{"id":20292,"date":"2025-08-24T13:46:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T13:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/20292\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T13:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T13:46:13","slug":"audi-priming-run-out-special-for-five-cylinder-rs3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/20292\/","title":{"rendered":"Audi priming run-out special for five-cylinder RS3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Audi is priming a track-focused special edition of the RS3\u00a0as it celebrates the hot hatch\u2019s signature five-cylinder engine, with the unit under threat from forthcoming EU emissions regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">The new variant has been spotted testing on the N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife for the first time ahead of its launch, expected to take place early next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">It sports several racing-inspired modifications, including a more aggressive front splitter, new canards and a chunkier rear spoiler, intended to maximise its pace on circuit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">The RS3 prototype also wears a new set of brake calipers, painted blue rather than the standard black, hinting at extra stopping power and the potential of a special colour scheme or livery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">The new car is also likely to bring a significant uplift in power and torque from the 401bhp and 369lb ft of the previous RS3 Performance Edition, the punchiest version of the hot hatch yet offered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Sebastian Grams, former managing director of Audi Sport, told Autocar in 2023 that \u201cthere&#8217;s still a way to go\u201d with the five-cylinder engine compared with the RS3 Performance Edition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">Dutch sports car maker Donkervoort previously boosted the 2.5-litre turbocharged unit to 493bhp for its F22 open-wheeler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">It remains to be seen whether Audi will push it that far, but a tangible improvement in output could make the RS3 the most powerful petrol hot hatch on sale, outdoing the 416bhp Mercedes-AMG A45 S.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Audi RS3 prototype rear quarter tracking\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/451b58b9992053afbb11c58e4a5f368c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">It&#8217;s likely that the new RS3 variant will represent one last hurrah for the car and its engine, in similar fashion to 2022\u2019s Audi TT RS Iconic Edition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">The five-cylinder unit has been the RS3\u2019s unique selling point since its arrival in 2011, but Audi previously said the powerplant&#8217;s production would end when the current iteration of the hot hatch\u00a0comes off sale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">It is possible that it could be reworked to meet the rules, be it through redevelopment or by way of electrification, however.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0\">]]&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audi is priming a track-focused special edition of the RS3\u00a0as it celebrates the hot hatch\u2019s signature five-cylinder engine,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[17636,17638,18,17637,19,17,17639,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-20292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-audi-rs3","9":"tag-audi-tt-rs","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-hot-hatch","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-special-edition","15":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}