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Max Earey

Review: The roaring Audi RS 3 feels like a supercar (and I didn't want to give the keys back)

So. Much. Want.

BY THE TIME you are reading this I will have reluctantly handed back the keys to the Audi RS 3. No doubt Audi Ireland will have prised the keys out of my hand and probably threatened me with legal action to get me out of the car.

If you’re not too au fait with your Audi models, you might not know what sets the RS 3 apart from the more regular A3 Saloon. But the difference is around 280hp and nearly €40,000.

Shoehorned into that engine bay is a 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder engine. Peak power is 400hp and 480Nm, which see it hit 100km/h from a standing start in 4.1 seconds. Although, I’m telling you, it feels a lot quicker than that.

Further setting this beast apart from the regular A3 saloon is a black honeycomb grille, with ‘quattro’ emblazoned across its base and a more aggressive body kit, which adds to the visuals but isn’t brash.  I absolutely love the distinctive ‘Nardo Grey’ paintwork. It’s stealthy. Although, walk around the back and two huge exhaust pipes give the game away a little easier.

Max Earey Max Earey

This was the other advantage of the RS 3 that I really liked – it doesn’t stand out all that much on the street. Although I did get plenty of admiring looks and nods from those in the know.

Aside from those numbers that ensure your head is firmly planted to the sporty headrest, the RS 3 gets some tasteful interior upgrades. The sports steering wheel is swathed in Alcantara and feels gorgeous to the touch and the sports seats look the business but they also hold you in place through the bends. Audi has deservedly earned a reputation for doing interiors very well, and this car is no exception. (Then again, with a starting price of close to €70,000, I’d expect it to be nice inside.)

Max Earey Max Earey

But for me it wasn’t the looks that made me not want to give it keys back. It was how the car drove and how it made me feel behind the wheel. Out on mountain roads those exhausts start to wail as the revs rise. The engine sounds fantastic, and its power delivery is phenomenal. It actually made me giddy and my heart beat a little faster. I felt like I was in charge of the car I was driving, not that it was driving me. I felt engaged with the steering and the feedback was lovely. It made me want to keep going and not turn the engine off. I haven’t felt that way in a while testing a car.

Max Earey Max Earey

The combination of the quattro all-wheel drive and the seven-speed S tronic automatic transmission makes for vast levels of traction with each gear shift happening in split-second time. You can shift gears manually either via the lever itself or the small paddles on the back of the steering wheel, though I wish these didn’t feel so cheap to the touch. I would have liked them to be all metal not plastic.

Even in the wet and icy weather that we have been experiencing, the RS 3 never tests your confidence. It feels very surefooted even on some of the country’s worst road surfaces. Is there nothing this car can’t do?

As for everyday, run-of-the-mill driving, back in city and town traffic the RS 3 soon becomes as docile as you would like it to be, making for a relaxing drive even in rush-hour.

Max Earey Max Earey

As for the price. The Audi RS 3 Saloon is priced from €69,550 but my test car with all the bells and whistles cost €89,432.

When you consider that Audi’s supercar, the R8, with its 5.2-litre V10 produces 540hp, the RS 3 isn’t all that far behind in the performance stakes and it’s only a third of the price. Furthermore, you can bring four of your friends along for the ride instead of just one and with this baby in the driveway you’ll never be short of driving companions. So, overall, the Audi RS 3 is one super saloon that feels every bit like a supercar.

READ: 12 tips for reducing back pain whilst driving >

READ: Review: The Opel Grandland X is a stylish SUV with on-board WiFi >

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    Mute Stephen
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    Jul 15th 2014, 6:51 AM

    That €40,000 should be put to better use than resisting progress,donate the lot to a hospice in the Laois area.

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    Mute Chief
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:12 AM

    Progress Stephen?

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    Mute Mark O Brien
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:56 AM

    Wind farms are not progress.

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    Mute Stephen
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:06 AM

    Getting away from fossil fuel, has to be progress. Windmills can be an eye sore to some,Iam not a nimby either, I’d have no problem having one in my back yard.

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    Mute Chief
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:42 AM

    Here’s the problem stephen, you automatically think a turbine can be placed anywhere and each will work the same. This isn’t the case. Wind doesn’t blow the same equally in the whole of Ireland. What wind you get at the back of your house is completely different to someone living a couple of miles away from you. As i said before I honestly do believe the country will end up been littered with turbines and it will take a few years for people to do the figures before all hell breaks loose. By the time that happens the ones who are getting them installed will have a hefty bank balance and me and you will pay for it. Time will tell.

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    Mute William Bayle
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    Jul 15th 2014, 11:55 AM

    Laois coco refused the planning abp inspector advised against and abp give the go ahead anyhow ? 3 out of the 5 decision makers in abp have interest in wind energy company and have been put there by the government . That sound like a fair judgement alright ! Steven 8 turbine of 140 m each coming at 500 m of my house . Would you like to buy it ?

    14
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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:25 AM

    There are a few turbines near me and to be honest, whilst they are visually dominating on the landscape, I have to say that there are no noise issues, they are actually very quiet, at least these ones are anyway

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:21 AM

    With 40k they could start their own wind farm. This is what the locals in Holland do ! They own there local wind farms and get free power as well as profits !

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    Mute Paul Flynn
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:33 AM

    Would the government allow this or would they be lobbied by vested interests to drown any proposal in red tape and pen pushers?

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    Mute Ted Carroll
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:45 AM

    If the Government wasn’t so interested in profiteering out of this they could easily bring in schemes which are currently in use in a lot of Europe with community energy farms. By giving locals responsibility and a financial incentive to pursue wind energy projects you cut out most of the objections in one move. Of course the Government can’t make huge profits on this so don’t expect to see it any time soon. Anything that helps the people on the ground in this country seems to be automatically rejected by our great leaders.

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    Mute Michael Legris
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:30 AM

    Whats wrong with wind-farm ? Pylon are horrible, but wind turbine are not that ugly …

    99
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    Mute William Bayle
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    Jul 15th 2014, 12:13 PM

    Wake up pylons are their to link the ugly wind farms to the grid ! Nothing wrong with them ? Appart the fact than their huge ugly and noisy come in a 500 m radius of people houses and highly inefficient and come with a substation the size of a football pitch

    18
    Bill
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    Mute Bill
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:15 AM

    I would imagine Japan would be willing to sell the good folks in Laois a nuclear power station,slightly used for around 40k if they need an alternative to wind power

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    Mute Barry Fingleton
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:21 AM

    Anyone who wants to understand the true scale of these new bigger turbines needs to visit mount Lucas,then if you would be happy to live beside one yourself you can call it nimbyism! The whole wind turbine scam has already been exposed in Germany where it has proved completely ineffective at reducing CO2 emmissions, this is another developer led disaster waiting to happen here! Wake up and smell the coffee people, do your research!

    54
    Bill
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    Mute Bill
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:27 AM

    Barry Fingelton guess you also still believe the earth is flat

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    Mute Chief
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:46 AM

    Personally I couldn’t give a rats arse about turbines because they won’t be any in my area. But Barry is right, most of these turbines will work at a loss. Everyone has been fooled into thinking different. I’ve always been for them coming into the country and then I got a crash course on what they have to do to be profitable. I can’t see the turbines been stopped but I can say this in a few years time when everyone cops on that they are a failure some serious shit is going to hit the fan. (Pardon the pun) a lot of heads are going to roll

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    Mute Qwerty
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:04 AM

    Energy storage is the problem.

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    Mute Deep Beneath You
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    Jul 15th 2014, 6:43 AM

    Tough one this. There ate reports that these cause tinnitus and migraine type symptoms for people living near by. Not to mention the effect on sleep cycles. Are there alternatives? Why not throw 1000 of Em on a windy island off the west coast away from people.

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    Mute Paul Creedon
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:32 AM

    @Deep – turbines generate low frequency infrasound

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    Mute Business Cat
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:12 AM

    Good money in NIMBYism it seems.

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    Mute Tom McDermott
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    Jul 15th 2014, 8:15 AM

    Here’s a double picture of the new Mount Lucas wind farm taken from my house 5klms away from the turbines. I airbrushed the top part of the photo to show what the view used to be like. The bottom half of the photo is in no way photoshopped.

    http://www.nalcro.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BA.jpg

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    Mute Philip Kenna
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:10 AM

    Jesus Tom that’s mad looking! How the hell could they do something like that to the beautiful countryside!

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    Mute Tom McDermott
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:28 AM

    Too many people too busy watching their soaps and figuring out Garth Brooks next move to give a damn. You can only see 13 turbines in that photograph, There’s 28 there now, and in a year or so when i turn the opposite direction and take another photo there will be 32 more if planning goes ahead.

    http://www.yellowriverwindfarm.com/files/Section2PlanningDrawings/002%20-%20PL-%20S2%20-100%20Overall%20Site%20Location%20Map.pdf

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    Glen
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    Mute Glen
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:06 AM

    ” people over wind ” yeah I think I’m going to back wind on this one. When it comes to wind the most people can do is break it.

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    Mute Glen Hoddle
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    Jul 15th 2014, 7:31 AM

    More school-boy humour Glen. Do you ever miss a day?

    21
    Drew
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    Mute Drew
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    Jul 15th 2014, 8:32 AM

    If these people have money to spend protesting clean energy we don’t have to import then despite their protests to the contrary we are clearly not taxing them enough.

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    Mute William Bayle
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    Jul 15th 2014, 12:06 PM

    Those people use their hard earn money to fight a lobbied government who doesn’t take in consideration local residents well being flora fauna or cultural heritage into consideration , wake up people those monsters are going up all over the country without any proper taughts been given and your electricity bill will keep rocketing since YOU tax payers are subsiding them ! Country all over Europe are backing up on them and Ireland goes full steam ahead ! Don’t say you weren’t warned in 3 years time when they ll be everywhere you look and you pay the biggest price in Europe for electricity

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    Mute Bobby
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    Jul 15th 2014, 10:46 AM

    I flew from the south of Spain to England last week. The landscape had lots of wind turbines all the way. People in these countries don’t have a problem with them. Ireland seem to have a problem with everything.

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    Mute People Overwind
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    Jul 15th 2014, 9:03 AM

    Slideshow from Mount Lucas Wind farm. First of the monster turbines in Ireland
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rQZVh-KNpY#t=12
    The Core issues with wind trubines are outlined on this site
    http://www.windawareireland.com/heights-illustrated-%e2%80%8e/#issues-overview

    18
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    Mute Sternn
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    Jul 15th 2014, 1:03 PM

    It’s amazing to see the outright ignorance displayed in this thread. Having lived in Holland and near many wind farms all the arguments the anti-wind crowd are putting out there are complete and utter tripe. They make no noise, they don’t impact the environment, and to be honest you don’t even know they are there. Don’t take my word for it, travel there and check it out first hand.

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    Mute Donal Lynch
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    Jul 15th 2014, 2:22 PM

    Personally I don’t have a problem with wind turbines, I don’t think they’re ugly (that’s a matter of opinion) but they’re certainly not noisy. 3 turbines are within 1 km of my house.

    People who are opposing the construction, what’s the alternative? Nuclear?

    As a country, we protest against almost every form of progress. Severely in need of economic stimulus, how about 5 concerts with a estimated worth of €50 million to the capitols economy? Era no, it’d be awfully noisy wouldn’t it? How about that wind energy deal with the UK that went south a few months ago that would have been financed primarily by the British tax payer and employed hundreds of irish people while making us a net exporter of electricity? Those turbines are a bit ugly actually so we’ll hold off on that one.

    Jesus, we’re our own worst enemy and we’ll turn a blind eye to anything that’s not in our back yard.

    Sorry about the rant but vocal protest groups who claim to represent the majority grind my gears!

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    Mute Francis Clauson
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    Jul 15th 2014, 5:36 PM

    Sites like Mount Lucas breach World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on night time noise – they also breach World Bank and European Financial Institution guidelines – FACT.

    There is peer reviewed evidence that noise in general and infrasound(which is every where but importantly is modulated at blade pass frequency to make it rhythmic by a wind turbine ) does effect a certain group if people. Wind farm infrasound has harmonics – roughly 160hz is common – and this is audible and highly penetrative (i.e closed windows or a pillow over your head will not stop it). To say “it does not bother me” is like saying hay fever is not a bother – it is dependant on the receptor and not the transmitter. Some people are more sub-settable. Take peanuts – today it would be unacceptable to sell a product without a warning “it may contain nuts” but is ok to install wind farms saying people subset-able to low frequency noise are NIMBY or psychologically (in the brain) rather than physiologically ( in the muscles/cells/bones) upset by wind farms.

    The ISO model used by wind farm developers to predict noise levels is flawed – at least two peer reviewed docs talk about issues where land falls away from turbine site leads to a 3db error. I.e it’s 3db louder in reality.

    Additionally the ISO model was never written for 80 or 100 or 120 meter high noise sources.

    8
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    Mute Francis Clauson
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    Jul 15th 2014, 5:37 PM

    Today the Irish government will allow 47db(A) as a reasonable external noise level at a noise sensitive location. This may be a location which prior to the wind farm being built enjoyed a 32 to 35 db(A) noise level . Db’s are logarithmic so 3 db(A) increase is a doubling of sound pressure level. This is such a massive increase that you have to experience it – and please do so not for a minute or an hour or a day but at least a week but better still a month or two.

    Many foreign governments ( the Germans particularly) are waking up to the noise related issues from wind farms – their TA LAM standard is under review due to inadequacies in is prediction capability.

    There seems to be two camps in this country
    A) allow as many wind farms as possible
    B) allow none

    Empirical numerical analysis should be used backed up by solid medical evidence that there are no issues prior to construction – and this is not happening.

    I have 3 months of evidence showing where a prediction is way off – the sluggishness of this being addressed is indefensible.

    5
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    Mute Francis Clauson
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    Jul 15th 2014, 5:37 PM

    It will come to pass – probably too late – that some(not all) wind farms were granted planning incorrectly and have forced people from their homes – which as an aside violates both constitution and human rights – and a redress scheme will be required paid for by the tax payer.

    It took 80 years for vibration white figure to be identified and classified as a serious industrial hazard – and the similarities to wind farm noise are stark – every drill, chain saw, jack hammer now has to comply with the relevant EU directive to protect the operator.

    Let’s hope it does not take 80 years before the relevant vs irrelevant issues with wind farms is identified and addressed

    7
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    Mute Alex Wilsdon
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    Jul 15th 2014, 11:13 AM

    Whether the issue is concerts in Croke Park or Wind farms in Laois the interests of the NIMBY sector should be considered but not automatically given precedence over the greater good for the larger population of the nation.
    This also goes for city dwellers who think their waste and power can be taken care of “down the country”- build the incinerator in Poolbeg…!

    There also needs to be a geographical limit and qualifying criteria for objecting to planning as there are too many “career objectors” involved in these protests who travel all over Ireland objecting to everything we call progress.

    6
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    Mute William Bayle
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    Jul 15th 2014, 12:10 PM

    When the local coco and abp own specialist refuse the application but abp goes ahead regardless I think there is cause for great concerns over the planning application process

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    Mute Shane Griffin
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    Jul 15th 2014, 6:37 PM

    Will they use this money to buy candles? Or where do they expect their electricity to come from

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    Mute Stephen Sj O'Byrne
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    Jul 15th 2014, 11:24 PM

    Wind is not a reliable source of energy. Amazing how many people don’t get this!!

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    Mute Stephen Sj O'Byrne
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    Jul 15th 2014, 11:22 PM

    For those claiming there is no issue with wind farms in other parts of Europe

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/wind-energy-encounters-problems-and-resistance-in-germany-a-910816.html

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