Audi won’t build a faster RS3 Plus

Though Audi has form in offering yet-faster versions of its fastest cars - think R8 V10 Plus and the now-discontinued TT RS Plus - company sources have confirmed to TG there will be no ‘Plus' version of the new 362bhp RS3. Sorry, power freaks.

Granted, TG didn't exit the 4WD hot hatch yearning for even more power from its 2.5-litre turbo five-pot, but nevertheless, Stefan Reil - Manager of Technical Development at Quattro GmbH and daddy of all the fastest Audis from the RS3 to the R8 - has poured water on the idea for good measure.

Reil's emphatically German excuse for ruling out an RS3 Plus? "We are at the limit of the size of the turbocharger. We have durability limits and our warranties to consider, which we learn from summer and winter testing."

Essentially, though Audi admits the five-cylinder engine could develop more poke, the stresses this would place on its internal oily bits could see it go pop during the warranty period.

But surely, TG asks, you've noticed that aftermarket tuning outfits have easily extracted 400, 500, even 600bhp from the old RS3?

"Yes, but the tuning companies do not have to comply with our durability and service limits," replies Reil.

Interestingly, Audi itself squeezed 520bhp from the RS3's engine only last year, in the form of the A3 Clubsport concept car. Stefan is quick to point out that "the turbo in that car was one-and-a-half times bigger than the one in the new RS3."

Top Gear drives the 520bhp Audi A3

His hands curve around an imaginary basketball as he's talking, illustrating the size of the blower. Yikes. "It was just a concept car, a one-off," says Reil.

Audi's superhatch is sitting pretty atop the hot hatch power wars table currently, but word is Mercedes will retaliate in late 2015 with a facelifted A45 AMG, tuned to produce around 375bhp, some 20bhp up on the Audi.

Would an arch-rival stealing bragging rights from under Audi's nose cause an RS3 power rethink?

"We could put in a bigger turbo [to match the A45 AMG]," Stefan speculates, "but that would require a lot of engineering."

Sounds unlikely, then. But Audi isn't exactly short of a few Euros, so stranger things have happened. In the meantime, over to you, tuning houses of the world. Just how much grunt dare you wrench out of the new RS3?