There are plenty of reasons to tune an Audi RS3, but ABT Sportsline has found a particularly good one. The five-cylinder engine isn’t going to be around forever.
For its 130th anniversary, ABT created the RS3 630, a limited-edition version of Audi’s compact performance car that pushes the familiar turbocharged five-cylinder engine to approximately 630 PS and 700 Nm.
Only 30 will be made.
Those numbers alone make the car interesting, considering how compact an RS3 still is, but ABT hasn’t achieved them with a simple software remap. The company uses its POWER R package with an upgraded turbocharger and intercooler, together with an unusual water-ethanol injection system called IWI.
The system injects a water-and-ethanol mixture ahead of the throttle valves. A dedicated controller adjusts the quantity according to engine speed and load, reducing intake temperatures and helping the engine maintain high output when it’s being worked hard for extended periods.
In other words, this isn’t just about producing an impressive dyno number once.
ABT specifically developed the system to help prevent the engine electronics from reducing performance as temperatures rise. Full output can be activated through the myABT app, which is also integrated into Apple CarPlay.
Top speed rises to 300 km/h. What makes the RS3 630 more interesting than another modified Audi, however, is the reason ABT says it built the car.
Hans-Jürgen Abt describes Audi’s five-cylinder as an exceptional engine with a distinctive character and notes that its production will eventually end. The RS3 630 is therefore intended partly as a tribute, giving the engine one final opportunity to demonstrate what it can do.
That makes the decision to limit production to 30 examples easier to understand.
ABT has also done considerably more than modify the engine. A gloss-black carbon aerodynamic package adds a new front spoiler and rear skirt insert, while four 95-mm matte-black exhaust outlets give the back of the car a much more serious appearance.
Underneath, there’s adjustable coil-over suspension with separate compression and rebound settings, accompanied by upgraded stabilizer bars front and rear.
The wheels may be the easiest detail to spot. ABT uses 20-inch HR20 forged wheels finished in satin gold, continuing the visual theme of its 130th-anniversary models.
Inside, each car receives special trim, branded door sills and an individual “1 of 30” plaque on the dashboard.
None of this comes cheaply. ABT lists the RS3 630 package at €58,000 including German VAT, with installation adding another €9,500 plus TÜV inspection. That’s before accounting for the Audi RS3 underneath it.
From a purely rational perspective, spending that much money modifying a compact Audi is difficult to defend.
But this car isn’t really about rationality.
Audi’s five-cylinder has survived while much of the performance-car world moved toward smaller engines, hybrid assistance and electrification. If its days genuinely are numbered, ABT has decided it shouldn’t disappear quietly.
Six hundred and thirty horsepower seems appropriately noisy.
