Audi's Aussie four-cylinder touring car

Audi has designs on racing in Touring Cars again – and the new RS 3 sedan is the chosen platform. And it’s not a local effort – the RS 3 LMS is a full Audi Sport factory racer.

Built to the international TCR regulations, the RS3 LMS was launched in Europe late last year and is now available for purchase as a factory racer. The car has been built to fly the flag in the growing number of TCR sanctioned championships around the world.

Audi Australia’s own RS 3 LMS was unveiled at Phillip Island this week during the launch of the new TT RS five-cylinder Coupe and Roadster. The car is in the care of MPC, the official Down Under Audi Sport operation. .

At this stage, the racer is in Australia for “a range of activities” and will be on display at this weekend’s round of the Australian GT championship at Phillip Island.

As a turn-key racing car, the RS 3 LMS is priced from €99,000 ($A148,500).

At the international debut of the four-cylinder racer, Stephan Winkelmann, global boss of Audi Sport, stated: “With the Audi R8 LMS, Audi, in a very short time, managed to build a successful customer racing program alongside the factory commitments. The Audi R8 LMS has since become the market leader in its segment. We have the same plans for the Audi RS 3 LMS.”

The RS 3 LMS is available in both sprint and endurance versions with both dual-clutch and pukka racing dog-box set-ups. The local car is the latter.

There will be a number of teams racing RS 3 LMS at this weekend’s Nürburgring 24 Hours.

“The potential of the TCR market is even larger than that of the GT3 category,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing.

“With the TCR version of the RS 3 we’re also reaching countries where no GT3 races are held. The costs for a TCR race car are very low [in racing terms]”.

Unlike the road car, the Audi RS 3 LMS is powered by a four-cylinder engine. The 2.0-litre unit produces 243kW and Audi claims a 0-100km/h time of around 4.5sec. The car features fully-adjustable suspension and is track ready. It weighs in at the TCR mandated minimum weight of 1285kg (with driver).

The car’s “extensive safety” package includes an FIA-conformant safety fuel tank, a racing safety cell, Audi’s PS3 safety seat, FIA safety nets on both sides of the seat and a rescue hatch in the roof a la the R8 LMS.