Audi’s brand new S3 Sportback and S3 Sedan are here, and boy do the look good. With 310PS, 400 Nm of torque, quattro all wheel drive and a revised, aggressive look, this might be all the car a petrol head needs. They’ve launched both the hatchback, “Sportback”, and the saloon/sedan models, both sporting the same 2 litre turbo engine, likely very similar to the one found in the Golf R although this one has 10PS more power. All that grunt gets you to 62mph in just 4.8 seconds, faster than my 2013 S4 with a supercharged V6!
The new Sportback sports an aggressive new look, with it’s LED headlights slanted down and slices in the grills for a rip-your-face-off aesthetic. It’s not all agro though, as you get a number of driver comfort and safety features too. You get adaptive cruise control, swerve assist, lane departure warning, lane change, exit warnings and park assist too.
You also get Audi’s new MMI infotainment system “MIB 3”, which twinned with the very nice looking interior should offer a very nice in-cabin experience. It’s the same steering wheel as my 2013 S4, but that isn’t a bad thing, although the car does look a lot more posh.
The driving feel should be pretty good too as these S3’s come with S-specific suspension. It rides 15mm lower, and you can option adaptive damper control too, meaning the car will change the compression and rebound to match road conditions and drive modes rather well. You also get a new electric brake booster, on top of the already electric power steering for a supposed “strong and stontaneous deceleration”.
The S3 Sportback and Sedan are on sale now, with the first cars being expected to be delivered in October. Prices start at €46,402.53 (£41,952.23) for the Sportback, or €47,179.83 (£42,648.44) for the Sedan, although I expect you’d probably walk away with more like £45,000 after options for the 19″ alloys, suspension and interior trims. Either way these look exciting.
