[Audi A3 24 Sport] Driving report

[구태균]

Think of an S3 with more power and less mass and you have the 24 Sport - a hot-hatch concept that could go into production. By BARRY PARK.

 
Audi A3 24 Sport

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 It's low, lean, and purposefully mean. Meet the performance-focused Audi that you could soon buy in Australia - the A3 24 Sport.

Audi had rolled out the Sport for its lightweight technology day, giving motoring journalists from around the world a chance to jump behind the wheel of a stripped-out, lightweight car and judge for themselves how shedding all that weight can improve a vehicle's dynamics.

Its name reflects the scope of the race car on which the 24 Sport is based -- developed for the punishing Nurburgring 24-hour endurance-driving challenge. Incidentally, we're at the proving grounds about 150 kilometres outside Frankfurt, owned by components maker Bosch. The company lets car makers use the grounds for prototype testing.

Already we've had tantalising, close-up looks at the BMW X1, a heavily camouflaged Ferrari 599 with a huge, squared off power bulge in the middle of the bonnet, the next-generation diesel-engined Suzuki Swift, a nondescript-looking Porsche Panamera bulleting around the handling circuit, an Audi A8 lapping the speed bowl, and over at the skid pan a heavily modified X5 is letting out tortured tyre squeals as engineers thoroughly punish it.

At one stage a convoy of Citroen C4s stream in through the main gate, and we wonder why the lead car wears a veneer of gaffa tape in several places. No cameras allowed, unfortunately.

Where were we? Oh yes, at the moment there are only two of these seriously modified Audi three-door hatchbacks in Germany that we're trying to concentrate on despite the constant stream crudely fettled prototypes that surround us.

They've been built as a concept rather than a full-blown production car, but the engineers swarming around it were all hinting at the possibility that the Sport will make it to showrooms. The car we're driving uses a standard S3 chassis, utilising the range-topping A3's extensive use of lightweight aluminium components compared with the steel-heavy models further down the range.

 Under the hood is a stock 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine borrowed from the S3, but featuring a few minor add-ons to the anti-pollution gear and air intakes. It puts out 230kW of power - 42kW more than the S3 you can buy today.

The engine is mated to an old-school six-speed automatic gearbox; the one where you push the shifter to the right to lock it into tiptronic mode. No flappy paddles on the steering wheel, unfortunately.

Externally, it sits low on 17-inch rims that for today's demonstration feature almost-slick race treads. The guards aren't even plumped, although a huge, speed bump-unfriendly splitter pokes out from under the front bumper, and wind tunnel-tested vents are cut into the carbon fibre-reinforced plastic bonnet and aluminium guards.

Inside the front wheels are a huge set of brake rotors borrowed from the R8 supercar. There ars screws set into the lip of the hatch below the rear window, evidence that at one stage someone has had a big spoiler fitted.

The first obstacles to getting inside the Sport are the doors. The external door handles don't work, so you need to put an arm in through the permanently half-open window and use the inner door handle to unlatch it.

They might want to fix that in the showroom car. The second obstacle is a full race cage that reduces the amount of space for getting into the car to a letterbox-like slit. Padding on the roll bars makes contact with the spaceframe a little more tolerable.

Once inside, there are deep Recaro seats and a five-point harness to manage. There are no back seats, partly because the over-shoulder seat-belt straps running to the rear of the Sport would be a tad bothersome for rear-pew passengers.

Rear-seat passengers would also probably baulk at the hoses of the air jacks that snake all across the floor and walls of the cabin. The dash is very simple, with speedo, tacho and trip computer.

However, there's no radio, sat-nav or other obvious creature comforts, and the front passenger seat is so far back on its rails that it almost seems as though it really might be a back seat.

It drives brilliantly. Admittedly, the ride and handling loop on which we were taking it was billiard-table smooth and incredibly sticky, though it didn't feel like a race car. Ride was surprisingly smooth and compliant, without the bone-jarring harshness you'd expect of a race car's set-up.

That's probably a function of the variable damper control knobs sitting on top of the transmission tunnel rotated to their softest setting. Acceleration is accompanied by a loud pop from the exhaust as the automatic transmission raced up through the gears, and a snarl under deceleration as the engine automatically blipped the throttle to match the revs needed for the next gear down.

Outside the car, the Sport sounds a little like a race car. Inside the stripped-out cabin it roars with a spine-tingling ferocity as the sound bounces off the bare metal shell that features from the B pillar back. The R8 brakes bleed off speed at a staggering rate, with excellent feel and not too much assist.

Tip the car into a corner, and there's no hesitation as the Sport willingly changes direction. Getting out of the corner requires a gentle right foot, as this car has none of the electronic driver aids found in a normal car that would leap in and take control as soon as ambition outgrows ability.

Jump on the throttle too early and the Sport will give a little buck as the unloaded inner wheel struggles to find grip. It's an intoxicating car, as yet only a concept and with the odds of it coming to Australia fairly well stacked against it.

And despite all its stripped-out insides and totally impractical features, it's unlikely to be cheaper than the $66,403 Audi S3 that supplies some of the parts for the 24 Sport, despite the Sport losing pretty much all the expensive comforts that the S3 boasts, apart from a radio and air-conditioning.

[돌용이]

핸들 덤프 핸들보다 더 커 보이네....ㅋ

[Gonada]

오토매틱이군요 .. .

[김병하[비트불패]]

S3아닌가요..

[pooh]

프론트립 정말땡기네요~

[훈남]

마지막 사진휠 정말 멋지네요!! 저런휠은 어디가서 구하나? ^^

[Gonada]

휠이 압권!