Audi A3 news - Join our Club’ - 2008

You can A3 to 62mph in 6.6 seconds - proper petrol hot hatch territory - and on to a top speed of 149mph.

You'll have spotted the DTM-style rear wing and bolt-on wheel arches but we're more excited by the snappily named 'Drive Select Driving Dynamics System', which allows the driver to vary the throttle response, exhaust sound, ESP settings and dampers on the fly.

There are also a few neat touches in the cabin in the shape of fat bucket seats, open gearshift gate and the obligatory swathes of aluminium.

Don't expect to see the A3 Clubsport in production - Audi is referring to it as 'a one-off show car' - but it could point towards a hotter diesel A3 on the way. Or even a hotter TT dieselusually rely on Audi to dish up something special at the Worthersee meet in Austria.

Last year, the boys from Ingolstadt gave us the ice-cool chopped TT Clubsport, and now they've revealed this: the A3 TDI Clubsport Quattro, a hotted-up version of the Golf-battling hatchback designed to show off the potency of Audi's diesel tech.

The A3 Clubsport features Audi's two-litre common-rail fuel injected diesel unit tuned up to an impressive 224bhp and 332lb ft of torque. Channelled to all four wheels through a six-speed manual box, it'll haul the lightened. Yes please.