Audi S3 Sportback 2024 review – finally a driver’s hot hatch?
The S3 disappointed us with lacklustre dynamics at its launch, but chassis tweaks have injected some much-needed engagement in its mid-life update
The hot hatch market might be in decline, but Audi is still committed to the cause with the introduction of its new S3 hot hatch. A model that highlights where the Mk8 Golf R has fallen short and takes a strong fight to Mercedes-AMG’s A35. Although it’s taken a while to reach such heights.
25 years ago on some very flat, uninspiring and 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, five-spoke alloy wheels and a 225bhp, four-cylinder turbocharged engine driving a Haldex four-wheel drive system via a rather slow and uninspiring six-speed manual gearbox. It was far from an inspiration to drive; aspirational maybe, but even in a world of lacklustre hot hatches that occupied forecourts in the late ‘90s there was little to recommend Audi’s first performance hatch over Subaru’s thrilling Impreza. Unless soft-feel plastics and electronic climate control were your thing.
> Mercedes-AMG A35 review: a fast and effective hot hatch, but is it exciting?
It’s taken a while for the S3 to find some spice, too. Each iteration since that original has always felt flat to drive and more of a trimline than a genuine rival to the likes of anything from RenaultSport, BMW M Sport, AMG, Hyundai N and, of course, from its own family of Cupra Leons or Golf GTIs. After a quarter of a century Audi has rectified this with the latest S3.
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Available as a five-door Sportback or four-door saloon (more of you will in the UK buy the latter), regardless of the body’s shape the hardware remains the same: a further tune of the EA888 two-litre turbocharged four cylinder motor that’s as old as time itself, but still serves a crucial purpose in the VW Group’s entry to performance car driving. There is only a eight-speed automatic gearbox offered but the shift speeds have been modified to deliver sharper and quicker shifts the higher up the drive modes you cycle, of which there are six including a new ‘Dynamic Plus’ setting that takes an S3 as close as possible to the RS3 when that car is in its lowest state of tune.
On the subject of the RS3, of which there will be one more generation and the last use of Audi Sport’s charismatic five-cylinder motor, the S3 has gone on a midnight raid of the Audi Sport’s drivetrain store cupboard and snuck away with the RS’s torque splitter diff that lives in the rear axle and can distribute torque loads between each rear wheel depending on the load they are under and the direction of travel you are heading in.
In its Comfort and Sport modes the new S3 feels all too familiar, in that there’s not a great deal to suggest that you’re in an A3 that’s a cut above. The powertrain feels tight and slow to react to inputs, the chassis and body complaint and steady and a bit forgettable, so too the steering. But inject some life into it via selecting even the lower Dynamic modes and the sparkle begins to filter through, the controls sharpening up and encouraging you to do the same.
The weight added to the steering feels too artificial and heavy for the sake of it but it does generate more bite on initial turn in - to the point that you need to manage the loads as the bespoke Bridgestone Potenza Sport tyres don’t like sudden inputs - and is easier to position in a corner as a consequence of being less comfort orientated. Through quick turns you settle to a smooth rhythm, the S3 remaining flat and connected and oozing with confidence rather than sparkling with enthusiasm.
It’s on more challenging terrain, when the gears are lower and the directional changes are more frequent, that the S3 demonstrates its new found vigour. Where its inherent DNA was to numb the senses and put competency ahead of any kind of willingness to engage with you, that’s not the case now. Those Bridgestones still require management but turn in sharply and the torque splitter instantly engages to set the rear axle’s angle to compliment the front’s, as it does you sense the S3 pivot around your midpoint and it’s your signal to open the throttle. At which point the front is on its way out of the corner and you’ve wound the lock off much sooner than anticipated.
With each sequence of turns you build confidence to push harder, lean on the hardware and find a balance between carving clean flowing routes and hunting around for the S3’s outer edges. When you do find the edge there’s more progression than you would expect; in the past when you reached an S3’s limit it kind of fell over and went a bit flat. Now, it moves with a progression that’s unexpected, the body remaining measured in its movements, the dampers (not individually adjustable) soaking up the loads as the rear axle overspeeds before pushing you out of the corner.
Be abrupt with your inputs on the way in and you can unsettle both ends, resulting in either an armful of understeer or wrist flick of oversteer; the same result if you jump out off the throttle with the front underload. But the reactions are far more progressive than before, quicker too, allowing you to make amends for your hamfisted approach much quicker.
The S3’s new dynamic confidence isn’t purely down to the RS3’s torque splitter. An increase in negative camber, revised settings for the electric power steering and a stiffer front wishbone have all been developed to maximise the S3’s performance, a level of detail not previously afforded to this model. Hopefully Volkswagen has gone to similar lengths with its forthcoming Mk8.5 Golf R, because the Audi now feels to have the VW licked for engagement and capability.
Upgrades to the engine management system result in the S3 producing 328bhp and 15lb ft more torque, with the turbocharger now preloaded to improve throttle response. On exciting roads you soon crave a more charismatic motor, one that not only sounds more polished (an Akrapovic exhaust is optional) but is, because while the throttle might be sharper in Dynamic settings there’s no real finesse that allows you to balance inputs, it's still quite one-dimensional on that front. Not that this holds it back on an autobahn, the S3 happily hitting its limited maximum with no real effort required other than you having a good eye on the horizon.
Those sharper gear shifts are welcome in Dynamic mode, too, but they aren’t as quick when coming down the ‘box as you’d like, all but eradicating any engine braking leaving the larger 18-inch discs and four-piston callipers to it. And there’s a lot for them to manage, with both the Sportback and saloon weighing in at 1535kg.
A flat-bottomed steering wheel and sports seats are the only telltale signs that you’re in an S3, not an A3, and it feels a little underwhelming as a result. Audi’s trademark digital dash is standard-fit, and while it does offer some configurability, it doesn’t allow for any real individuality.
Despite the new car market currently going through a ‘price realignment’ the S3 still isn’t cheap, at £46,925 for the Sportback and £47,490 for the saloon – somewhere much closer to £40k feels right, high thirties better still. But it’s a world away from its predecessors and after 25 years living in the shadows the S3 feels like it has finally been allowed out to play.
Price and rivals
Instantly you think of Mercedes-AMG’s £46,000 A35 hatch when talking about the Audi S3, the new kid on the block retailing at £925 more. The AMG is more enthusiastic and willing to roll its sleeves up and enjoy the challenges you throw at it. It’s the more engaging hot hatch.
BMW’s M135i is cheaper with prices starting at low at £41,880, but the Munich machine feels much closer to S3s of old rather than today’s offering. Much closer to home is the near identically specced Golf R, which starts at £42,850 but in current Mk8 guise it struggles to reach the high standards of its predecessor.
