Rush Hour: ‘Thrilling speed and sporty perfection’ in the Audi RS3
It was quite an experience driving such an impressive car.
Listen boet, I don’t want you taking this thing over any potholes please.
That was the joking instruction from the guy who handles the Audi fleet in KwaZulu-Natal for the motoring juornalists when handing over the Audi RS3 Sportback for me to drive for a week.
“It sits quite low,” he said, a twinkle in his eye and a grin forming on the sides of his mouth. “You’ll see.”
He was quite right. And man, did the RS3 attract admiring glances. A lot.
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Externally, it demonstrates its power in the form of a concise Audi single-frame grille with a glossy black honeycomb structure, large air intakes and edged skirt attachments.
The Audi RS3 is a dream car and there was no way I was going to take it to drop off a forgotten laptop at my wife’s work.
This would have involved driving on a dirt road with some potholes so deep even Evel Knievel may have fancied having a go at ramping over them.
Road holding was quite simply out of this world. I had watched Sebastian Vettel and company belting it around the track during a recent grand prix and clearly my wife thought I had been watching too much Formula 1.
“Your driving persona has changed,” she moaned. “No it hasn’t, I’m not even going the speed limit yet.”
I suspect it was the instant – and mega-powerful – acceleration she was not used to.
Thanks to the powerful five-cylinder TFSI with 294kW and a maximum torque of 480Nm, it reaches the 100 km/h mark in only 4.1 seconds.
Not many will have experienced the primal roar at start up (it sent neighbouring dogs scurrying for cover) and the pull as it took off.
“Go faster dad,” the kids yelled.
Unlike the grand prix vehicles which are super light, this one is solid and you don’t get the feeling that you don’t have control.
Inside it is magnificently comfortable. Some sporty cars can be too hard and uncomfortable but not the RS3.
It has all the bells and whistles, including a modern virtual cockpit which made me wonder if I needed a pilot’s licence… in other words a gadget freak’s dream.
I bumped into Audi South Coast sales executive Keagan Burton outside the dealership by chance one evening.
I was stopping in to get a coffee and he had just come from the gym, trying to get his body more ripped.
His eyes popped open. “It’s like an A3 on steroids,” he said.
He fiddled around with some settings and flicked it into sport mode (well, actually dynamic).
“Give it a burst up the hill when you go Dave, please,” he pleaded.
No problem. My wife nearly spilled her coffee, that would have been a disaster, would hate to mess on the seats. (Jokes).
I wasn’t keen to hand it back. On the last little stretch into work, Sean Kingston came onto radio… said he would belt out ‘Somebody call 911’ if I turned it up nice and loud.
So I obliged. What a sound system. What a car.
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