Audi says goodbye to a rare sound: the RS3 gets an anniversary edition for 750 buyers

Audi marks 50 years of its inline-five with a 750-unit RS3 Competition Limited. 400 hp, 290 km/h and a sound the brand may not build again.

Audi has built the RS3 Competition Limited to mark 50 years of its inline five-cylinder engine. This is not just another trim package with stickers: the car arrives at a moment when engines like this have less and less room left between emissions rules and electrification.

Production is capped at 750 units worldwide. Japan will receive only 100 of them: 70 Sportback hatchbacks and 30 sedans. Prices are 13.99 million yen for the Sportback and 14.18 million yen for the sedan — roughly 87,500 dollars for the five-door and around 88,700 dollars for the sedan.

Under the bonnet sits a 2.5-litre turbocharged inline-five. It delivers 400 hp and 500 Nm of torque, fires the RS3 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds and pushes on to 290 km/h. But the real value here is not in the numbers. This engine has its own voice and character: a 1-2-4-5-3 firing order gives it the uneven, dense timbre that fans of the rally era recognise instantly as an Audi.

The Competition Limited gets a three-way adjustable coilover suspension, a stiffer rear anti-roll bar, ceramic brakes and a bespoke calibration of the quattro all-wheel drive. Audi has even stripped out some of the firewall insulation so the driver can hear the engine more clearly. In a world where fast cars are getting quieter and heavier, this looks almost like stubbornness.

The visual treatment is tied to history too. The Malachite Green paint nods to the 1984 Audi Sport quattro, while matte Neodymium Gold accents and bucket seats add the right dose of collectibility. This is not a car people buy for the 0–100 sprint alone: similar numbers are now within reach of plenty of EVs. Here you pay for a rare engine, a limited run and the feeling of a mechanical era on its way out.

Rare hot Audis have always held attention on the used market, and this edition fits that pattern neatly. The faster the market shifts toward hybrids and EVs, the more visible petrol exceptions like this one become.

The RS3 Competition Limited reads less like an alternative to a regular RS3 and more like an antidote to the regret of realising, a few years from now, that a brand-new engine like this might no longer exist.