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Feann Torr24 Oct 2014
NEWS

Audi RS3 decision imminent

The fate of expanding Audi RS3 range to be decided in two weeks

One of the fastest Audi RS cars ever envisaged is on the cusp of being realised after the boss of quattro GmbH, the company that develops the Audi's uber-fast RS vehicles, revealed a decision on series production of the RS3 will be made in two weeks.

And if the ambitious plan gets the green light, it will include hatch, sedan and possibly even convertible versions of the small quattro warrior, which would sit atop the A3 range, above the S3 trio.

Heinz Hollerweger, the Managing Director of quattro, confirmed a meeting with the Audi board of directors will take place in early November to decide the fate of the next RS3 range, which will deliver the company the fastest production version of the Audi A3 ever made.

While the RS3 Sportback (aka hatch) is a certainty, asked if the sedan version was a 50-50 chance, Hollerweger said "from my point of view it's more likely than 50-50".

To be powered by a hard core version of the company's 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, the new RS 3 sedan was previewed in the form of the manic 386kW A3 Clubsport quattro concept earlier in 2014 at the annual Worthersee car enthusiast gathering in Austria.

Audi has not officially confirmed any versions of the stove-hot RS3 yet, but a sedan variant would be more popular than the RS3 Sportback in markets that share a distaste for hatches, such as the USA.

"We introduced this show car A3 Clubsport quattro concept in May, to estimate how people would like the car, and now we're working on it to realise it," explained Hollerweger. "We hope we can introduce this car and get good resonance from overseas markets."

The show car is powered by a 386kW (525hp) five-cylinder turbo engine, rides on 21-inch alloy wheels and even features a special air-brake rear wing. But these features will be toned down for a production model, explained the quattro chief.

"We tried to expand the five-cylinder power to what is technically possible, 525hp, but this is a bit too much for series production, but we want to show what is possible," he said.

The concept car accelerates from 0-100km/h in 3.6 seconds and the fastest accelerating RS model is currently the RS6, at 3.9 seconds to hit the tonne. "Right now the number of horsepower is as much as we can get. But a production version would be more than 350hp [260kW]."

"We have improved aerodynamics [over the S3 sedan], the airbrake is new," he said, noting that the ceramic disc brakes will likely stay but the 21-inch wheels would be downsized to 20-inches in diameter, and the motorsports-influenced exhaust system would be deleted because it was too loud.

The all-wheel drive RS3 sedan would also get a stylised cabin to match its lofty mechanical performance and wouldn't be built in limited numbers either. "We want to be present in markets where we're not so present, so we would not limit it. There could be some special editions we could limit," he said.

Wider than the regular A3 sedan by 60mm, the A3 Clubsport quattro rides on a manually-adjustable suspension system but could be expected to get push-button adaptive dampers if it got the green light.

"It was more designed as a race car, not road car. For series production we will think about adaptive dampers," explained the quattro head honcho.

As for the name, Hollerweger said: "We don't know how we will call it [yet]."

"There is no decision but logically I think it would be called the RS 3 sedan."

On top of hatch and sedan body types, the company is also mulling over the idea of an RS 3 cabriolet: "There is an opportunity for more body styles. The question is: is there a market for a cabriolet?"

"If it's successful to bring a cabriolet, maybe [we can do it]. But it's important to bring a Sportback and hopefully introduce the sedan," he said.

When the quattro MD presents the RS3 case to the Audi board, Hollerweger will be hoping to win over one its most influential members, technical chief Ulrich Hackenberg, who has driven the A3 Clubsport quattro concept.

"We are a very, very small company compared to the big mother company Audi, but we try to offer high performance, high quality and of course high power to most of the Audi cars," said Hollerweger.

Stay tuned for our first drive of the hard core Audi A3 Clubsport quattro concept, which previews the next-gen RS 3.

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