He says, she says: 2017 Audi RS 3

We take a blast in the new RS 3 to give a male/female perspective on Audi’s little tyke.

The Audi RS 3 in Abu Dhabi. Its 2.5L, five-­cylinder engine generates 367hp, while the car also has a Launch Control feature for super-speedy getaways from a standing start. Reem Mohammed / The National
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In an urban landscape crawling with speed cameras and myriad other ways to gain speeding tickets and black points at an alarming rate – and rightly so – getting your fix of zooming around without losing your shirt on the resulting fines is basically impossible. Enter the new Audi RS 3, which is fast in a compact way that makes even relatively low-speed boosts feel thrilling, but without it catapulting into the stratosphere faster than you can say: “Yeah, I didn’t need my licence anyway.” In short, it’s an absolute blast without any need for recklessness.

The Sportback quattro 5 Tronic, to give our test model its extended title, is like a little brother that you never knew you needed, riding on 19-inch low-profile tyres with cocky five-spoke alloys. Driving in anything other than “Sport” does the RS 3 something of a disservice, so I don’t, although I failed to find the necessary open spaces to test out the rather bonkers Launch Control. The 367hp generated by its 2.5L, five-cylinder unit equates to all the power you will ever need in the city; unsurprisingly, it’s not quite as much fun once set to cruise on the highways, although the temptation to drop down a gear and zip past other motorists is ever-present.

Inside, the black leather racing seats are almost a little too plain in their attempts at presenting a stripped-down driver’s-car vibe, although should you need any further reminder of Audi’s intent, there’s a fire extinguisher plainly visible beneath the passenger seat, while the steering wheel is small and grippy.

Boot space is poky, but will still cope with anything other than gargantuan shopping trips, while you won’t fit much in-car detritus in the cosy (read: minuscule) central storage cubbyhole. The infotainment screen pops up and retracts neatly from the centre of the dash, meanwhile, although feels a touch flimsy – you can imagine it dropping into the innards of the car, never to return. Said dash has its plastics embellished with carbon-fibre trim, as do the doors.

Audi’s insistence on including SD-card slots but no USB connections is infuriating, but the soundtrack from gloriously ostentatious saucer-sized twin exhausts largely negates the need for switching on the stereo.

A simple barometer of a car’s worth is how you feel about getting back into your daily driver after you have finished testing the other vehicle. I felt a little downcast jumping into my Mustang, which suggests that Audi might be onto something a little special with the RS 3.

aworkman@thenational.ae

When I told my husband I would be driving the Audi RS 3, his face lit up like it was his birthday. “That car is amazing. You’ll love it,” he said. What he really meant was that he would love it.

When I brought the orange (or “Catalunya red” in Audi’s eyes) hot hatch home, he was eagerly waiting outside our apartment. I had already driven it to work and back, and found it to be a nippy little runabout, with excellent power and handling, but I hadn’t worked out how to put it to the test. That was where he came in.

He jumped in, started fiddling with the controls and found the car settings. I had been driving it in “Auto”, but he switched it to “Dynamic”, which meant that it would hold the revs longer, the suspension became stiffer and it growled a lot more – and I mean a whole lot more. “I love that sound,” he groaned, clearly a lot more excited by it than me.

We took off, and he instructed me to floor it. It made suitably macho sounds and a few pops, which my husband loved. I loved the amazing pick-up and the equally amazing braking. After dinner, again under my husband’s instructions, we pulled over in a quiet area and he googled how to put the car into Launch Control mode. It took him a while to work out the series of buttons and correct combination in which they needed to be pressed. When the coast was clear, he held on tight and I floored it. I was too scared to push the pedal all the way to the floor, but even halfway down, it took off like a rocket. I wasn’t checking the speed or timing my acceleration, so I can’t give you any hard stats. All I can say is that it was crazy – fun crazy.

After a few days playing around with the little pocket rocket, I can safely say it’s a car that will suit men and women. It has typical manly things such as a growling engine, great power and room for golf clubs, but it’s versatile, zippy and easy to use. It has all the extras I value in a car plus one more that I hadn’t really prioritised until now – fun with a capital F.

atomlinson@thenational.ae

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