Audi Sport’s diminutive giant killer, the RS 3 has been a big hit and indeed a big hitter globally since it first made an appearance back in 2011. At the time it was available only as a five-door Sportback, but has since been joined by the stylish RS 3 Sedan to create one of the most dynamic duos in Audi Sport’s illustrious history.

The first RS 3 Sportback to touch down in Australia in 2015 effectively changed the performance landscape Down Under, and has continued to build a passionate fan base here ever since.

Powered by the distinctive 2.5-litre TFSI engine, that original car produced 270kW of torque and 465Nm of torque to knock off the sprint to 100km/h in 4.3 seconds, with razor sharp handling to match. Its price point too was razor sharp with the RS 3 Sportback becoming the most affordable RS model Audi had ever introduced.

The incoming model upgrade arriving here in the new year continues that trend of oversized performance from a compact luxury car, but with more power and even greater handling prowess than ever before. Still powered by the famed five-cylinder 2.5-litre TFSI powerplant, the incoming RS 3 models now produce 294kW of power and 500Nm of torque, taking the 0 to 100km/h sprint time into the sub-four second territory – 3.8 seconds to be precise. It’s electronically governed top speed of 250km/h can be ‘massaged’ to 290km/h for those wanting to make the most of the car’s dynamics at track days, and with handling like the RS 3’s it’s understandable that many customers opt for this upgrade.

The handling is due in no small part to the torque splitter with its fully variable torque distribution between the rear wheels, electronic stability control, wheel-selective torque control (brake torque vectoring), and the adaptive dampers of the RS sport suspension. 

Introduced to the RS 3 for the first time in 2021, the system elevated an already inspired handling package to new levels. In its year of introduction, Audi Sport works driver and test driver extraordinaire, Frank Stippler, took the new package around the famed Nürburgring-Nordschleife in a then record time for the compact category. In June this year, Stippler took the upgraded RS 3 in Sedan configuration and repeated the feat, setting a new record.

"The torque splitter, with its fully variable torque distribution between the rear wheels, has enabled us to achieve a new level of lateral dynamics. It was a game changer,” says Marvin Schwätter, Technical Project Manager of the RS 3. 

“We identified potential for improvement and fine-tuned the current model in detail. As a result, the RS 3 is now even more agile and performs better in bends.”

The car avoids understeer right at the entrance to the bend and turns in more willingly thanks to fine-tuning – including brake torque vectoring. This means that while the torque splitter provides torque to the rear wheel on the outside of the curve, the wheels on the inside of the bend are braked slightly.

The more controlled agility is made possible by an improved algorithm that enables the chassis control systems to communicate with each other more precisely. The two control units of the torque splitter, the electronic stabilisation control, the brake torque vectoring (the wheel-selective torque control), and the adaptive dampers of the RS sport suspension react even more sensitively to the respective driving situation – always depending on the selected Audi drive select mode. 

The result is a rear bias when cornering at speed and massively increased stability – the RS 3 hunkering down and slingshotting out of high-speed bends. Of course that torque-splitter can, in the right situations, be taken to extremes and used to induce oversteer and even drifting with judicious use of the throttle. 

Fast forward to today and the Australian arrival of the upgraded RS 3 Sportback and RS 3 Sedan is now counting down, and while much has changed over the intervening years, the RS 3 remains the gateway to the RS ranks and is still a model that delivers otherworldly performance and handing and still very much punches well above its weight.