New Audi RS3 Specs and Pricing for South Africa
If there’s one thing that almost all car people can agree on, it’s that the hot-hatch is a brilliant invention. Take one practical family hatchback, add some poke, some coloured stitching here and a useless spoiler there and voila – you have the most sensible iteration of a performance car.
Then Audi comes along, and in true Vorsprung fashion, rewrites the rule book from cover to cover. The Audi RS2 was the original Super Hatch/wagon and in many ways, the spiritual successor to the RS3 with its gurgling 5-pot and grippy all-wheel-drive system. Now, if you have never experienced this exceptional recipe, you can be guaranteed to drop an expletive or two when you launch and Audi RS hatch for the first time. The acceleration is just brutal and luckily that fact remains with the facelifted RS3 and new-to-the-range RS3 Sedan. That’s right, you can now have a super-hot sedan version of the hatch.
Some visual tweaks here and there can be noticed but the biggest change is the additional 24 kW/15 N.m and massive 26 kg weight loss, thanks to major internal changes within the fabled 2.5-litre TFSI unit such as smaller crankshaft bearings and a hollow bored crankshaft. This should go a long way to improve the dynamics of the RS3 which was always considerably more understeery than its competitors, the BMW M2, Mercedes-AMG A45 and the Ford Focus RS.
Audi’s brilliant Virtual Cockpit instrument binnacle is now available with slightly modified gamification for the RS models, shifting the rev-counter to the middle of the display. LED headlights and taillights are now standard for both the Sportback and Sedan.
New Audi RS3 Pricing in South Africa
The New Audi RS3 Sedan is already available at all Audi Sport dealerships in South Africa and the RS3 Sportback will be arriving on our shores in November with both models coming standard with Audi’s 5 year/100 000km Freeway Plan.
Audi RS3 Sportback: R895 500 Audi RS3 Sedan: R925 500