More power and a trick differential aren’t the only factors triggering a race to buy Audi’s only five-cylinder RS car.

DYNAMIC or the new ‘RS Performance’: Snicking into either, all semblance of civility jumps ship from the latest RS3.

You’ll have to pick your moments when enacting modes that bring out the maximum brawn and dynamic and aural bravura from the latest generation of this street fighter.

 That ultimate RS setting is, for instance, ‘recommended’ for race tracks because it’s an access to another new-to-type ingredient, a drift mode, called RS Torque Rear. Yeah, big controlled slides from a quattro. That takes some talent.

Implementing each of these bogan placements, in turn, on the Auckland motorway, inbound to the city from the airport amidst a mid-morning traffic stream, perhaps wasn’t the ideal time and place, even though no speed limits were broken, nor any traction lost.

But the soundtrack. Yeah, that DEFINITELY enhanced. Assuming fellow drivers hadn’t already twigged to our car being a bit different to the norm, through it being left-hand-drive and sporting domestic German (Ingolstadt region) number plates, the soundtrack suddenly erupting from it would have done the trick.

Gotta love that 2.5-litre five-cylinder petrol engine, a carryover but meted even more of a curry up in the new format. Of all the Audi RS powerplants, it surely has to be the most instantly feral. An exemplar of brilliantly belligerent bombast.  

Audi NZ’s left-hooker, pictured here, is a head office loaner that’ll be en route back to the homeland around mid-March, heading out just when the first consignment of the $112,500 NZ-market edition is set to arrive.

The German market car was snaffled to whet appetites for the smallest explosive device in the RS arsenal. The seat time made me glad it came all this way, but in a way this expensive effort was almost a wasted trip.

Kiwi love for RS cars is stuff of legend back in Ingolstadt – our per head of population uptake has been world-leading for some time and it strengthened in 2021, the hardest-edged racers accounting for almost a quarter of the 1750 Audis sold last year. They would have done more, but for Covid. And ongoing semiconductor issues. Still, the tally is a 17 percent year-on-year gain, so …

Anyway, of all the RennSport products here, the bonkers bubba is one that has most easily sold itself.

 Not only are 400 of the previous generation models popping and banging around our land, but 61 of the 100 examples of the next edition nabbed for NZ are already spoken for. Of those, two will remain in the distributor’s hands, to undertake press drive duty. Yay for that.

More than just reputation and the fact that we’ve had a bit of a break from this recipe – the last example of the old model was sold 36 months ago - is likely driving this desire.

Though Audi has yet to confirm, its plan for all A3 editions to become electrified to some degree by decade’s end, either with a hybrid system or even in fully committed electric, suggests there’s high probability this will be the last of the mighty mite breed to be fully reliant on fossil fuel.

Audi NZ general manager Dean Sheed also reminds that, while the petrol play is not over yet for RS – there’ll be local market facelift actions incoming, over time, for the RS4, RS5, RS6 and RS7 -  the decision to wrap up by 2025 ongoing development of petrol and diesel powertrains in orthodox state is cemented.

This being a period of historic transition reflects in how the RS3 has been developed – as a parting shot, it fires with all barrels and then some.

First and foremost, though, it’s about raw grunt. The new version of the much-admired and wholly brand-appropriate turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder that has served since 2011 develops 294W (44kW more than the first) from 5600 to 7000rpm. Torque is upped by 20Nm to 500Nm. So, the most powerful version of this unit yet fitted to an Audi production model, and super revvy, too. The digital rev counter changes colour and flashes when approaching the rev limiter to signal to the driver that it's time to change up. So I’m told.

With zero to 100kmh coming up in 3.8 seconds, a 0.4s improvement, another supercar slayer is born. Top speed is limited to 250kmh here. The optional RS Dynamic package that lends a 290kmh absolute (and also delivers slick tyres for track work) will not be directly offered here.

Power channels via a seven-speed direct shift transmission with various modes, including full manual, and there are as many driving modes as there are forward gears: Comfort, Auto, Dynamic, Efficiency, RS Individual, RS Performance, and RS Torque Rear.

The fun starts with RS Individual, where personal preferences for the adaptive dampers, steering effort, transmission programming, engine sound, and the amount of aggressiveness of the torque-vectoring rear differential can be stored. RS modes dial back stability control too, but it can also be fully defeated.

How so? Glad you asked. As in the latest and still-to-hit-New Zealand Volkswagen Golf R, the RS3 has an active rear differential in place of the regular A3's Haldex clutch pack.

Management of torque distribution is not only to the front and rear axles; the multiplate clutches vary torque applied to the left- and right-rear wheels. Depending on the driving dynamics mode, up to 50 percent of the engine’s torque can be applied separately to each rear wheel.

As Audi describes it, instead of braking the inside wheel in a corner to create yaw to help the car around a corner, the differential directs power to the outer wheel to help the rear end rotate. This fundamentally changes the driving characteristics. All-wheel-drive cars, of course, normally understeer at the limit. In its most aggressive settings, the RS3 actions like a tail-happy rear-wheel-drive car, the brand suggests. Back in Dynamic, it promises genuine balance.

The whole car is wider (by 51mm up front) and more haunched (by 10mm) than the donor and the front end is the most menacing within this family; with a special honeycomb grille. Out back, the Sporthatch achieves a relatively modest roof spoiler, and new rear bumpers with a large oval exhaust outlet on each side. And yes, just to remind from earlier stories, we’re only getting the Sportback, not its sedan sister ship.

 Matrix LED headlights also feature. The LED segments on each deliver a vaguely cheesy party trick by displaying a chequered flag motif when the car is on the move. Unlocking or locking the car, the driver’s side cycles through the letters of the car; spelling out ‘R-S-3’.

The usual RS makeover has been applied to the interior, including leather-trimmed sports seats, a flat-bottomed steering wheel and gearchange paddles.

The design and layout of the 'virtual cockpit' digital instrumentation has been revamped especially for the type. Along with readouts more suited to driving on a racetrack, there's a few different ways to visualise the rising revs - including a new 'RS Runway' style. The RS Design package brings green or fetching red accents throughout.