to the RS3 like a fat toad on a sunny window sill. Mostly this is because I’ve actually had the odd opportunity (at night, since you ask) to drive it outside of its comfort zone. By that I mean the comfort zone it provides you with if you don’t go delving into the modes or pushing buttons. Leaving the car’s dynamic comfort zone on a public road is virtually impossible unless you attempt a T junction at motorway speeds - and even then, the RS3 gives the impression that it would somehow sort it out.
The fact that it does this is all part of the Audi Sport masterplan, of course. Speak to any of the firm’s engineers at length, and they will remind you that an unerring sense of dependability is at the heart of the RS experience. Which is always something to bear in mind when you consider the shortfall in talkativeness that crops up in virtually every steering rack the firm brings to market: it simply isn’t after the same level of surface-contemplating communication that we all rave about in a Porsche. It wants to be slightly one-dimensional because it wants you to lean into it with a level of gusto that approaches blind faith.
It helps, of course, if you select RS Performance setting via the shortcut button on the steering wheel. Audi will tell you this setting is meant to be for the racetrack, but what it really does is act like a demister, removing at least 50 per cent of the mode-related fogginess you get elsewhere and tapping more consistently into the adaptive torque splitter on the back axle. This will perform all sorts of party tricks in RS Torque Rear (more on that at a later date) but in RS Performance, it aims to maximise agility and cornering speed by making the car turn in more swiftly and keeping it as neutral as possible once you committed to a line.
The result, for want of a better description, is bullish. What it lacks in intuitiveness and genuine nuance, the RS3 makes up for with a knack for time-saving that rivals an intergalactic wormhole. It helps that the damping is so on point (if you find yourself at the limits of its handling bandwidth, you’ve probably blundered onto a bridleway) and that - as ever - the five-pot makes for such a generous, indefatigable companion. Vocally, it has lost a step over previous generations, no question; viscerally, it will still have your eyes on stalks. The paddle-shifters as physical objects continue to disappoint; the gearbox, by and large, does not. And nor do the brakes.
Hard not to love a car with a proverbial rocket up its bottom - which did make me regret the moment the mrs relegated herself to the back seats for an afternoon. Apparently, this sacrifice was necessary to keep a large bouquet of flowers upright (for the purposes of scale, think mob boss funeral). Granted, when it comes to any poor sucker perched over the rear axle, very few genuinely fast hot hatches treat their occupants to an impeccable ride - but increasingly irate complaints about the RS3’s relative vertical stiffness (not her words) did eventually become hard to ignore. Even with the stereo’s help.
No surprise, really. And probably of scant concern to your common or garden RS3 buyer. But it does suggest that when the car is handed over to Matt B next month, he might want to reconsider giving his tiny lad a beaker of milk to hold lest the headlining become a canvas. Let’s wait and see. To be fair to it this week, the flowers didn’t budge and we made a Mother’s Day dinner reservation with time to spare. Rough with the smooth, eh…
Car: 2025 Audi RS3 Sportback Carbon Vorsprung
Price as tested: £69,575 (comprising Ascari blue, metallic £895)
Run by: Nic and Matt
On fleet since: Feb 2025
Mileage: 2,485
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Several thousand later on upgraded security and repairs though. Got rid of the car a further year down the line.
Glad it's gone. Wouldn't have another even though these newer ones appear to be more dynamically capable.
( Always and still do like the looks though)
Several thousand later on upgraded security and repairs though. Got rid of the car a further year down the line.
Glad it's gone. Wouldn't have another even though these newer ones appear to be more dynamically capable.
( Always and still do like the looks though)
I’m not quite at the MX5 and a 320d is all you need stage but I do feel there is a type that drive these kind of cars now.
Having said all that I’ve been itching to drive an M3 touring for a while but Jesus if I want to get robbed I might as well plant a flag on the roof of the house saying come and get me
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