autoevolution
 

RS3 Sedan and A45 Hatch Try to Drift, Fail Badly

Under special conditions, some all-wheel-drive cars can drift just as well as RWD ones. However, the RS3 sedan and Mercedes-AMG A45 are based on normal compacts, which means they're not ideal for the job.
Understeer, understeer, understeer - on a dry, sticky track, both AWD systems send most of the power to the front wheels 1 photo
Photo: YouTube screenshot
But Audi did say in its press release that the RS3 can send more than 50% of the power to the back under special conditions. So we could be in for a surprise, right? Well, not really.

The quattro sedan has wide, sticky tires, which glue themselves to the equally sticky track. We've seen the same RS3 model doing a few full donuts in the snow a few weeks ago. So naturally, the conditions do play a part.

Why do people even expect it to drift? We've been watching Nurburgring videos of this car for two years, and it barely puts the tail out on a race track at probably well over 100 km/h.

And it's not like other RS models are playful either. How often have you seen an RS7 doing donuts? It's not Audi's thing; never has been and never will be.

No one buys the A45 for drifting either. That's why the world has something called the BMW M2 coupe. The downside of that would be that it's slower because it doesn't have the same traction as these two.

This video from Cars South Africa follows a drag race between the RS3 and A45 a few weeks ago. Trying to drift these two is pointless, but we'd like to point out that even regular rear-wheel-drive cars are tricky to play with too.

We've tested a variety of 2-liter diesel BMWs and each one, while playful, failed to make a full donut despite ample power. That's probably why the Toyota GT 86 has such skinny tires - to let you reach the limit of grip much easier.

If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories