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Audi is priming a track-focused special edition of the RS3 as it celebrates the hot hatch’s signature five-cylinder engine, with the unit under threat from forthcoming EU emissions regulations.

The new variant has been spotted testing on the Nürburgring Nordschleife for the first time ahead of its launch, expected to take place early next year.

It sports several racing-inspired modifications, including a more aggressive front splitter, new canards and a chunkier rear spoiler, intended to maximise its pace on circuit. 

The RS3 prototype also wears a new set of brake calipers, painted blue rather than the standard black, hinting at extra stopping power and the potential of a special colour scheme or livery.

The new car is also likely to bring a significant uplift in power and torque from the 401bhp and 369lb ft of the previous RS3 Performance Edition, the punchiest version of the hot hatch yet offered. 

Sebastian Grams, former managing director of Audi Sport, told Autocar in 2023 that “there's still a way to go” with the five-cylinder engine compared with the RS3 Performance Edition.

Dutch sports car maker Donkervoort previously boosted the 2.5-litre turbocharged unit to 493bhp for its F22 open-wheeler.

It remains to be seen whether Audi will push it that far, but a tangible improvement in output could make the RS3 the most powerful petrol hot hatch on sale, outdoing the 416bhp Mercedes-AMG A45 S.

It's likely that the new RS3 variant will represent one last hurrah for the car and its engine, in similar fashion to 2022’s Audi TT RS Iconic Edition.

The five-cylinder unit has been the RS3’s unique selling point since its arrival in 2011, but Audi previously said the powerplant's production would end when the current iteration of the hot hatch comes off sale.

It is possible that it could be reworked to meet the rules, be it through redevelopment or by way of electrification, however.

In the months after the Dyson car project wound down in 2019, Autocar was invited in for a full debrief and to see the prototype that had already cost £2.5 billion to develop.

Even though the car was ready to go, Dyson baulked at the further cost needed to take it into production and laid bare just how hard it is for a start-up, however well funded, to industrialise a new car and see money roll back in. No wonder Tesla gets so much credit.

Apple kept its own car programme – Project Titan – in development for five years after the Dyson car was axed, but it too was killed off as bosses failed to see how it could ever see a return on its investment. Low-margin, high-cost, hugely regulated cars are not phones or laptops.

Secrecy has always surrounded the Apple project and it was never spoken about publicly. News of automotive names involved in the project were typically limited to LinkedIn profile updates showing Apple as their employer.

Among them was Manfred Harrer, now head of vehicle development at the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG). His CV shows he was senior director of product design engineering while at Apple, but with the NDA still surely fresh in his mind, Harrer isn’t keen to break the wall of silence around it.

Still, here’s a senior exec sitting in front of me who has worked at Apple, a firm lauded for its ability to blend hardware and software. With the car project off the table (I tried!), I ask: more generally, what can the car industry learn from Apple?

“It’s customer first. It’s so customer-centric,” recalls Harrer. “And the attention to detail is extreme.” Such an approach “is kind of inspiring”, and while it’s one that HMG follows, Apple takes it further, which shows “you can do even more”.

That’s just what Harrer is doing. He says: “If there’s something you think is a given, challenge it. You can question it. You can think it through. It’s my personal learning that we can do more on this.”

He admits the amount of extra regulation for cars, compared with consumer electronics products, can make it harder for an automotive engineer to adopt such an approach but, even so, “how the customer looks, thinks and experiences the product” is where car makers really need to focus and can “squeeze out more”.

The ubiquity of smartphones in daily life is impossible for automotive engineers to ignore when developing cars, particularly interiors and usability. Harrer says “it’s not only the size of a screen any more but the responsiveness of the apps”, the data and services behind them, and the ability for updates and bugs to be fixed.

“Our children are growing up with this… It doesn’t matter if it’s Samsung or Apple: to bring this experience to the car is the expectation.”

While the world isn’t getting an Apple car, its impact on automotive development is being felt.

My first car was an elderly Rover Mini. But with an offer too good to refuse and a few years' driving now under my belt, its successor has proven... quite different.

In my mind, and my mind only, an Alpina D3 Touring is a very sensible replacement: it is diesel, and therefore economical (I’m seeing 50mpg); it is practical (the dogs are enjoying slobbering on the Oxydbraun leather rear headrests); and it is (hopefully) depreciation-proof.

In other people’s minds – ie my father’s – it is not so sensible.

After all, it’s a 17-year-old BMW – don’t call it that in front of me – with 168,000 miles (quickly rising) and the dreaded ‘5+’ owners.

Plus, I’ve got the comfort of knowing that it has some rare and expensively unique parts on it that will surely be rather less than easy to source, should they need replacing.

A rational purchase? Maybe not, but then the alternatives on my shopping list were hardly Priuses. (Reader, they were all Alfa Romeos.)

I've ended up with a seriously cool manual Alpina wagon, from arguably the peak era of BMW, for not too much cash (£7500, if you must know) – and I couldn’t be happier.

Sure enough, I’ve got some big things planned for this car, and it’s inevitably got some big bills planned for me.

19 February 2025: Alpina goes Alpine

There’s nothing faster than a diesel for travelling long distances, and the D3 proved that last week.

Over an almost 1500-mile round trip to La Toussuire in the French Alps, it averaged 44mpg (with an average speed nudging 80mph). That meant that we only had to fill up twice, and we still got home with leftovers in the tank.

If you’re the kind to do long journeys in one hit, there’s no substitute for it, and it makes me wonder how much longer it would take in an electric car.

It’s obviously feasible: on the French autoroutes, you will see plenty of British Teslas off on their ski trips, but how much longer did it take them than it took me? And before they had their electric car, did they do the journey in one hit, or have they always ambled down?

Beyond the economy and prodigious high-speed cruising ability, the D3 impressed the other three passengers with its low road noise and crisp sound system. It’s hard to think of a car I’d rather do the trip in.

We were lucky, though, to encounter little snow on the roads, even high in the mountains, because that might have uncovered the weakness of rear-wheel drive and 265-section tyres. I doubt even snow socks would have been able to help us out.

14 May 2025: Forget it being a diesel, this is still a thoroughbred

Is my E90-generation D3 a proper Alpina

They’re a bit like Porsche’s 996-generation 911s, in that there’s little love lost over them and they’re seen as being a bit uncool.

After all, in 1995 Alpina had stuck a 4.6-litre 333bhp V8 in an E36 3 Series, yet by 2007 they thought a 2.0-litre diesel was appropriate.

I admit that sounds like something of a letdown, and quite frankly it’s difficult to get excited by the engine, which in this case wasn’t as key to the package as an engine should be in an Alpina.

There is a reason for that, however. In the early 2000s, Alpina found itself in financial trouble, and it needed an affordable ‘volume’ seller to raise some revenue and help balance the books. Step in the D3.

It had a Garrett turbo, the injectors and intercooler from a 535d and a special suspension set-up to give that famous Alpina ride.

With 197bhp and more than 300lb ft it was enough to get from 0-62mph in 7.4sec, which wasn’t too bad almost 20 years ago.

In the end, Alpina produced just over 2000 D3s across eight years. That’s nothing for most manufacturers, but it was enough to keep the lights on in this case.

Carina Bovensiepen, the granddaughter of Alpina founder Burkard, agrees with me: “I’m also the proud owner of an E91 D3 with a manual gearbox – the last one for Alpina. Part of Alpina’s philosophy is long-distance touring, and fuel consumption is a large part of that, so it’s a complete lie that it is not a real Alpina. Plus, you can have a lot of fun with the car, and not just in the snow!”

6 August 2025: Big bills arrive – but I love it all the same

Just as I was beginning to settle into life with the ’Pina, I’ve had to spend a load more dosh on it. I say ‘had to’, but I didn’t really: I just wanted to get the car the kit it deserves.

It’s had new dampers, springs, brake pads and discs (and two rear calipers) – all to the tune of around £3000.

Strictly speaking, every part on each corner didn’t need replacing, but there were multiple tired bits on each axle, and I’ve always been under the impression that it’s best to replace in sets. Plus, it should keep me satisfied for the next umpteen years.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a mix-up with incorrect springs (any Alpina owner can probably tell you of similar mix-ups), but since then it has proved its worth.

In fact, it excelled on a recent road trip to Wales with a few Autocar colleagues when, against some of the best hot hatches ever made, it defied its supposed age and size disadvantage.

It had all of the bite (if not quite the agility) of the Ford Fiesta ST and greater touring credentials than the Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7.

It even proved more efficient while being hooned than a brand-new Skoda Fabia (admittedly not an all-time great hot hatch).

Is it perfect? No. It’s costing me a bit more to run so far than I had hoped, but it would be damn difficult to find a better all-rounder. In fact, I don’t think there is one.