Quick, luxurious SUV hits the road — in Europe
Start the engine, and the sound you hear lets it be known that you are not driving a standard, run-ofthe-mill compact SUV.
Pull away, and that impression is confirmed as you feel the flat torque curve of the engine accelerate the vehicle with a steady surge as the dual-clutch gearbox works its magic, making things positively seamless. It may be based on a compact SUV, but this new Audi cranks things up a notch.
The RS Q3 is the latest model produced by Quattro GmbH, Audi’s so-called “skunk works” division, and is the first SUV ever developed by the German automaker’s performance arm, now “entering new and uncharted territory,” according to Thomas Zimmermann, RS project manager.
It was unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show last March and is just about to hit the roads in Germany, where it will be sold at a base price of $76,300 Cdn. Audi Canada has no plans to import this lat- est model, which is based on the Q3 compact SUV that will debut in Canada in the third quarter of 2014, where it will compete with the BMW X1 and the smaller Mer- cedes-Benz GLA. But the RS Q3 could conceivably make its way across the pond if demand warrants. That’s why we took the opportunity to test drive it recently not far from the Austrian Alps.
As a performance model, the RS Q3 ticks all the right boxes. Lowered stance, standard 19inch alloys (with 20 inchers an option), paddle shifters for the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, flat-bottom steering wheel, sport seats, the list goes on and the RS Q3 does an OK job of looking the part, as it is pretty hard, after all, to make an SUV look as sleek and cool as an RS 7.
The ace up the RS Q3’s sleeve is the 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder engine, lifted from the Audi TT RS and mated to the brand’s signature quattro all-wheel drive by way of a seven-speed dualclutch gearbox. Rated at 310 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque, this engine has won the International Engine of the Year award for the past four years and can accelerate the RS Q3 from zero to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds.