The new Audi S3 will set you back just under £47k

Audi has announced its S3 Sportback and Saloon models will soon be available for tailgating duties, priced from £46,925, which is similar to its rival, the Mercedes-AMG A35.

It’s Audi’s most powerful S3 to date and carries over the familiar 2.0-litre TFSI four-pot with 328bhp and 310lb ft of torque. That’s sent to the road through something called 'quattro' - apparently an all-wheel-drive system - and a seven-speed DSG thingamabob. Oh, it’s also got a ‘Dynamic +’ mode to slightly sharpen the throttle response, quicken the gearshifts and - thanks to the 'torque splitter' deployed in big brother RS3 - make it a little bit sideways.

Opt for the more exclusive ‘Vorsprung’ edition and you can even add adaptive dampers into your toybox of mechanical goodies.

Visually, you get a slightly more aggressive set of skirts and bumpers compared to the outgoing model, with plenty of dark accenting and styling quirks pulled off its bigger RS3-shaped sibling.

The S3's finished off with, naturally, a set of quad-exhaust pipes and pugnacious 18/19in alloys, while the whole body is hunkered 15mm closer to the ground than its A3 counterpart.

If indeed you’d rather ditch the drama and opt for that car, Audi has also revealed that you can have a standard A3 for £32,035.