I was walking through Glasgow this morning and had just crossed Quay Road below the bridge from Central Station when the lights changed to green. I hear a fairly healthy V6 howl, so I turn around to see what made it.

A black Audi A3 which couldn't look any more bland if it tried (click here for a pic of one). Nothing sporty about it, but I knew straight away it was a 3.2 from the sound. Sure enough I caught a glimpse of the badge on the back as it scampered away quickly to get from the inside to the middle lane.

Sounded good and seemed to pull away very nicely. I'm not sure if that's because I was walking on foot, but it seemed pretty FQ.

 

great beater, looks like a 1.6. just take the badge off. They are the GOLF R32 so quick cars but come at a price (24k) and look more boring than a mundano..

wolf in sheeps clothing though 250hp!

 

The 3.2 is very quick and on the motorway there is no difference between the S and the 3.2. The problem with the Audi A3 3.2 is that even when they have the SLine styling pack they look boring. Very bland compared to the old Audi S3.

Audi have taken the decision to keep their cars this way and VW now seem to be offering the good looking fast cars e.g. Golf GTI and the new R32 (Spring 2006).

I have driven the 3.2 DSG Audi TT Coupe and really liked the engine, its better than the old BMW 3.0 (231 bhp) engine, but I think the new 260bhp BMW 3.0 engine is likely to eclipse it.

Its good to see the 3.2 FSI engine now going into the Audi range e.g. A4, A6. The old Audi 3.0 is a bit of a dog, and I could never believe that it had 220bhp, I am sure that its hiding 50bhp or so!

 

Quicker than the S3 aswell apparantly.

 

Not sure on that, the 225 model should be on a par.

EDIT: Yep, they weight nearly 1.6 tonnes! So the lighter (although not by much) S3 225 should be on a par with it.

 

0-60 and 0-100 are pretty similar if not identical, but top end the 3.2 is quicker (limited to 155mph). Easy to mod an S3 though,

 

Roll on the new S3! Now an RS3 would be good
I love the sleeper look!
Just gave back my last co car 290 bhp saab 93 that was a monster!

 

I'm not convinced that there will be a new S3. I think VW are going to continue the trend with uber hatches, leaving the fast larger models to Audi.

Never believe anything that AutoCar says about 'new' models, they are usually wrong.