Test drive Audi S3 2006 - 2008 hatchback

DELIRIUM TREMENS

This, of course, is not about a widespread ailment known to doctors called Delirium Tremens. Just over the past ten years, we have practically forgotten how to buy white cars, including because it was difficult to sell them. The color was considered dull, and the doctors said that on the road the white car is worse visible. This Audi on the road really can not be seen. Once, and he is no longer there. He is hot and therefore rides very quickly. Regardless of the color in which its body is painted.
I am driving a new Audi S3, standing on one of the spare stripes of the Munich airfield, and waiting for the flag extension. To immediately drown the gas pedal and screw into the first turn, marked with striped cones at the highest possible speed. When I drive up the same flag for the second time, I try to stop away from it to win meters and fraction of the seconds of acceleration. The third time I turn off ESP. So much more interesting - it is felt how the car slips along the asphalt in all four, and you correct its trajectory more than gas than the steering wheel. The steering wheel, by the way, at low speeds - and it was simply impossible to squeeze out more than a hundred on an aerodrome snake - a little empty, but again: we have a QUATTRO drive, and the machine is excellently controlled not so much by a steering wheel as pedals. If you open the window, then you can hear the whistle of the turbine and the magnificent rumble of a tuned exhaust - where are the planes that take off almost nearby! Smooth asphalt, amazing car and no restrictions - do these circumstances often converge in real life?
 
The emergency braking amplifier, like ESP, is included in the basic configuration. By default, 18-inch discs are placed on the S3, but for the winter you can put 17-inch with rubber higher.
From a two -liter engine, Audi engineers managed to remove 265 hp. This is the fault of the synthesis of perfectly complementary technologies - it is turbocharged and direct injection of FSI gasoline. The turbocharger develops a pressure of 1.2 bar instead of 0.9 bar in the previous Audi S3. The throughput of the intermediate cooler is up to 850 kg or 650 cubic meters of air. At the same time, the new forced engine weighs only 152 kg - less than similar engines of direct competitors.
In addition to the digital speedometer, on the Audi S3 dashboard you can see the time of passage of the track. Obviously, the average owner of the machine will often use this function not to measure the time of passing the racing ring, but in order to understand how much time he spent this time to get to the office through traffic jams. So, on public roads, Audi S3 is a very comfortable car. Clutch clutch, unlike other sports machines, is not associated with noticeable physical exertion. The gas pedal is also very soft, and since the engine is gaining momentum almost instantly, then if you did not remove your right foot from it to the end when you squeeze the clutch, the tachometer arrow will immediately rush into the red zone, and you will be sick for a few seconds, and you will be sick and you will be sick Do not go. At the asphalt joints, it only shocks a little-in accordance with the purely sports, as it is written in the press release, the character of the car; Springs and shock absorbers became tougher, and the body approached the road for as much as 25 mm.
 
The creation of a hot car with a back door opened upstairs might seem to be a matter of ordinary if it was about a hatchback of some mass brand: the engine is more powerful, the bumper is wider, the fog of the brighter-that’s the whole recipe. However, the premium class has several different laws. Obviously, the buyers of the Audi S3 are not those who glue the No Fear sticker on the rear window. Therefore, such a machine is simply obliged to consist of compromises: between sports and comfort, between the athletic appearance and intelligence, which is not a raider kitsch. Therefore, outwardly, the car does not look too catchy. The radiator grille is finished with chrome, the holes of the air intakes in the front spoiler are large, but not indecent. The spoiler on the roof, the rear -view mirrors for aluminum, other thresholds, platinum diffuser in the rear spoiler and two chrome exhaust pipe - this is perhaps all external differences. Inside are also the groove of the KP, pedals and rings of ventilation collectors also trimmed for aluminum. Plus several red-silver S3 nameplates.
If bucket -shaped sports seats are installed in the front row, then getting to the second row is not an easy task. The back leans forward, but the front seat pillow does not go forward, as many are used to it - we must pull the bracket. Unknown? Then buy Megane Scenic or get around ordinary, more convenient seats in everyday life. The same buckets are special orders.
 
Another option - a steering wheel cut along the lower edge, already familiar to us from the Audi RS4 and the latest Audi TT. Well, yes, it is supposedly customary to sit in racing cars, buried in the windshield, if it is, and putting the steering wheel on his knees. Immediately it is more a highlight capable of attracting attention and emphasizing the sports of the car. Although in gentle turns, such a steering wheel is also convenient - you take it around the corner, like a young lady by the elbow, and you definitely bring it to the desired degree.
You can only guess about the Russian price of the car. In its homeland, Audi S3 costs 1700 more than the Audi A3 3.2 Quattro, for which the Moscow dealer will ask for $ 54,257. This model has more than one and a half times more than one and a half times, but more effort, not to mention the moment, not to mention the moment. which is almost half as much. In a word, a completely different car. And it is obvious that in Ingolstadt, when they came up with the new Audi S3, they looked not in the direction of their own auto farm, but at the BMW 130i. ESKI has the same 265 forces, but it is better than acceleration to 100 km/h and all-wheel drive, which gives Audi AG a reason to declare your leadership in the premium segment of hot hatchbacks. Who else is there? Mercedes-Benz A-Klasse? But he hardly entered this arms race. Even if it is painted white.

Text Dmitry Gronsky, photo Audi AG
 
Audi S3
 
Gasoline engine, 4-cylinder
Working volume (cubic meter) 1984
Power (L.S. at rpm) 265 at 6000
Moment (Nm at rpm) 350 at 2500-5000
The drive is complete
Gearbox 6-st., Mechanical
Length/width/height (mm) 4214/1765/1399
Equipped mass (kg) 1525
Maximum speed (km/h) 250
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 5.7
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 12.4/7.2
Price in Germany 35 150
 

Source: "Autopilot"