It’s one of our favourite hot wagons, as it is for many New Zealanders. For 2025, there are updates coming for the iconic Audi RS3.

Audi New Zealand claims that the RS3’s 2.5 TFSI engine, combined with the optimised chassis setup, propels the RS 3 around corners. The new lap record on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife confirms this.

Audi New Zealand, General Manager, Greg Leet, says, “Drivers will feel the difference in this upgrade with increased driving dynamics and the high-quality materials – making it a true experience for the senses.”

2025 Audi RS3: Exterior Design

After its product upgrade, the Audi RS 3 has a significantly sportier appearance. Audi says that the dominant feature of the assertive front design is the hexagonal Singleframe with a striking border. Flatter and considerably broader than before, it emphasises the dynamics of the compact sports car with its rhombus-pattern grille. The same goes for the two functional side air intakes – accentuated by vertical black blades – and the three apertures above the front splitter. With redesigned daytime running lights, the headlights also accentuate the car’s performance. The digital signature which displays a checkered flag in the RS 3 comprises 24 elements.

The large functional RS-specific diffuser incorporates a red reflector in its centre and, on its sides, the two oval tailpipe trims of the RS exhaust system. Like the headlights, the taillights also feature a new graphic: Arrows that dynamically light up from the inside to out with the coming home/ leaving home function.

2025 Audi RS3: Other Updates

The standard contour and ambient lighting illuminate the new design features: the storage box in front of the flatter-designed shifter, the centre console with cup holders, and the doors. A night-time feature is the so-called planar lighting, whereby a light source in the door panel back-lights hundreds of lasered rhombus shapes of various sizes, which dynamically light up when locking and unlocking the RS 3. This underscores the sporty-evocative design, claims Audi. The door handles, air vents, the steering wheel cover clip, and the shift paddles are finished in an anthracite effect paint, that shimmer according to the light conditions. In addition to the standard two-piece version in palladium grey with carbon insert, there is also a one-piece RS-specific trim strip in matt carbon and a new variant in black Dinamica as decor inlays.

The design packages in red and green add touches of colour to the seat belts, seat shoulders, and air vents. Additionally, the contrast stitching on the seats, centre armrest, door armrests, steering wheel, and the 12 o’clock marker is done in the respective colour. The same goes for the floor mats in black velour, which are also adorned by RS lettering.

2025 Audi RS3: Virtual Cockpit

The 12.3-inch Audi virtual cockpit plus with Sport, Performance, and Runway views was already standard. These features are now joined by the new rev counter, which prominently displays the revolutions per minute in the centre of the instrument cluster. In addition, there are displays for power output, torque, g-forces, acceleration, and lap times. In manual transmission mode, the RS-specific blinking shift indicator changes the rpm display from green to yellow to red to indicate the ideal time to change gears. On top of this, the temperature ranges of coolant, torque splitter, brakes, engine oil and transmission oil are shown in colour on the 10.1-inch touch display in the instrument panel.

2025 Audi RS3: “Acoustically underscored” drivetrain

The Audi RS 3 is powered by the legendary 2.5 TFSI engine from Audi Sport with 294 kW and a maximum torque of 500 Nm. This means the RS 3 accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 290 km/h. Numerous motorsport successes make the award-winning five-cylinder engine one of the most evocative at Audi and make driving the RS 3 an incomparable experience says the company.

This is due to its unique sound, which is based on the signature 1-2-4-5-3 firing sequence. In addition, the exhaust flap control is optimized in the rpm range between 2,200 and 3,500 revolutions. In this way, the five-cylinder generates a consistent and fuller-bodied sound no matter which mode is selected.

2025 Audi RS3: Handling

Frank Stippler set a new lap record on the NĂĽrburgring Nordschleife in the new RS3. The Audi Sport racing and development driver set a time of 7:33.123 minutes, beating the previous record in this class by more than five seconds. His success means the RS 3 is once again the fastest compact car on the 20.832-kilometre racetrack in the Eifel.

The basis for the driving dynamics is the interaction of the torque splitter with its fully variable torque distribution between the rear wheels, electronic stability control, wheel-selective torque control (brake torque vectoring), and the adaptive dampers of the RS sport suspension. These components are relevant to lateral dynamics and are networked in the modular driving dynamics controller, where data synchronisation occurs. Thanks to a further developed algorithm, they react even more acutely to the respective driving situations.

2025 Audi RS3: Cornering

The RS 3 now performs even better in bends, avoids understeer at the entrance to the corner, and turns in more willingly thanks to fine-tuning – including brake torque vectoring. Thanks to the finely dosed brake interventions on the inside wheels, Audi says the compact sports car follows the corner’s radius more precisely than before, both in under partial load and on overrun, and it can be positioned earlier and better for exiting the curve from the apex.

2025 Audi RS3: “Evolved oversteer”

The improved algorithm is also driving an evolution in oversteer. Previously, oversteer was generated primarily by increasing the load requirement – in other words, stepping on the throttle. Now oversteer is easier to initiate in the RS 3 via the steering angle. This allows the driver to obtain the same drift angle faster.

2025 Audi RS3: Performance mode

If you want to activate the Performance mode, which is specially designed for the racetrack, you can do so by pressing the left satellite button. The button with the checkered flag icon is new, as is the red RS button on the right steering wheel spoke, which offers quick access to RS Individual mode.

2025 Audi RS3: Local pricing and specification

Final pricing and specifications for New Zealand will be released closer to the local launch which is planned for early 2025. To keep informed and receive updates on this new model, please go to audi.co.nz.

You can read our full review of the 2022 model-year RS3 here.

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Fred Alvrez
How on earth to start this? I've been car/bike/truck crazy since I was a teen. Like John, I had the obligatory Countach poster on the wall. I guess I'm more officially into classic and muscle cars than anything else - I currently have a '65 Sunbeam Tiger that left the factory the same day as I left the hospital as a newborn with my mother. How could I not buy that car? In 2016 my wife and I drove across the USA in a brand-new Dodge Challenger, and then shipped it home. We did this again in 2019 in a 1990 Chev Corvette - you can read about that trip on DriveLife, and again in 2023 buying a C5 Corvette and shipping it home. I'm a driving instructor and an Observer for the Institute of Advanced Motorists - trying to do my bit to make our roads safer.

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