Audi RS3 review: the last great five-cylinder hot hatch, and it lives in Bahrain rather well
4.4/5MotorsSouq Editorial Team
The RS3 Sportback is the enthusiast's choice in Bahrain's hot-hatch bracket: a five-cylinder soundtrack no rival can match, genuine drift-mode party trick from the rear-biased quattro system, and everyday usability from the practical Sportback body. It costs real money to run — tyres, brakes and insurance all reflect the performance — but nothing else at this price sounds or handles quite like it.
Pros
- 400 hp five-cylinder engine and soundtrack with no direct rival left in the segment
- Rear-biased quattro differential gives genuine, adjustable rear-drive handling character
- Sportback body keeps real rear seats and a 335-litre boot despite the performance
- Bahrain's Audi network can service and support it, unlike smaller exotic-brand alternatives
Cons
- High-performance tyres and brakes wear quickly under Gulf heat and hard use
- Insurance and fuel costs reflect genuine supercar-adjacent performance
- Firm sport suspension transmits more road roughness than a standard A3 Sportback
- Rear differential's party trick needs open road and a confident driver to enjoy safely
Every hot-hatch rival from VW to Mercedes-AMG has settled on a turbocharged four-cylinder for efficiency and packaging reasons, which makes the RS3's 2.5-litre five-cylinder — the same architecture, evolved, that powered the original Quattro rally car decades ago — feel like a deliberate act of stubbornness Audi's engineers refuse to give up. It produces 400 hp, a genuinely alarming amount for a car this size, and a five-cylinder warble at full throttle that no turbo four will ever replicate.
What sets it apart to drive
The real technical story is the rear differential, which can send up to 100% of the rear axle's torque to a single wheel, giving the RS3 an actual RS3 Torque Rear driving mode that lets the tail step out under power in a way front-biased hot hatches simply cannot do. On Bahrain's straighter, open roads it is genuinely thrilling; in daily traffic it settles into a comfortable, quattro-assured cruiser that never feels like it is fighting you.
Living with the performance
The Sportback body keeps a 335-litre boot and proper rear seats, so it does not demand the practicality sacrifice a two-door coupe would. What it does demand is a running-cost budget to match the performance: high-performance tyres wear quickly under Gulf heat and enthusiastic use, brake pads and discs are expensive at this level, and insurance reflects the car's real-world pace rather than its hatchback silhouette.