Driven Audi RS3 (UK spec)
We try out the sold-out RS3 in the Austrian Alps
But this is now a post-1-series M world we live in and, in light of the appearance of what in some ways is the RS3's closest conceptual rival, it is perhaps worth revisiting Audi's latest RS model.
This is also the first opportunity we've had to sample the RS3 in proper-hand drive, an activity which often throws up new and interesting angles on a car.
All of which is well and good, but it is odd that Audi has decided to launch its UK-spec RS3 in, er, Austria. But although the area in which we are to sample the RHD RS3 has no more apparent association with the VW Group than the massive VW enthusiast show that takes place on the shores of Lake Worthersee every year (and at which Audi recently unveiled a 500bhp A1 concept), there is method in the Ingolstadt madness.
Because just a few tens of kilometres away from Worthersee lies an Alpine pass called Turracher Hohe. This is a stretch of steep, twisting, ill-cambered asphalt upon which, in 1978 a little bit of history took place.
More than 30 years on, and four-wheel drive is still the lynchpin of Audi's performance offerings. So Audi is returning to Turracher Hohe, but this time with the RS3 Sportback, the latest torch-carrier of Quattro ideology.
Okay, so the engine is east-west and the transmission a Haldex clutch jobbie, but the RS3 does at least get a turbocharged five-cylinder engine, and its DSG twin-clutch transmission can (arguably) trace its roots to the PDK transmission that some of the original Quattro rally cars used, so perhaps the comparison is justified.
As for the RHD side of things, well, the RS3 seems to have swapped its wheel to the other side with no discernable effects...
Meanwhile, that five-cylinder warble is suitably characterful and undeniably rapid but, and it seems churlish to say this of a car able to whip to 124mph in 17.5secs (and 0-62mph in 4.6secs) and possessed of 331lb ft of torque between 1600rpm and 5300rpm, there is just a hint of flatness in the power delivery.
Admittedly that's probably because of the immaculately linear engine, and it's only compared with the spikily forceful power delivery in the BMW 1M. And since that's something we criticised in the BMW it ought to be a good thing that the Audi offers such flat shove, but it does make the RS3 that little bit less exhilarating.
Still, for 99 per cent of the time the RS3 is a thoroughly excellent car, and there's obviously more than enough people out there for whom the RS3 holds sufficient appeal, because 500 people have already bought one, meaning the car's UK allocation has sold out. And we can well understand why.
(Edited for removal of swear-filter avoidance
)If I had to chose between this and the 1M, no doubt I'd take the BMW. Personal choice about car dynamics, that's all.
They pretty much go in that price order and Audi's prices are largely in line with their direct competitors. The prices are not stupid, they are entirely appropriate to their market and competition.
Cheapers motor vehicles are available.
If I had to chose between this and the 1M, no doubt I'd take the BMW. Personal choice about car dynamics, that's all.
I love the idea that someone can call a car that's already sold out "overpriced". 
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