2015 Audi S3 Sedan

For the last few years, Audi has been publicly toying with building a successor to its Ur-Quattro, a model still glowing in a gritty patina of motorsports glory decades after it left the scene. If anything, the rally car’s halo has burned brighter as Audi has matured into a world luxury superpower. Since 2010, the German automaker has shown two different concept cars that attempted to re-bottle the legend’s lightning, and it’s still trying to figure out whether to market a production model. Despite that conundrum (and not to take anything away from the seminal Ur-Quattro), it’s easy to argue that there are two other cars much more important to Audi’s rise from its ’80s ashes: the original TT and the B5-generation A4 and its high-performance variants.

For those still enamored with the B5 S4 like we are, this S3 amounts to nothing less than its spiritual successor – even if the alphanumerics on the decklid don’t line up. Their numbers are startlingly similar: the original rode atop a 103-inch wheelbase, spanned 176.5 inches long, 68.2 inches wide and stood 55 inches tall. It weighed in at around 3,400 pounds. The 2015 S3 is an inch shorter at 175.5 inches, yet at 70.7 inches, it’s more than two inches wider. Its wheelbase is an iota more at 103.4 inches and its overall height is marginally taller at 55.7, yet its curb weight is slightly lighter at a quoted 3,318 pounds. In other words, it’s pretty darn close.

The biggest numerical departures between the S4 and this new S3 occurs under their hoods – the B5 employed a 2.7-liter, biturbo V6 that yielded 250 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque in US trim. The new S3? It receives a 2.0-liter turbocharged and direct-injected four-cylinder. That’s the same size and configuration as larger-engined A3 sedans, but unlike those lesser models, the S3 employs a higher-pressure turbo and larger intercooler, along with a unique aluminum-silicon alloy cylinder head capping strengthened internals that include special pistons, camshafts, con-rods, crankshaft bearings, exhaust valves and valve seats. Those changes are expected to net about 290 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque by the time the S3 makes it Stateside (our European test car is rated at 300 hp with an identical torque figure). It’s officially okay to get excited now.

Image Credit: Copyright 2013 Chris Paukert / AOL / Audi
Source: autoblog.com