BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THE HOT NEW AUDI S3

THE NEW AUDI S3 will go on sale in early summer and will be powered by the same 306bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged engine as the outgoing version. With that kind of firepower, and four-wheel drive as standard, 0-62mph should take around 4.7sec – and it certainly feels that rapid. On our greasy mountain road test route around the Azores, the S3 also felt incredibly secure and planted through corners.

Audi’s Progressive Steering comes as standard; that means the speed of the steering increases the more you turn the wheel – mainly to save you a lot of arm twirling at low speeds and when parking. In some cars, this type of variable-ratio steering can make it tricky to judge exactly how much lock to apply in faster driving. But the technology has been refined over the years, so this isn’t an issue in the new S3.

Its steering is actually really precise, making it easy to position the car exactly where you want it. True, you don’t don’t get the same assault on your senses that you would from rivals such as the Honda Civic Type R and Renault Mégane RS, but then the S3 is a more rounded car in other respects.

In fact, Audi has tried to make the new S3 even easier to live with than its predecessor, and one of the ways it’s done this is by fitting a new type of adaptive suspension. The big advantage is that you can now choose from a wider range of settings and, if you pick the most comfortable of these, the S3 rides really quite smoothly by class standards.