A3 gets VW Group’s hottest two-liter
Externally, the car is unmistakably A3 but with a few minor mods. Of course, there is a revised front end, which gets dummy lower side grilles a la VW Golf GTI, the now-familiar deep one-piece main grille, now with an extra little grille below. All pretty predictable stuff, as of course was the styling of the original A3.
Uprated turbo gives plenty of all-round power
But don’t be fooled. With this uprated turbo, the S3 sports hatch can get to 60 mph in about 5.5 seconds – that’s more than half a second quicker than the Audi TT two-liter, despite its aluminum body. It is also a shade quicker than the 3.2-liter TT. Hmmm.Despite the larger turbo, maximum torque of 258 lb ft (350 Nm) is available all the way from 2,500 to 5,000 rpm, so this is an engine with bags of power at almost any speed. Mind you that is a feature of the other VW 2.0 liter direct injection turbos. Incidentally, this is a conventional four-valve per cylinder engine, unlike the five-valve units used in Audis previously. Still, the new engine clearly does the business. Read more at Fast Autos