New Audi RS Q3 is the best fast family car – it’s half racer, half SUV

DO you like your family SUV to give the kids whiplash every time you take off from the traffic lights?

Do you want it to reduce the family terrier to a vibrating puddle of whimpers and whines, as if it’s just run into a mountain lion on bonfire night? Course you do.

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Well, Audi’s got you covered sunshine, with the RS Q3.

In an age of downsizing this, hybrid that, Audi is brazenly pushing forward with the expansion of its fast-as-flip RS range.

That’s not to say Audi isn’t being a good global citizen at the same time.

It has promised 30 electrified cars by 2025, with 20 of them being pure electric. So it’s a case of give and take, yeah Greenpeace?

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But for now, let’s celebrate the fact someone is prepared to make a car like the RS Q3 at all: A five-seat SUV that’s Jaguar F-Type fast, and still has room for 530 litres of junk in the trunk. It can box off the 0-62mph sprint in just 4.5 seconds and get you from A to B, ASAMFP.

Of course, it begs the question “does anyone really need a school run machine that quick?”

No. But it’s not the first Jekyll and Hyde family car we’ve seen, and it won’t be the last. And Audi knows exactly what tickles the happy place of the driving public.

So what’s different from the standard Q3? It sits 10mm lower, for a start, affording it a more aggressive, track-hungry look.

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That same look is complemented by lashings of chrome and carbon fibre in all the right places. But for true sports-SUV enthusiasts, it has to be opted-for in the Sportback bodystyle.

The raking roofline which smooths downwards from the B-pillar might shave some headroom from the rear seats, but it looks a million dollars, and much more in line with what’s happening beneath the sculpted bonnet.

If you’re going to buy a pointlessly fast SUV, do it in style, right?

Now let’s talk about that five-cylinder engine, the crowning glory of this car. Yes, we’ve seen it before but it still merits some drooling words of adoration here.

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Turbo lag seems almost non-existent, with 480Nm of torque on tap.

Even on a drag test using launch control (of course it has launch control) the power is linear and relentlessly urgent, and you’ll run out of road a lot quicker than seven cogs.

A rasping bark with each gear shift is the icing on the strudel.

Driving it with the top-end RS Sports suspension is a brittle experience, even in Comfort Mode.

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The ride feels reluctant to be anything other than race-ready at any time.

And when you’re not goading Porsche 911s into a fist fight, there would be an inescapable feeling that you’ve just paid £52k for a not-very-big SUV.

But for a fast family car? This is probably best in class.