That’s that 2026 Audi RS3 Competition Limited and it serves not only as a full version of this generation of the RS3 itself, but also as a final, loving farewell to the German automaker’s long-standing five-cylinder engine.
Available in both versions Sportback Luke and limousine Body styles, just 750 examples of the RS3 Competition Limited will be made for all global markets – and Australia will get 18 of them, split between 10 Sportbacks and eight sedans.
There’s no information on pricing, but the Competition Limited certainly isn’t cheap in its home country of Germany; At just over €100,000, it’s around 43 per cent more expensive than the base price of a standard RS3 Sportback, which in Australia is $104,800 before on-road costs.
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However, many of the otherwise optional kits are included, and there are certain components unique to the Competition Limited that are not available on any other variant, no matter how much money you spend at your Audi dealer.
The most important of these is the advanced coilover suspension. These are twin-tube dampers that are made of stainless steel at the front and aluminum at the rear, with the elements on the nose of the vehicle also being equipped with external expansion tanks.
At the rear there are larger diameter shock absorber tubes with thicker piston rods, as well as a thicker and stiffer anti-roll bar.
Audi has already implemented this trick with impressive effect on RS model variants at the end of the generation – both the RS4 Avant of the B9 series, which received coilovers in the late Competition version, and the magnificent RS6 GT Avant of the C8 series used the same suspension setup.
For the RS3, Audi will sell the Competition Limited with a road-ready setup, as well as recommended “track” tuning and a complete tool kit – with instructions – for adjusting the various coilover settings and also raising or lowering the car’s ride height.
For reference, the RS3 Competition Limited has 12 low-speed compression settings, 15 high-speed compression settings, and 16 rebound settings to play with, all adjusted on the suspension towers themselves (or their upper mounts), with simple “+/-” markings for each.
This means that adjusting the Competition Limited’s ride and handling requires some mechanical work, rather than simply pushing a button in the cabin.
But Audi says owners simply need to lift the car into the air on a ramp, as no wheel arch liners or other trim pieces need to be removed to fiddle with the compression or rebound settings.
You’ll need to remove the wheels if you want to raise or lower the ride height, and the Competition Limited can be brought 10mm closer to the tarmac than any other RS3 at the owner’s request.
What else is special about the Audi RS3 Competition Limited?
The other unique detail of the Competition Limited Special is the matte carbon fiber on the exterior.
You’ll spot it in several places, such as the door sills, mirror caps and above the rear diffuser, but it’s also applied to several features specific to the limited edition RS3 – notably the Sportback’s roof spoiler (there’s a lip on the sedan’s rear boot lid), the center-split front splitter and the new canards at either corner of the Audi’s nose.
Apart from that and a subtle “RS3 Competition Limited” sticker in the rear side windows of the rear doors, it is the body colors and the wheels that distinguish the most unusual variant of Audi’s five-cylinder wonder.
In the former case, only three colors are available, two of which – Daytona Gray metallic and Glacier White matt – are offered for other RS3s.
However, the unique special paint finish of this model is malachite green. It’s the first time this glossy hue has been seen on an Audi since the road-going version of the outstanding short-wheelbase Sport Quattro of the 1980s.
Complementing this finish is the neodymium gold alloy (remember that color – we’ll come back to it for the interior) measuring 19 inches in diameter. These are either equipped with Pirelli P Zero tires as standard or optionally with Trofeo R semi-slick rubber from the same manufacturer.
If you look through the 10 spokes of these rims, you can see both the red calipers of the carbon stoppers and the red and silver details of the coilover suspension.
One final note on the exterior concerns the graphics for locking and unlocking the front LED running lights. When activated, a display appears that mimics the firing order of the engine’s 1-2-4-5-3 cylinders – a light show designed specifically for the RS3 Competition Limited.
In the Audi RS3 Competition Limited
Neodymium Gold is the signature color of choice in the RS3 Competition Limited, but is also accompanied by Ginger White.
The gold is used for the seat centers and some of the door panels, while the off-white contrasts with that for the stitching and seat belts.
In the digital instrument cluster, however, the background color of the dials of the RS3 Competition Limited is pure white. This is a nod to the 1994 RS2 Avant, which was the first car to use an RS variant of the five-cylinder engine and, yes, featured a white-backed instrument package.
There are also various ‘RS3 Competition Limited’ decals and graphics, including for the puddle lighting on the exterior mirrors, while the real highlight is the front seats – they are exquisite RS sports shells with a matt carbon back that not only look great, but also offer excellent seating comfort.
Each of the 750 RS3 Competition Limited vehicles sold worldwide will have a sequential number displayed on a special graphic at the bottom of the center console.
The cars that we were allowed to view in person in a studio near Munich all had the number “000/750” because they were pre-production prototypes.
Right-hand drive RS3s, by the way, are intended for a quartet of markets, the other three being our own allocation of 18 out of 10 for New Zealand, 11 for the UK and then 100 for Japan, which will be the largest territory for Competition Limited after Audi’s home country of Germany.
Under the hood of the Audi RS3 Competition Limited
Interestingly, when it comes to exactly what the 2026 RS3 Competition Limited celebrates – its turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine – buyers get no more power than the standard car.
However, when you have 294kW of power and 500Nm of torque, resulting in 0-100km/h acceleration in 3.8 seconds, no additional power is required. One thing the RS3 Competition Limited gets is an increase in the speed limiter to 290 km/h.
Another interesting point: Audi has removed the sound insulation in the firewall of the RS3, so that the standard sports exhaust is no louder on the outside and therefore meets all of the world’s noise protection regulations, but more of the five-cylinder flavor can be felt in the interior.
But the most important thing here is the coilover suspension, which is intended to make optimal use of the RS3’s latent road-holding capabilities and provide a fitting swansong for the five-cylinder engine.
Because unfortunately this is definitely a farewell to Audi. Strict European emissions laws, due to come into force in 2027, mean the company will no longer use the 2.5-liter engine in the future.
Aside from its use in the Cupra Formentor VZ5 and possibly even a mooted departure model of the Volkswagen Golf R, the 2026 RS3 Competition Limited will be the last car ever to feature the legendary five-cylinder engine – and it will almost certainly be the final appearance of the RS3 itself, at least as we know it.
MORE: Explore the Audi RS3 showroom
