Audi RS3 news - Bring the RS3 - 2009

Here’s a happy rumour heading out of Audi HQ for you: those wild-haired boffins from Ingolstadt are considering dropping the new 340bhp engine from the TT RS into the A3 hatchback to create… the RS3. Oh yes.

(We've hastily bodged together a photo to illustrate, as you can see...)

Speaking with a Dutch website, Audi development boss Michael Dick said this week that they were ‘seriously considering’ fitting the 2.5-litre turbo petrol engine under the bonnet of the A3.

Just consider that for a second. A four-wheel drive mega hot hatch – putting out 40bhp more than the Ford Focus RS – to take the fight to the Imprezas and Evos with a sub-five second 0-60mph time and buckets of understated Q-car cool. Oh yes again.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that Audi could detune the engine a little to keep the RS3 out the way of the TT RS. Or not build it at all (financial downturn blah blah ad infinitum). But they don’t want to do that, do they?

For now, let’s just bask in the happy thought of an RS3. Want one? Or will you take a Focus RS instead?