Singapore – What are the hallmarks of an RS car? We all know what the hallmarks of the competition are: M has big V8s, rear-wheel drive and cloudy, smoky, oversteer-based dynamics. Mercedes-AMG has uh, big V8s, rear-wheel drive, misty, hazy oversteer-based dynamics.

The quintessential RS model now has to be the RS 6 Avant. The wagon body-style shows off the RS obsession with making box-shaped rockets on wheels, while it has a whacking great turbocharged V8, all-wheel drive to translate that grunt into shunt, and approachable (relatively) driving experience that can easily go from Jekyll to Hide/Lose Your Lunch (for the passenger).

But driving a 580bhp wagon in the Real World is the sort of criminal under-utilisation that used to be characterized as using a hammer to kill a fly, except now the hammer is computer-planned and laser-guided and the fly is half drunk.

Luckily, Audi has come up with something smaller that cleverly distills all these RS attributes into a relatively affordable, usable package. Affordable, meaning you won’t have to mortgage your first-born child, and usable, if your name starts with ‘Hans’ and ends with ‘Joachim -Stuck’.

Jokes aside, the new RS 3 Sportback is nearly half as expensive as an RS 6, but more than half as powerful. The 2.5-litre, five-cylinder engine has been further refined to produce 376bhp and let’s not forget this is shoehorned into the A3 small hatchback chassis.

It surely looks the part of an angry RS, but wrought small, so fitting it looks like an A3 that has been brought up on steroids, raw meat and taught to see the BMW M2 and A 45 AMG as its source of pain. Big gaping air dam and (optional) silver-coloured lip spoiler, widened track and fenders, roof spoiler, twin large oval exhausts and a huge diffuser.

We feel the overall effect is a bit centaur like, given the wild RS ‘bottom’ and almost normal A3 upper, but the car’s rabid pace certainly do the visuals justice.

Audi’s five-cylinder is something we never got tired of in previous iterations, though it constantly put licences in peril. It’s even better now.

Its peak power and torque aren’t segment-toppers (though it’s not far behind the A45) but the band of maximum torque is so wide, 1625 to 5500rpm, it may as well be a huge electric motor. But there’s character to spare for this mill, with the offbeat five-cylinder song going from burble to is-this-half-a-R8-V10-roar at higher revs, with the torque not dropping off by much even right to the limiter. It’s also worth noting the car’s 0.3 seconds quicker to 100km/h than the old R8 4.2 V8.

Like the TT, there’s a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox (it’s special Audi-only, transverse-mount high torque unit, not a VW one) which delivers lightning fast shifts punctuated by dramatic blurts and backfiring. Even when you’re off the gas it’s rewarding, with more ‘gunfire’ and fury that will make you no friends where you live.

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There is of course, a ridiculous amount of grip from the 19-inch tyres – like the old car, you can spec wider front tyres for more grip, but as tested, the car felt nimble and easy to drive at any speed.

Given the old RS 3 and the A1 Sport Quattro’s behaviour, one might expect the new RS 3 to ride like four-wheeled cocktail shaker, yet the non-active suspension setup was plush even over big bumps, adding to the rock-solid composure of the machine.

Another very RS 6-esque ability is going from anti-social to social media in an instant. In other words, it can appear like what it isn’t superficially. Tickle Comfort mode, from Dynamic (which opens the exhaust valve), and it’s almost like an A3 with the extra humdrum drone you expect from a Milo-can style muffler on a 20 year old sedan.

For a car that costs nearly $290,000 though, it’s still mostly an A3 on the inside. You get red stitching (belts, steering, gear shifter) and red air con vents (so your air goes faster) and there’s navigation and full LED lights, but little of the polished tech the latest Audis have.

But a car like this isn’t made for you to sit around tickling the interior, so that matters little, and it’s not like the M2 or A45 have vastly superior cabins either.  There’s little to split the three, performance wise, but the reasons for buying an RS 3 are very much the same as the others: Big performance wrought small, but still potent as hell.

Audi RS 3 Sportback
Engine                           2,480cc, 20V, inline 5, turbocharged
Power                            367bhp at 5500-6800rpm
Torque                           465Nm at 1625-5550rpm
Gearbox                         7-speed dual-clutch
Top Speed                      250km/h
0-100kmh                       4.3 seconds                 
Fuel efficiency                  8.1L/100km
CO2                                189g/km
Price                               $287,800 with COE
Availability                       Now

Also Consider: BMW M2, Mercedes-AMG A45