I wanted to wait for this but I didn't.
"If there has been one constant in Audi's products of late, it's consistency. Consistency in design, in engineering, in technology, in handling, and in its approach to building cars. You climb into any modern Audi and know how it will look, how it will drive, and how it will take care of you. The key here, of course, is that it's all been consistently good, and the new S3 is no exception. The new S3 is based on front-drive architecture but of course comes with standard Quattro all-wheel drive. It employs a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine that Audi says produces between 290 and 300 horsepower. It's also offered with a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox only, though the Audi people hint that there's a glimmer of hope for a six-speed manual if the market demands one. (Don't get your hopes up.)
The S3 should weigh about 600 pounds less than the last S4 we tested. One Audi official let slip that the engine, if so tuned, is easily good for 320 or more horsepower, and it feels like it. The official specs say it'll hit 60 mph in 5.3 seconds, but here again, the Audi people say it'll do better. The DSG dual-clutch gearbox is in peak form, shifting lightning-quick and with almost no perceptible interruption in power
, going up or down. The transmission programming, like other Audis, is quickly approaching Porsche's vaunted PDK gearbox in terms of accurately predicting when you'll want an up- or downshift. If there's a drawback in the powertrain, it's in the power delivery. As you might expect with a highly boosted four-cylinder, there's some turbo lag down low. The car doesn't feel slow off-boost, but there's no mistaking when the turbo wakes up. The power comes in a big surge as the revs climb into the midrange and pulls all the way to redline. This means that the S3 is best enjoyed on the boil. If the revs drop too low in the midrange, you'll have to wait half a beat for the boost to fully come up, and if you somehow let the revs drop down to the bottom of the range, there'll be a palpable pause as the turbo finds its way back into the game.
It almost makes you a little disappointed when you see an extremely tight corner coming up, because you know the revs will come down. Fortunately, there are paddles for that, and they work very well, except for an auto-upshift at redline in manual mode.If there's a key difference between how the S3 drives and how other Audi S models drive, it's right here. The linearity of power delivery found in other Audis allows them to dig hard out of all corners and take off like a rocket every time, without even thinking about it.
The S3's brakes are equally impressive. An hour of punishing braking events ahead of some seriously tight corners worked them hard enough to make them smell, but not enough to get them to fade. Pedal response remained linear and the bite strong no matter how much we exercised it.
The rear seat is large for the class, offering a surprising amount of legroom. Hip and shoulder room are good, too, and while there's a decent amount of headroom, it feels a little claustrophobic, as the roof rail is always sitting right in your peripheral vision, just far enough out of the way that it's not a problem but just near enough to be noticed. The trunk is large and more limited by the opening than its actual dimensions.
Up front, the sport seats are plenty comfortable for everyday driving, but they're not particularly aggressive for canyon
driving and could use more side bolstering for that. Its only real fault lies in the touchpad on the MMI wheel, which reads your touch perfectly well but only understands the letter you're drawing correctly about 80 percent of the time.Audi hasn't announced pricing for the new S3, but we can take a guess based on other S models. The S4 is 40 percent or so more expensive to start than the A4, so given the A3's starting price of just over $30,000, plan on spending in the neighborhood of $40,000 to pick one up when they go on sale in late summer 2014. 
