[aerobod]

Originally Posted by Tslbmw

My local Audi dealer hit me back in Dec '22 w a turbo blue 8y RS3 w 2700 miles. I was driving a MKVIII R (manual) at the time, but was convinced by all the reviews that the RS3 was finally gonna be the car that takes me away from a manual. I gave them a $1000 deposit after receiving pics and vid. When I got back, I took it on two separate test drives and came away greatly underwhelmed and declined. To each their own of course, but when I test drove a G87 w 4500 miles on it was night and day. I was blown away -- ordered my M2 two days later.

Although the 8Y RS3 has solved the problem of effectively only 25% of torque available to each rear wheel in the previous generation, it still suffers from FWD weight (about 60% on the front axle) and traction bias with only up to 50% of torque to the rear wheels due to using a bevel box take-off for the rear drive, even if all that torque can be supplied to just the outside wheel. It can be made to lose rear traction by just overloading the outside rear wheel and simulate not being FWD biased to some degree.

We had a Mk7 Golf R with the software tweaked to always have the Haldex clutches engaged to avoid needed to spin the front wheels before the rear wheels had drive, but it was always obviously FWD biased in handling. Audi has done the same trick with the current car as the previous in running a wider front than rear tyre (265 vs 245mm wide) to try and quell some of the understeer. The actual loading per mm of tread width on the front tyres is higher on the RS3 than on the G87

[ourlee]

I was also considering an RS3 before I picked up my G87, but test drives were impossible and I was told 2+ years for a car. Has that changed?[/QUOTE]

I’m on Audizine going thru a big order thread. I think you’re right, they are hens teeth. Something else I read today that worries me is there are less than 1500 cars in the USA. Even a small parking lot hit that takes out a light/fender etc could be HUGE downtime. I’m going to travel the country in this car, it’s gotta be mass produced, I’ll need that big dealer support. I appreciate your thoughts on preferring the M2, especially coming from the R, a fav of mine. Cheers
Just sold

Swapped my TT with son 2 for the GTI I’m thinking the TT is the PERFECT Philly car