What's the news?
Late last year, we drove the new Audi A3 Cabriolet and the S3 Saloon on a joint launch in Monaco (we know, lucky sods and all that). Well, Audi has delivered on its thinly-veiled promise made at the time of marrying the two together - giving us the first S3 Cabriolet and the fourth body in the current line-up to wear the quattro GmbH performance badge.
Exterior
Umm... well, imagine what the offspring of an A3 Cabrio and S3 Saloon would be like, and you're pretty much there. All the excellent, movie star looks of the soft-top are present with some added S muscle lower down, such as in the wider wheelarches, bigger air intakes and quad exhausts at the rear. Given that both its progenitors are bloody good-looking, the S3 Cabrio is a seductive creation. You can have your hood in one of three colours and there are 12 body hues for the S3 Cabrio - with two of them apparently exclusive to the open-top: Panther Black crystal effect or Sepang Blue pearl effect.
Interior
The boot holds 285 litres with the roof up, dropping by 40 litres to accommodate all the frame and fabric with it down. As for the seating area, it'll be suitably jazzed up by S additions, such as the seats, steering wheel, gear lever, inlays and sill plates, while the head-level heating for front seat occupants will be transferred over from the A3 Cabriolet. Optional extras include Audi's MMI with navigation and a Bang & Olufsen 13-speaker sound system.
Mechanicals
It's the same 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder TFSI engine as found in the other three S3s, and it's also mated to the same quattro all-wheel drive system. The 300hp/380Nm S3 Cabriolet comes with the six-speed S tronic automatic transmission as standard and there's no mention of a proper manual option, but there is one interesting claim - Audi says the weight balance on the soft-top is 56:44 front-to-rear, presumably as a result of all the roof's electric motors being housed at the back. That's better than on the S3 Saloon, which is a nose-heavier 59:41 by comparison - but of course overall weight is considerably higher on the Cabrio, at a portly 1,620kg - versus 1,450kg for the S tronic Saloon.
That has an impact on emissions, as, at 165g/km, it's a bit behind its three-box sibling's 159g/km figure in the same S tronic spec, while economy also takes a hit by dropping to 39.8mpg combined from 40.9. And the 0-62mph time increases to 5.4 seconds (compared to 4.9), although top speed is the normal 155mph limited maximum.
The A3 Cabrio provides its fully-insulated, electric folding fabric roof, which can be dropped or raised on the move at speeds up to 31mph, plus its pop-up rear rollover protection system. The S3 version sits 25mm lower, thanks to its uprated suspension, than its non-S soft-top siblings.
Anything else?
Audi says not only is this the first S Cabriolet in the compact sector, it is also 'unrivalled' in its segment. And as we're also struggling to think of premium four-seat open top cars with 300hp and all-wheel drive, we're inclined to agree. No confirmation on prices as yet, though it's expected to come at a premium over the £34,720 Saloon.
We'll be driving the Audi S3 Cabriolet on ice in a few weeks' time so keep an eye on our Audi road tests page for the full report.
Matt Robinson - 24 Feb 2014
