Audi unleashes 400-horsepower RS3 Sportback

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Audi‘s latest addition to the RS lineup is – once again – forbidden fruit for hot-hatch fans in North America.

The refreshed RS3 Sportback joins the hotted-up sedan we met in Paris last year, sharing a turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine with 400 horsepower and 354 lb.-ft. of torque on tap. Sending that kick to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the RS 3 sprints from rest to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds.

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The RS 3 Sportback’s packaging is pretty much identical to the sedan, save for the rump – suspension bits are stiffer and help the RS 3 sit lower, the all-wheel-drive system features a variable torque split and the track has been widened to accomodate a set of slick 19-inch wheels. Like the RS 3 sedan, carbon ceramic brakes are optional.

Naturally, the RS 3 Sportback is styled more aggressively than its siblings inside and out. Still conservative, but properly aggressive thanks to larger air intakes, a front splitter and a rear diffusor with two oval-shaped exhaust tips, plus a standard boost pressure indicator, a shift light, an oil thermometer, a lap timer and sport seats – a pair of more aggressive ‘RS sport seats’ are optional, along with Audi’s Virtual Cockpit instrument cluster – on the inside.

The Audi RS 3 Sportback will debut next month at the Geneva Motor Show. In terms of North American availability, we’re out of luck; Audi is only sending the RS 3 sedan across the Atlantic.

Not that we’re complaining.