Audi S3 Sedan 2014 Review - International

OVERVIEW
>> The S3 five-door got plenty of critical acclaim. Is the four-door sedan any different?
The easiest answers to any questions you might have about the sedan version of the S3 read like this: the United States, China and why not?

The car world’s two biggest and most profitable growth opportunities delivered the A3 sedan and from then on it was inevitable that the S3 would slide right in after it. Now it has and, while A3 sedan arrives in Australia early next year, the four-door S3 will follow soon after.

So there’s a thumping charmer of a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine sitting across the front axles and driving all four wheels via either a six-speed manual or a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

People are waiting for this one and, as we found out, with good reason.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT

Expect that to continue here in S Land, because the sedan has a more style-driven positioning than the Sportback, so the S3 Sportback’s (just) sub-$60,000 pricetag will jump to closer to $65,000 for the S3 sedan.

Besides the strong powertrain and the MQB modular Volkswagen Group architecture, the S3 sedan is as full of fruit as its tail-lifting brother.

Leather sports seat trim is standard and the front two seats are heated, while there is Nappa leather for the flat-bottomed steering wheel. There is also dual-zone climate-control air-conditioning, MMI Navigation plus (Audi’s top-end internet-integrated nav system), Bluetooth music streaming and parking sensors at both ends.

Besides riding on 18-inch alloys, the S3 sedan (well, Limousine in Audi-speak) gets a body kit, two pairs of twin oval tailpipes and a tauter suspension set-up.

It wouldn’t be a premium German without some outrageous options and the S3 sedan doesn’t disappoint, delivering an S performance package for another $5000, give or take.

You’d think a car called an S3 might have enough S in it already, but the S performance package includes LED headlights, a Bang & Olufsen sound system, magnetic ride dampers, upgraded seats, different alloys (though they’re the same size) and red-painted brake calipers. Actually, that looks like reasonable value…

You can tell there’s a substantial arm wrestle here, with Audi attacking BMW and trying to position the S3 sedan as a semi-legit alternative to the more expensive CLA 45 AMG. It has to, because Benz doesn’t offer an exact rival to the S3 in the rest of its range, because it has no halfway-house semi-sporty brand, like Audi’s S models, between it and AMG.

And the warring Germans are pulling the Japanese into their fight, with the S3 sedan hitting almost right on the money of the WRX STI and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

Being Golf-based, the S3 has its 2.0-litre engine mounted across the engine bay and canted back by 12 degrees (all the MQB cars do it).

It’s a mighty little engine, with a 221kW of power at 5500rpm and 6200rpm and 380Nm of torque between 1800rpm and 5500rpm. It’s no coincidence that the torque plateau finishes at exactly the same point in the rev range that sees the smaller power plateau take over until stumps.

Already well known from the S3 Sportback, it has had significant updates since the predecessor won multiple Engine of the Year awards. For an engine that is supposed to be about sporting performance, it’s unusually undersquare with an 82.5mm bore to its 92.8mm stroke.

It delivers some upgrades, too, with its aluminium pistons sitting atop stronger connecting rods and new crank bearings.

The head is cast from a new aluminium-silicon alloy and is lighter than before, which is just as well because it carries a weight of variability options. For example, the intake camshaft has 60 degrees of adjustment while the exhaust cam shifts 30 degrees, plus the valves have two stages of lift from both cams.

Then there’s the older-school indirect fuel-injection, which works more efficiently at low rpm, to complement the direct fuel-injection at higher revs.

Then there’s the turbocharging, with up to 1.2 bar of pressure and manages up to 1000 degrees of exhaust temperature.

Bolted to the side of this is either the six-speed manual or a six-speed dual-clutch transmission that includes both a launch mode and a ‘coasting’ mode that pops the car into neutral when the driver lifts off the throttle to save fuel.

And then its all-wheel drive set-up is managed by an electrically controlled, multi-plate centre differential that sits just forward of the rear axle.

There’s the same four-link rear axle as used in the S3 Sportback, plus it’s 25mm lower on its springs than the standard A3 sedan.

It sits on 225/40 R18 tyres and 18-inch alloys that are made with flow-forming technology that was, until a handful of years ago, the reserve of Maserati alone in the car industry. Order up the magnetic ride dampers and you get 19-inch boots as well (most will, it would ride too hard without the trick suspension).

All of this comes in a 1430kg package that is 4469mm long, 1796mm wide and 1392mm tall. This is normally where we tell you how much longer, wider or taller it is than its predecessor, but the S3 sedan doesn’t have one.

It carries itself on a 2631mm wheelbase and delivers 390 litres of luggage capacity in its boot, though the rear seats fold flat to give you more.

The handling dynamics are more astonishingly competent than irresistibly engaging, but it’s far less digitally binary than some fast Audis.

The sense is that the all-wheel drive system here is less wrapped up in securing the inattentive than it is in lesser Audis and it’s more focused on getting the fun stuff to the driver. It just has limitations in history and layout.

It’s incredibly good and incredibly secure and, as an all-round performance machine, it is very difficult to overlook.

That engine kicks things off with a deep, angry rumble (that can be shushed up via the drive select system) and that translates to a properly quick little machine.

It will run to 100km/h in 5.3 seconds, but it always feels to the driver like it’s even quicker than that, partly because no forward urge is wasted, with the all-wheel drive system soaking up more power than a rear-driver can before its skid-control system kicks in.

It jumps away hard, even without the launch control engaged, and though the performance isn’t exactly linear, it flips up each gear (with the dual-clutch fitted) with a whipping crackle on each upshift.

The secret to this engine isn’t sprinting, though. It’s flexibility. You will not find it wanting in any gear, at any point of its rev range. It’s always ready to go and it’s always willing, thumping hard with genuine enthusiasm from as little as 1500rpm and it’s still in there swinging at 6500.

You can just stand on the throttle at any time and the S3 will be as ready to hammer as if it had been primed and waiting for exactly that desire from you.

While you won’t learn a lot about the car’s moods from feeling the steering wheel, the chassis delivers so much grip that you instead simply trust the grip and aim the nose. It will, inevitably, follow.

No fuss, no sliding or crankiness. It just builds to match its grip with your increasing speeds in corners and then it’s out the other side and you’re punching that throttle down hard again.

It’s a car that seems like it will deliver whatever grip you ask it for until the moment of ludicrous ambition shows that it will understeer calmly and easily, as though it’s just waiting on the driver’s correction to start all over again.

Now, normally, this sort of behavior means the car rides like an unspring wheelbarrow. Not here. The damping rates of the S3 have been magnificently developed to round off square edges and ride with utter control of its surroundings. It’s no wafting limousine, for sure, but it’s the obvious control and lack of body movement over even large bump strikes that stand out.

Combine all that with a fabulous interior, supportive seats and easy practicality and it’s hard to see how this goes wrong for Audi -- not just in Australia, but anywhere.

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