Published:
27 October 2024The RS3’s body control is generally taut but not brittle or restless, and its four-wheel drive system is just ‘active’ enough most of the time to enrich the car’s handling without making it feel contrived or unnatural.
Audi’s adaptive sports suspension creates a pleasingly calm and reasonably quiet town ride and the steering is light in the tamer driving modes and progressively paced just off centre rather than nervy. There is, in short, Audi’s usual dynamic versatility about this car, even though it has clearly been prepared to do even more dramatic things elsewhere.
Instead of the Nordschleife, our chance to assess the facelifted RS3 on track comes on Catalonia’s Parcmotor Castellolí. Even with just a fraction of Stippler’s driving ability available, the RS3’s poise is impressive: even if you feel the car unsettle going into a turn, by the time you’re past the apex you always sense you could have been on the power earlier.
