The Audi S3 sedan has its big brother’s good looks.
But it’s a faster runner
So here's a question for Audi's marketing department: Why
should anybody buy an S4 sedan? The new S3 is cheaper, quicker (4.4 seconds to
60!), and, although this won't trigger a buying impulse in everybody,
considerably cuter. Sure, it's down a couple of cylinders compared with its
bigger brother, and it has to make do with a less sophisticated
four-wheel-drive system. But this is 2014 and the world is downsizing; even the
BMW M3 has given up two pots.
Let's start with the obvious point that the S3 you’re
looking at here has its steering wheel on the wrong side and wears a license
plate that looks like an eye chart for myopic pensioners. That's because,
although the S3 doesn't touch down stateside until September (right about when
you're reading this), it's already on sale in England. So we sourced one in the
U.K. and arranged to infiltrate a former U.S. airbase to record per-formance
numbers, then did a whistle-stop tour of ridiculously quaint Shakespearean
burgs with names like Kibworth Harcourt and Husbands Bosworth to see which one
offers the best black pudding. If you don't know what that is, don't ask.
Audi S3 front view
You already know the basics: The S3 is the beefy version of the
transverse-engined A3 sedan, sharing the Golf's MQB platform and packing the
most powerful current iteration of Volkswagen's familiar EA888 2.0-liter four.
That means 292 horsepower, basically the same spec as the forthcoming Golf R.
Although Europe also gets both three- and five-door-hatchback versions of the
S3, only the sedan will cross the Atlantic. And although Europeans are helping
to save the manuals with a standard six-speed stick, all U.S. versions will have
the six-speed S tronic dual-clutch automatic that’s fitted to our test car.
The looks are Audi-familiar. Despite carrying its engine
sideways and being almost 10 inches shorter than an S4, the S3 looks close
enough to its sibling that it could probably use its driver's license as a fake
ID. The baby sedan's hatchback origins are only obvious in the relative
shortness of its trunk lid. With a chunky body kit, quad exhaust outlets, and
the silver mirror surrounds that Audi reserves for S and RS models, it's a
handsome little thing and a measure more subtle than the Mercedes CLA45 AMG.
Whether or not you think that's a plus probably depends on how high you wear
your pants. Inside, the cabin is well finished and well equipped, although
apart from a flat-bottomed steering wheel and gray instruments (with an '80s-style
digital boost gauge), it feels very similar to the standard A3 sedan.
Audi S3 interior
The engine is the highlight. Two decades ago, engines with
the EA888’s specific output came with turbo lag you could measure in
Mississippis, whereas now you have to concentrate hard to detect it. Push the
throttle pedal and there's a fractional delay as the boost works through the
system, but it's so slight that you couldn't really describe it as lag. Beyond
that, the engine delivers perfectly proportional responses. There's lots of
low-down torque, yet the engine enjoys being revved, even beyond its 6200-rpm
power peak. It sounds good, too, although like the rest of its turbocharged MQB
brethren, it cheats slightly with a sound-enhancing loudspeaker on the cowl
that supplements the engine's natural noise.
The 292-HP
Turbocharged 2.0- liter four muscles the S3 to 60mph in 4.4 seconds, 0.5-
second quicker than the S4 can manage
The transmission is so good that you don't notice it.
Seamless upshifts played a big part in delivering the very impressive acceleration
runs we recorded on the two-mile runway at the former RAF Bruntingthorpe
airfield in rural Leicestershire. The S3 proved to be as quick when left in its
more aggressive sport automatic mode as it was when we shifted via the
steering-wheel paddles. A particular highlight: a 10.8-second zero-to-100-mph.
The last time we so bludgeoned an S4 (albeit with a manual ’box) it took 12.0
seconds. For any sedan, that's pretty schnellsten.
