Facelifted Audi RS3 Charts New Nurburgring Record Before Debut

Ahead of making its global debut, the facelifted Audi RS3 has broken the Nurburgring record for fastest compact car category.

Breaking a new record before making an official debut is something special that not many car brands or models have managed to achieve. And that’s exactly what Audi managed to do with its soon-to-be-launched Audi RS3, with the facelifted performance sedan recently breaking the Nurburgring lap record for the fastest compact car category.

Piping down its eternal German rival, the BMW M2 Coupe, the yet-to-be-launched Audi RS3 sedan circled the Nordschleife track in just 7:33.123 minutes, shaving off the previous record by more than five seconds.

In charge of piloting the pre-production RS3 sedan was Audi Sport racing and development driver Frank Stippler. The Audi Works driver managed to bring home the updated RS3 in about seven seconds faster than its pre-facelift predecessor, which reflects the serious upgrade package given by Audi Sport to its beloved compact performance sedan.

The updated RS3 sedan boasts some serious chassis and performance upgrades over its predecessor.

The serious upgrade began with some extensive chassis re-work done to the new RS3 sedan. Key performance upgrades present here include the fully-variable torque distribution between the rear wheels, a brake torque vectoring system, an RS Sport suspension system with optional adaptive dampers, new 19-inch ceramic brakes, and an advanced algorithm for driver dynamics control.

Under the hood, the updated RS3 sedan carries the same 2.5-litre 5-cyl turbocharged TFSI engine used on the pre-facelift model that still outputs 394 HP and 500 NM for the European market and 401 HP and 500 NM for the American market. However, Audi Sport previously indicated that this unique five-pot mill still has the potential to produce more power, indicating that we might see a peppier version of the RS3 in the future.

Being a pre-production model, the record-breaking RS3 facelift comes draped in a special Nurburgring-themed camouflage wrap, although we can still see the minor design tweaks. Just like its non-RS and S-badged twins debuted earlier this year, the facelifted RS3 will get the same new LED headlights, a redesigned front bumper with aggressive air intakes, a larger rear diffuser, and many more.

Besides those, we can also see the new RS3 rides on the same 19-inch ten-spoke wheels used on its predecessor, albeit featuring some red accents and shod in Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R semi-slick tyres.

The all-new 2025 Audi RS3 sedan facelift is poised to make its official debut later on Aug 20, 2024, with first deliveries set to commence later in Oct. No pricing was revealed at this stage, although we surely expect them to be higher than the newly-launched Audi S3 facelift, which is tagged from €55,600 (RM286,788) onwards.