Audi RS3

Ingolstadt sharpens up its five-cylinder hyper-hatch This car was not supposed to exist. The 8Y-generation Audi RS3 was signed off based on a business case that assumed it would never make it past the base A3’s mid-life facelift, because the 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine that defines this car’s character couldn’t be made compliant with the upcoming Euro 7 emission standards – not economically anyway.But then Euro 7 got postponed, and it turned out that making it pass the latest Euro 6 variation was achievable with a bit of tweaking. The game was on to keep the last remaining car with a five-cylinder engine alive for a few more years. After all, despite now-astronomical pricing, the demand was still there, and it’s a great halo product for Audi.As well as the regular A3’s facelift tweaks, the RS3 has gained a number of intriguing mechanical upgrades. We have never strapped the timing gear to this generation of the RS3, so let’s do that now and see if the five-cylinder can go out on a high.

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