Audi touts for its updated warm hatch (and sedan) to now pack 333 PS and 420 Nm of torque.
Four years on from its initial debut, Audi has since recently teased an update for its S3. And while this is just to be marked as just a mid-life facelift, the German automaker has nevertheless added quite a lot of stuff under the mildly tweaked skin of this compact performance model.
Starting with the headline changes first, Audi has proudly touted that under the hood of this updated S3 are a few more ponies. 23 of them to be precise for a total of 333 PS, along with a healthy boost of torque as well to 420 Nm (+20 Nm) from the existing 2.0-litre TFSI turbo four-pot.
Helping it along also is a tweaked 7-speed S tronic dual-clutch transmission for improved responsiveness, with Audi going on to state that the gear shift times have been halved when accelerating at full tilt. All this therefore translates to an overall decrease in its century sprint time from an already reasonable 4.8 seconds to a marginally faster 4.7, with the top speed of it to be retained at a typically Germanic 250 km/h (155 mph).
Aside from the engine and gearbox tweaks, the other notable underbody alteration in the Quattro-equipped S3 is to be the addition of a rear torque splitter yoinked straight from the RS3. Other similarly nerdy chassis improvements include a new pivot bearing on the front MacPherson struts to go along with its newly stiffened wishbones, with an optimised steering system and a next-gen stability control system further enabling drivers to make fuller use of its new dynamic plus mode.
Audi has further collaborated with Falken to debut a custom performance-centric set of 235/35 tires to wrap around the redesigned 19-inch alloys on this updated S3. These aforementioned rolling stock have also been graced with more negative camber too for improved steering response, and behind them for the front at least hide as well larger and thicker disks and pads on its four-piston braking setup.
Moving onto the mildly tweaked skin portion meanwhile, featured among the Audi Sport livery camouflage that this updated S3 still wears in its official teaser images looks to be revised front fascia with the quad-rings placed halfway atop the still-gaping grille. The front bumper and presumably matrix LED headlights too have been changed ever so slightly, with largely the same story for the rump of this compact performance model as well.
As for the changes within on the other hand, Audi has decided to only divulge information regarding this front at a later date. The German automaker had also interestingly not revealed exactly when a full reveal of this facelifted S3 will take place, but it will likely come sometime later this year when it presents the entire updated A3 family.
And just to end on some rather exciting news regarding the full-fat RS3 too, it is rumoured for Audi to have possibly managed in extracting more power from the existing 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine without resorting to electrification. This would therefore see this hyper hatch to likely claim the crown in the power leaderboard, as the 401 hp it outputs now is only less than 20 shy of what the Mercedes-AMG 45S is pumping out from its boosted four-pot.
