Audi S3 Saloon

With 328bhp and a chassis makeover that includes the adoption of the RS3's torquesplitter differential, has the S3 finally been transformed from bland to brilliant?

- STUART GALLAGHER

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO ON SOME VERY nondescript, featureless roads around the Munich suburbs, we experienced Audi's inaugural hot hatch: a buttercup yellow S3, with chrome mirrors, a set of flat-faced, six-spoke alloy wheels and a 207bhp, 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine driving a Haldex four-wheeldrive system via a rather slow and unremarkable sixspeed manual gearbox. It was far from an inspiration to drive; aspirational maybe, but even in the world of lacklustre hot hatches that occupied forecourts in the late '90s, there was little reason to recommend Audi's first performance hatch over Subaru's thrilling Impreza Turbo. Unless soft-feel plastics and electronic climate control were your thing.

It's taken a while for the S3 to find some spice.

Each iteration since that original has felt uneventful to drive and more like a trim line than a genuine rival to anything from Renault Sport, BMW M, AMG, Hyundai N and, of course, from its own family in the form of Cupra Leons or Golf GTIs. Now, after a quarter of a century, Audi has finally rectified this with the latest S3.

Available as a five-door Sportback or four-door saloon (more of you in the UK will buy the latter), regardless of the body's shape the hardware remains the same. There's a further tune of the EA888 2-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder motor that's as old as time itself but still serves a crucial role in the VW Group's entry to performance car driving. Only an eight-speed automatic gearbox is offered but it's been modified to deliver sharper and quicker shifts the higher you venture up through the drive modes. There are now six to choose from, including a new 'Dynamic Plus' option that takes the S3 as close as possible to the RS3 when that car is in its tamest setting.