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Third-generation mega-hatch arrives with more power and more technology than ever before, and a price tag to match

There’s an admirable belligerence about Audi Sport’s third-generation RS3 mega-hatch. After all, despite what many of Europe’s CO 2 -based taxation regimes might have you believe, it isn’t a crime just yet to put a big engine into something relatively small and create an amusingly alternative driver’s car.

It really would be an aberration if Audi’s excellent EA855 fivecylinder performance engine, motivator of the likes of the TT RS and RS Q3 and winner of more International Engine of the Year awards (yes, they do still exist) than you can shake a golden crankshaft at, were taken from us any earlier than was absolutely necessary. The ‘net zero glide path’ can get back in the sea for the next 1000 words at least.

Hot hatches like this used to be more common, but the RS3 has become the last of that over-engined breed, with motors significantly bigger, more powerful and more exotic than you would expect to find in a humble five-door and something of the aura of the custom-built hot rod about them. When I started writing about cars, there was a Volkswagen Golf R32, an Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, a five-pot Ford Focus ST and a straight-six BMW 130i about which to get excited.

Now every other hot hatch comes with a samey four-pot turbo, and my inner twenty-something thinks that’s a great shame.