8/6/2019 RS 3 Sportback

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The at-bottomed steering wheel, ared

carbon-bre reinorced polymer wings

and Driver’s Inormation System (which doubles

as a lap timer) all add to the sporting nish

Words_Johanna Derry

perfect tuning

We make sweet music with the RS 3 Sportback in the Austrian

Alps, and get a uller understanding o the car’s extraordinary

pedigree – this is, ater all, where the quattro story began

In my imagination, the conductor steps up to the podium and

slowly raises his baton, poised and waiting. He makes the tiniest

gesture, a slight ick o his wrist, and a guttural bassline rumbles

up rom the ve-cylinder engine o a new Audi RS 3 Sportback.

Gripping the at-bottomed steering wheel, I ease it up an incline and crest

the ridge to look out over the expanse o water that is Millstätter See.

A whole orchestra o music strikes up inside my head, complete with John

Barry-esque strings and resounding brass, and I power orward.

I continue against the expansive backdrop o the Austrian Alps, into

sharp inclines and down sloshing slopes, round hairpin bends and along

silky smooth straights that are cinematic in their perection. The 340PS

engine can surge rom 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds, and has a top governed

speed o 155mph. No wonder my subconscious has decided to provide me

with an appropriately soaring soundtrack.

The beat o the TFSI engine is a throaty constant in the score playing

in my mind. I eel like a lm heroine – a gutsy Bond girl, like Tilly Masterson

in Goldfnger , reduxed or the 21st century – hurtling headlong up and

up to where the mountains meet the clouds. The 450Nm o torque

attacks the steep rises as I climb higher to burst over each rise with an

enthusiastically joyul show o power.

The RS 3 Sportback is the eighth incarnation o the RS label, and carries

the distinctive traits o its predecessors: sprint speeds and sports styling,

including ared, lightweight carbon-bre-reinorced wings; Fine Nappa

leather upholstered sports seats; and 19-inch alloys.

I’m not a rally bu, but it’s blatantly obvious this is a direct descendant

o the ur-quattro. It’s impossible not to get a sense o the spirit o that

modied Audi 80 when it’s still so viscerally present in the RS 3’s engine at

my command. And even more so because I’m driving along Turracher

Höhe, the Alpine pass where the rst quattro prototype was secretly

presented to the board o Audi AG in January 1978. The timbre o the

music changes slightly as we cut to ashback: the area was snow-covered

then, but even wearing summer tyres, the car wasn’t phased and the

genius o quattro technology shone out. It was clear rom that moment

that this was a piece o engineering to change the landscape o motoring,

both in motorsport and on the road, orever.

I switch into Sport mode, picking up the pace with sharper throttle

response, and changing the exhaust note or the nale. Twin-clutch

seven-speed S tronic transmission gives rally-quick gear changes, but or

all its racing pedigree, this is a road car – no need or roll

or suspension-battering, mud-spattering corners. It hold

curves and bends o my route, tight like leather, swoosh

sweeping valleys with an abandon that's exhilarating.

Driving should always be this delightul, eortless and

at ull throttle or burbling along through the sleepy Aus

the car holds its composure, never missing a beat. The ba

perormance and an enjoyable drive is perectly judge

best-in-class 31mpg combined and emissions o 212

it seems that everything about the RS 3 Sportback – eng

efciency – is music to my ears.

Aud RS 3 Sportback

Prce: £39,930 (OTR)

Engnes: 2.5 TSi 340PS

Transmsson: seven-speed S tronc

Drvetran: quattro all-wheel drve

0-62mph: 4.6 secs

Top speed: 155mph

Efcency: 31mpg, 212g/Km CO2

042_ Vorsprung_RS 3 Sportback_