Why the Ford Escort RS Cosworth and not the new Audi S3 ?

To begin with it has got 210 hp compared to the Cosworth's 227 hp, only 270 Nm compared to 299 Nm in the Escort.

Then it weights 1375 kg (3028,6 lbs) compared to 1261 kg (2777,5 lbs) for the Escort RS Cosworth. 114 kg doesn't sound like much, but will mean a lot when doing 0-100 km/t (0-60 mph), actually it will mean seven tenths of a second.

Then a smaller engine: 1781 cc vs. 1993 cc for the Escort, which will make it harder to get the really high outputs.

Then what I consider the main reason against the S3: The chassis and the transmission. It has nothing to do with the quality of the Audi, the quality is at least as good as that of Ford (Probably a bit better I will admit). What I think is not that good is that the car basically is front wheel drive. It has front wheel drive with electronic antispin until the front wheels can't take more torque without slipping, then Haldex coupling center diff (basically a clutch)transfers some of the torque to the rear wheels. This makes for strange and unpredictable handling when driven on the limit: Suddenly you've got four-wheel-drive, in the middle of a corner. Let go of the throttle and you have fwd again. The Escort RS Cosworth is a lot more predictable as it has a constant torque-split of 66% to the rear wheels and 34% to the front and limited slip diffs (viscous couplers) front and center. You will have a constant amount of torque to both wheelpairs all the time, while the LSD's will allow some speed differences so that cornering will go smoothly. When f.ex. the front wheels spin the center LSD will detect the speeddifference and lock up so that the torque split doesn't change.

My other chassis thing against the Audi is gives very little feedback on what's happening. I have tested it for a limited amount of time and the thing I liked the least was that when applying throttle on the exit of a corner I could get the rear of the car at least half a meter out without ever noticing it. But then when I noticed it wasn't easy to take it back in, since I didn't notice before things got a bit out of hand. On the Escort Cosworth on the other hand you can feel almost everything. No problem powersliding the car through a turn while maintaining full control. Here I must add that I have only tried the Audi on snow but I suppose that it will be the same on concrete too, when on the limit.

The Audi also has a few things going for it, but not the sort of things I'm looking for in a car: Very nice silent driving, good torque from low revs and higher topspeed (in which countries is that of any importance besides Germany ?). Then it is new so you won't have to take it apart every weekend to keep it going (That is a thing I can like))

To sum it up: The Audi is a car more for the person who likes to cruise the big motorways in high speeds, and doesn't do trackdriving or fast driving on gravel or any other driving that would challenge the cars limits. For everyday driving it is just as nice as the Escort (or maybe nicer; that depends). But for real driving it is no match for the RS Cosworth.

It would have been very nice to have a track test of the cars, head to head. So we could see how much better the Escort is.

If you think the S3 is the better car, mail me and tell me why. I'll put it here.

Back to Sigmund's Ford Escort RS Cosworth page.