You guys are getting mixed up in what you think is better and have missed what Marty wants
Marty wants a nice sensible daily that he can cruise around London in, and on a nice day go for a quick blast. He would like to do the odd track day (he lives literally next to Brands) and things like ADI.
My personal experience is that Marty wants exactly what I used to have.
ADI 2011 was potentially the best day of my motoring life. I got my in 230bhp stage 2 A3, stripped the rear seats out and put a spare set of wheels in the back. Drove to ADI with my girlfriend in the car, and averaged 38mpg on the way there.
Swapped the wheels over and sent my girlfriend out for the first session in my car, it was her first time on track and she is an incredibly nervous driver as a result of a horiffic car crash. It was also her first time on slicks...
She put in a great performance, middle of the field, rinsing everything on the straight then braking early and following the smoothest line in and out that she could.
Through this first session my car was faultless. Absolutely faultless.
Then after the cool down lap with the P Zero Corsa's still on I took three or four members of the forum out for a hoon.
Parked the car up for an hour, went for a wander.
Went out on track myself, two up. Rinsed everything on the straight and led for the first lap. Prawn passed me coming through Avon Rise on the second lap, and I continued to lead the pack of S3's for the remainder of the track session. Again, apart from boiling the PAS fluid my car was totally faultless.
Fast forward to 9:10 ish. I was keeping up with the professionally driven NSU's.
Audi Driver International 2011 @ Castle Combe - Best of the Rest (of my footage) - YouTube
Packed my stuff up, drove it home two and a half hours and by the time I got home my MPG average was 32.
Didn't touch the car afterwards and continued to drive it daily for 6 months afterwards.
So in short, in my experience, a well built A3 is a perfect balance (NOT COMPROMISE) for a maintainable, affordable and enjoyable competitive track/fast road weapon. Which can still be daily driven by anybody.
Marty is coming from a 240bhp K03s Mk4 Golf with meth; and if it wasn't for unfortunate demise of his car I am not sure he would be looking to change at all.