As I write this, Father’s Day is drawing to a close and I can’t help but think how different it all could have been if I’d had access to Audi’s new S3 back in November 1974.
Back then, I naively believed that taking up motorcycle racing would render me irresistible to sexually unfulfilled young women, so I bought a brand-new Yamaha RD350 and raced it in the first meeting at the new Aldo Scribante racetrack in Port Elizabeth.
I didn’t score on the circuit — or anywhere else — but I vaguely remember that my lap times were somewhere in the region of 1’22”. Last Wednesday, on the same racetrack, carrying an extra 33 years on my shoulders and 40kg under my belt, I pedalled the new S3 around exactly the same racetrack three seconds quicker, with considerably less risk to life and limb.
If I’d had this car in 1974, I’m reasonably confident my cellphone and inbox would today be overflowing with greetings from countless offspring scattered around the country.
There’s no point whatsoever in telling you about the aircon, electric windows, ABS brakes, traction control and other gimmickry fitted to the S3 — we’ll save all that for cars that don’t leave you much else to talk about.
The S3, as far as I’m concerned, could come with wind-down windows and noise, vibration and harshness levels that would make a Lada feel positively sophisticated, and I wouldn’t care one jot. The Audi is all about driving pleasure and anybody who cares a damn about anything else while they’re behind the sexy, flat-bottomed steering wheel is missing the point entirely.
The keystone of the Audi’s personality is, of course, that lovely FSI turbocharged engine that feels like a healthy 3,5-litre six cylinder, rather than a two-litre four cylinder unit. This motor — voted engine of the year in 2005, 2006 and 2007, in standard 147kW guise — has been heavily breathed on to lift output to 188kW of power and 330Nm of torque, with the latter available between 2 400 and 5 200 rpm.
The engine has benefited from more than a chip and a twirl of the turbo boost setting, though; it’s been beefed up with stronger con rods, pistons with stronger gudgeon pins, new rings and a reinforced block with heftier main-bearing pedestals and caps.
The new turbo has a larger turbine and compression rotor and its cast-steel casing — produced as a single piece, including the manifold — withstands exhaust gas temperatures of up to 1 050°C. That’s just as well, because boost has been raised from 0,9 bar on the standard FSI to 1,2 on the S3.
The whole engine tips the scales at just 152kg and it’s powerful enough to accelerate the 1 455kg (unladen) car to 100km/h in just 5,9 seconds, with a claimed top speed electronically limited to 250kph. I never had a chance to measure the acceleration, but my Garmin GPS recorded a highest speed of 252kph on one longish straight near Port Elizabeth, so the factory isn’t lying.
What impressed me most about the Audi was just how user-friendly it is. It can be driven like an ordinary family car one minute, without giving a hint of its performance capabilities, and, five minutes later, have its neck wrung around a racetrack with no evidence of any compromise.
The Quattro system delivers torque to all four wheels and you can take the car by the scruff of its neck and hurl it into corners in a fashion that would have most other cars complaining bitterly or even sending you off into the bushes.
If I was one of those people who habitually draw up lists, the one for cars that work well enough but don’t excite me would be a lengthy one. Next to this would be a considerably shorter list of cars that stand out from the pack because they’re memorable in one way or another. The new Audi S3 would be right at home on the shortest list of all — that of the cars which, if I owned them, I’d set my alarm for early in the morning, simply so I could go for a drive before the day’s work starts. It sells for R336 500 and it’s easily worth every penny.
Long-term updates
Sportier than expected: The Toyota Avensis D4D is supposed to be a family car for the kind of mum or dad who isn’t really looking for exhilirating performance, but who would be happier with the knowledge that his or her car is a practical and versatile vehicle.
But the Avensis is much more than that, and it really surprised me in the past month when I decided to throw caution to the wind and drive more enthusiastically than I normally would.
The 2,2-litre turbo-diesel engine exhibited a sporty side that I hadn’t noticed before and the overall agility had me driving around with an idiotic grin on my face. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Audi RS4, but it is certainly sportier than I had expected it to be.
I also did a little long-distance driving and stretched the fuel 100km further than the previous month, in which I did mostly city driving. — Sukasha Singh
Model: Toyota Avensis D4D
Price: R268 000
Engine: 2,2-litre turbodiesel
Tech: 110kW, 310Nm
Top speed: 210kph, 0-100kph in 9,2s
Tank capacity: 60 litres
Services: 15 000km
Odo at start: 3 200km
Odo now: 4 327km
Fuel input: 107,8 litres
Fuel cost: R697,46
Other costs: R19,50 on oil
No fuss: In our second month with the Nissan Tiida 1,6 Acenta hatch, we clocked up a further 716,8km, going through another 59,86 litres of unleaded, meaning that we averaged 11,97 km/l over this period. Total distance covered by us is now 2Â 202km, mainly around town, with a fuel cost of R1Â 336,58. This is the actual cost, because the car hasn’t needed to go anywhere near a dealer at any time and the oil level remains resolutely near the top of the dipstick.
The only complaint to have surfaced in the past month is that my wife has decided the fold-down armrest between the two front seats is a nuisance, but I have no issue with it.
The car seems to feel a little livelier now that it’s loosened up. It is not a hot hatch and it is not an MPV — it’s a well-built family hatch that quietly gets the job done without any fuss. Which is, of course, exactly what it purports to be. — Gavin Foster
Model: Nissan Tiida Acenta
Price: R162 900
Engine: 1,6-litre fuel-injected
Tech: 80kW, 153Nm
Top speed: 180kph, 0-100kph in 14s
Tank capacity: 52 litres
Services: 15 000km
Odo at start: 1 485km
Odo now: 3 712 km
Fuel input: 200 litres
Fuel cost: R1Â 336,58
Other costs: none