First registered – 31/05/2017

The S3 line-up’s been invaded by soft-top and saloon versions for this generation but the five-door, stretched wheelbase Sportback equipped with £1,550 of S-tronic auto gearbox is how the most popular.

Engine wise, the Audi S3 Sportback is hard to fault – it has a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol that gets one of the best in that size. It packs 3010hp and, with the help of the quattro 4WD, accelerates from 0-62mph in less than five seconds.

This being one of the most expensive versions of the A3 Sportback means that it gets plenty of equipment that is optional on lesser models – 18-inch alloy wheels, heated leather-upholstered sport seats and a 5.8-inch screen for the infotainment that rises from the dashboard.

Obviously the interior is a cracker, the cost-extra Virtual Cockpit dials, you can have a boost gauge, oil temperature gauge, and coolant gauge. Gauges are cool. They remind you you’re driving a hot hatch, a machine powered by various fluids and bits of metal whacking into each other at speed, not a computer.

Oh, and it can cruise at an indicated 42mpg, averaging out at 32mpg if you’re using a bit more of the prodigious performance. Quite a package, the S3.