Audi’s latest RS 3 Sportback blends usable everyday performance with a hidden monstrous personality that is just waiting to be unleashed

2022 Audi RS 3 Sportback

Launched: April 2022, Price S$363,075 with COE (April 2022)
Small five-door high-performance hatchback, five seats
400hp 2.5-litre petrol engine, VES C2, 9.8L/100km

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PROS
Insanely fast
Lots of fun to drive
Practical enough as an everyday car

CONS
Expensive
Quite wide for a hatchback

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Photos: CarBuyer Team

It’s easy to get intimidated by the new Audi RS 3 Sportback. As Derryn and Ju-Len found out during the car’s launch earlier, the new RS 3 is capable of some truly wild drifting antics, with its ability to kick its tail out at will, thanks to its trick RS Torque Splitter differential.

But that was on a closed circuit, under controlled conditions. What is the RS 3 really like then when you actually have to take it out on the road and deal with normal, everyday traffic? As it turns out, when the RS 3 is not shredding tyres and browning your pants, it actually can function as a reasonable everyday car.

Of the seven different driving modes available, the one that you’ll probably use most of the time is Auto or Comfort. And when operating as such, the RS 3 feels not much different from a regular A3. The ride quality is decently well-sorted, if slightly firm, and there’s surprisingly not a whole lot of noise if you’re gentle on the loud pedal, so the RS 3 is actually quite refined when you’re just milling about your regular business.

Make no mistake though, the RS 3 can still rip your face off (and your licence to shreds), thanks to its 2.5-litre five-pot turbo that puts out a hefty 400hp and 500Nm of torque. 0-100km/h comes up in a mind-bending 3.8 seconds, which is enough to put some pesky Teslas in their place. Being turbocharged, it does take a short while for the boost to come on, but when it does, you find yourself essentially drop-kicked forwards at a velocity that will leave your screaming in excitement/agony/fear. It makes a hell of a noise too, with the bassy five-pot soundtrack a true aural delight when at full chat.

But the RS 3 is not just a one trick pony (albeit a hugely impressive trick). Show it a set of bends and the car is fully capable of showing you a good time too. The quattro all-wheel-drive system means there’s plenty of traction, and you’ll find yourself being able to corner at remarkable speed, with seemingly endless amounts of grip. There’s no real opportunity in Singapore to see what the RS 3 can really do though, but we imagine that the Sportback will be an immense ball of fun over, say, some winding Malaysian B-roads.

That’s if you don’t get into trouble in the first place, which could be hard to do given the RS 3’s eye-catching exterior. The test car’s Python Yellow paintwork is certainly attention-grabbing, but the rest of the car does their part too. The massive black front grille is flanked by large air intakes on each side, and the flared wheel arches, which help to accommodate the wider front wheels, tells you in no uncertain terms that this car means business. The rear is more subtle, but there’s a carbon fibre roof spoiler to tell folks you’ve just overtaken that this is no ordinary A3 hatchback.

An unfortunate consequence of the wider track however is that the RS 3 Sportback ends up somewhat annoyingly tricky to park. Inclusive of the door mirrors, the car is 1,984mm wide, which is comparable to some large SUVs, and it means that you’ll often find yourself edging too close to the car parked beside you. The problem is exacerbated somewhat by the wide turning circle of 12 metres (an average car is about 10 metres), which means you end up having to make extra manoeuvres to get in or out of the lot more often than not.

But that’s just a minor quibble really, as the rest of the RS 3’s package makes it feel like it’s worth the small trouble. The interior manages to offer a right balance of everyday normalcy with enough sporty touches to remind you of the car’s specialness. Highlights include the steering wheel wrapped in Dinamica (a suede-like microfibre material), red design details on the air con vents and seat belts, as well as the bucket seats up front that look the part and cocoons you in snugly as you power on.

All in, the RS 3 Sportback does feel like a very complete everyday performance car, albeit a rather expensive one at S$363,075 with COE. It perhaps doesn’t have the sort of hysterical drama of the Mercedes-AMG A 45 (its closest current rival on sale right now), but there’s no question that the RS 3 Sportback is fully capable of delivering its own brand of fun. The more impressive achievement though is that the RS 3 Sportback manages to strike a fine balance between a car you can live with every day, and a car that can very well make you quiver in excitement should you choose to unleash the beast.

Audi RS 3 Sportback

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