Feedback from those with S3s now

Are people actually losing their minds about this car before even owning this car?
 
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F*** me guys, what are you expecting!!! It's an Audi S3, not a Ferrari FF! Cars are developed to suit the majority of potential buyers and your demands do not fall in line with the requirements of this target demographic.If you want sports car handling with an Audi badge, get an R8 - that's what it is for! If you can't stretch to that then go for that Renaultsport Megane... I hear they're great if your into plastic French s***e that can go round the Nurburgring faster than any other FWD car (yawn).
Oh, and I'd never buy a sports car from a company with limited heritage............. ;)
 
F*** me guys, what are you expecting!!! It's an Audi S3, not a Ferrari FF! Cars are developed to suit the majority of potential buyers and your demands do not fall in line with the requirements of this target demographic.If you want sports car handling with an Audi badge, get an R8 - that's what it is for! If you can't stretch to that then go for that Renaultsport Megane... I hear they're great if your into plastic French s***e that can go round the Nurburgring faster than any other FWD car (yawn).
I expect it to go round corners in line with other hot hatches on the market, that and no more than that. Had Audi put a little more effort into getting that right, this package could be the best on the market, but this specific area is a big let down I'm afraid. The Audi is leaps and bounds better than the Renault in all ways, until you throw a corner at it, then it all comes unstuck I'm afraid (excuse the pun). Had Renault offered a 265 in AWD with 5 doors I'd be in one of them - they know how to make a very well balanced car that you can go into a corner with upmost confidence in.
 
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By the way, 90% of the time the S3 is perfect, just let down by the 10% of the time when you really want to take it on a B road blast it doesn't give you the confidence or feedback in the cornering. Overall I remain happy - no car is good at everything.
 
Well Graeme has suggested a fix and wil work on one. I will await his feedback and probably go down the Quaife and Akrapovic route.One will sort the understeer, the other will sort out the EU noise bureaucracy issue !
 
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Well Graeme has suggested a fix and wil work on one. I will await his feedback and probably go down the Quaife and Akrapovic route.One will sort the understeer, the other will sort out the EU noise bureaucracy issue !

The 8P understeered so it's not much of a shock. I just want to know how hard you actually have to push to get it to do it. Can't wait for mine to arrive :)
 
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The 8P understeered so it's not much of a shock. I just want to know how hard you actually have to push to get it to do it. Can't wait for mine to arrive :)
Will be keeping my eye on your developments with interest.
 
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The problem is it's meant to be a performance hatch. Chassis wise it's just a standard s3 with 300hp. If it proves as bad in ownership as it did during the demo, I'll be contacting audi uk fir some clarification as yo why it's so bad.Perhaps the demo was running too high tyre pressures ? Who knows...One things for sure, it needs some firm of mechanical diff if it's channeling most of the power via the front wheels 95% of the time.Graeme, do you have experience of the Quaife differential ?
 
The problem is it's meant to be a performance hatch. Chassis wise it's just a standard s3 with 300hp. If it proves as bad in ownership as it did during the demo, I'll be contacting audi uk fir some clarification as yo why it's so bad.Perhaps the demo was running too high tyre pressures ? Who knows...One things for sure, it needs some firm of mechanical diff if it's channeling most of the power via the front wheels 95% of the time.Graeme, do you have experience of the Quaife differential ?

We tend to favour the wavetrac diff, may have a word with then tomorrow to see if they have anything in the pipeline.

I will be disappointed if I find it as bad as others claim. The whole point of Quattro is surely to be able to handle the power. That isn't just in a straight line. For me if its got 4 wheel drive, permanent or not, it should take the p*** out of any fwd car whether it has a LSD or not. If it doesn't then Audi should have spent more time getting the bias right, in my opinion of course.
 
This is my complaint. I thought the front losing grip and subsequent drive would channel much more power to the rear. It genuinely feels like a poorly set up fwd without a diff. I am not impressed with the basic set up at all. It does of course mean that the typical German tuning market is ripe for this machine, with power hikes so a easily achieved, a suspension and drivetrain upgrade would be the first thing I'm going after !
 
Graeme , do me a favour and have a look at the Quaife diff that I linked to previously. It's British, made of quality steel nd we should support British manufacturing in the LNG term ! It also looks like a wee jewel :)
 
Erm the understeer isnt even that bad, ive done nearly 2k miles in mine now and the way some are talking theres no front end grip at all. Yeah there is some inherant or "safety" understeer but that can soon be dialed out with a few easy mods and a better fast road geometry setup.The conti tyres arnt great either and there not exctly designed for winter.Canceling your order because of it is ridiculous.
 
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I for one am very happy with my S3, sure it hasn't got the 'feedback' of a Renaultsport Megane, but then again it won't fall apart and rattle like a child's toy after 6 months. At the end of the day the S3 is a premium well built sports hatch that happens to have 300bhp. The majority of us will never track our S3's so it doesn't need to handle like a race car. If you know what you're doing you can drive around understeer. On a damp road a Megane wouldn't see which way the S3 went, so be it that there isn't loads of steering feel. I would rather be sat nice and comfortable in my S3 knowing I've got Quattro when the weather turns nasty.
 
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But that's the point. The diff kills understeer and the s3 isn't AWD, it's an electronic system with minimal split to the rear on demand.With a diff and good suspension set up, a FWD will run the s3 ragged in standard form. Or will it ?
 
Also you'd have to be driving it EXTREMELY hard to get it under steering as badly as people are saying. All this talk of diff's etc, save your cash on that and buy a set of Michellin Pilot Supersports.
 
Funny how all journalists moaned about the RS3 being too 'understeery' but talk to anyone that owns one and they'll say it's an awesome all round car. Think everyone just needs to take the S3 for what it is an enjoy it. If you want a race car, buy a race car. My opinion obviously.
 
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I've got a race car ;). But I'm wanting more bite and grip from my S3. I will go for the wavetrac diff if Graeme gets it sorted out.What tyre pressures do audi recommend ?
 
Oh yes the GT3 that's on it's way. Now that's a proper race car for the road. Just out of interest what do you do for a living?!
I've always run a car at 32ish psi all round to keep the tyre contact patch nice and flat. Never had a problem with handling.
 
I read the evo review and they didn't like the steering but loved the chassis,I think they said something like " as usual with audi understeer kicks in first but back off and the rear cleverly comes into play"I'm not doubting your driving skills guys but if your front tyres haven't got the grip with the greasy roads at the moment no clever diff is going to help that much,lift of oversteer correction is the only answer,my current car is running 296 bhp and 512 N/M of torque through the front wheels( it's a handful) but because my lift off is insane it handles better than my mk2 st did running less, power and a qualfe diff.
 
When it comes to mpg what kind of speeds are you guys driving at?Audi say 48mpg extra urban driven at 75mphI personally drive at 55-60moh at work so interested to know what it will do in Eco mode driving at that speed over distances?(Before anyone calls me boring for driving too steady I fill in time sheets and mileage logs and get paid accordingly so driving steady is better come payday)
 
Great to see mature spirited post on the Audi S3 , Hope i have not started a S3 revolt lol Guess i am in a enviable position as i also have a fairly rare 2002 Mazda RX7 FD Spirit R Type A Sequential twin turbo 13 B rotary , one of the best handling proper Sportcars ever built .The Audi S3 to me represent my daily run about with ample performance to keep me on my toes and alive ."Dont drive Faster than your guardian angel can fly "B....freeMichael
 
i also have a fairly rare 2002 Mazda RX7 FD Spirit R Type A Sequential twin turbo 13 B rotary , one of the best handling proper Sportcars ever built .The Audi S3 to me represent my daily run about with ample performance to keep me on my toes
Yet you're prepared to accept average ness from £40k worth of daily driver ? That must be one hell of a Mazda !
 
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F*** me guys, what are you expecting!!! It's an Audi S3, not a Ferrari FF! Cars are developed to suit the majority of potential buyers and your demands do not fall in line with the requirements of this target demographic.If you want sports car handling with an Audi badge, get an R8 - that's what it is for! If you can't stretch to that then go for that Renaultsport Megane... I hear they're great if your into plastic French s***e that can go round the Nurburgring faster than any other FWD car (yawn).
Best post in a long time!
 
Also you'd have to be driving it EXTREMELY hard to get it under steering as badly as people are saying. All this talk of diff's etc, save your cash on that and buy a set of Michellin Pilot Supersports.
No you don't have to drive it EXTREMELY hard, nor even hard to get it to understeer, and there isn't enough put to the back wheels by the Quattro to compensate. I like the car and it will do me, but I'm not so blinkered by my investment to say that it isn't flawed, but then again after the experience with the S5 this shouldn't be a huge surprise. Tyres aren't great, but again this just makes you wonder why Audi would put in such little effort to remedy what they must have identified as a problem area.
 
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With regards the Megane, it is the benchmark for how a hot hatch should drive and the S3 doesn't quite get there on the driving front I'm afraid, but as I've said before the S3 is better in every other area.
 
I guess we are all used to different things and have different expectation levels. For me this is a flaw in the car, but one that can be remedied or forgotten about 90% of the time.
 
Can't you install a haldex controller if u want more rear drive?
 
You guys look after those cars because we will be driving them in the future...cheers for that :anbet:
 
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Mmmmm, just read the wavetrac technical manual. Extremely interesting. Have you used one in anger Graeme ?

Yeah I've driven a few fwd cars with wavetrac diffs. No problem with quaiffe but found them difficult to deal with so we decided to concentrate on wavetrac stuff...I'm sure both are good kit. Going to ask about the new s3 this week.
 
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Can't you install a haldex controller if u want more rear drive?

Yep you can, not sure if theres one available yet but its only a matter of time before HPA bring one out.
 
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