Drag races never get old, especially if they try to answer questions such as “what’s the fastest £50,000 premium compact car”, the BMW M2 Coupe or the Audi RS3 Sedan?
They may be similar in size, but the two couldn’t be more different beneath the skin. The Bavarian coupe is rear-wheel drive, whereas the the RS3 is a saloon with Ingolstadt’s Quattro all-wheel drive system.
On paper, the latter should be faster from a standing start, but give it enough room, and the BMW M2 will likely catch it. Things could be quite the opposite from a rolling start, as the M2’s wheelspin, due to the lack of AWD, won’t have any effect on the outcome.
There’s also a big difference in the engine compartment between the two. The Audi RS3 has a 400hp 2.5-liter five-cylinder, while the BMW M2 uses a 365hp 3.0-liter inline-six, both of them turbocharged. On paper, the Audi takes as little as 4.1sec to reach 62mph (100km/h) from a standstill, and the Bimmer is 0.2sec slower, so this makes things even more interesting.
Thus, it appears that the Audi has a slight advantage, at least in theory. When lined up against the M2 in a couple of drag races? Autocar answered this question revealing the big winner, so let’s see who that is in the video that follows.