Audi has unveiled the RS3 Competition Limited in Sportback hatchback and Sedan forms, as a celebration of the manufacturer’s five-cylinder engine configuration that turns 50 years old this year.
While the star attraction of the 750-unit, limited run variant is ostensibly the 2.5 litre, turbocharged five-cylinder engine, outputs of the powerplant are actually unchanged from the RS3 facelift that emerged in August 2024, where it produces 400 PS and 500 Nm as it does in the RS3 Competition Limited; similarly, 0-100 km/h is attained in 3.8 seconds, and top speed is 290 km/h.
Included in the RS3 Competition Limited hardware is the RS sport exhaust system with fully variable flap control, while reduced insulation around the firewall enables more engine sound to directly reach the car’s occupants.
In becoming the Competition Limited edition, this iteration of the RS3 has received handling upgrades, with the new chassis components comprised of a coilover suspension setup with a stiffer rear anti-roll bar, stiffer rear springs, and twin-tube dampers all around.
Here, the front damper units with external reservoirs aimed at providing better cooling for more consistent damping under prolonged high-load use, while the rear damper units have larger-diameter damper tubes with thicker piston rods compared to those of the regular RS3 for improved rigidity.
Doing away with adaptive suspension, the RS3 Competition Limited gets dampers which are manually adjustable for high-and low-speed compression damping, and rebound damping. Here, high-speed compression is adjustable in 15 steps, low-speed compression in 12 steps, and rebound in 16 steps. A setup manual as well as the required tools are included in the RS3 Competition Limited.
Wheels are 19-inch ten-spoke alloys in a Neodymium gold matte finish for this Competition Limited edition, while brakes are ceramic units. For the exterior, matte carbon-fibre is used on the mirror covers, side skirts and rear spoiler as well as the upper trim above the rear diffuser, while partial matte application also features on the rear side windows.
The front of the RS3 Competition Limited gets added aero elements to reduce lift at speed, and specific to the Sportback bodystyle is a roof spoiler.
To emphasise the presence of the five-cylinder powerplant, the headlamps on the RS3 Competition Limited are darkened matrix LED units with segments that light up in a 1-2-4-5-3 pattern. Three exterior colours are offered for the RS Competition Limited for both Sportback and Sedan bodystyles, and these are Daytona Grey, Glacier White matter and Malachite Green.
Inside, the RS3 Competition Limited gets RS bucket seats in front, upholstered in black leather with gold-coloured Dinamica microfibre with white contrast stitching. The steering wheel is also trimmed in Dinamica, also with white contrast stitching and 12 o’clock centre position marker. The digital instrument display in the RS3 Competition Limited gets a white background, harking back to the RS2 Avant of 1994, says Audi.
In Germany, the Audi RS3 Competition Limited starts from 108,365 euros (RM492,876) for the Sportback, and from 110,005 euros (RM500,335) for the Sedan. Customer deliveries of both bodystyles of the RS3 Competition Limited begin in the middle of this year, says Audi.
2026 Audi RS3 Competition Limited Sportback
2026 Audi RS3 Competition Limited Sedan
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