Audi loses rally credit, defeated by cheap Toyota – Jalopnik

Audi has built its reputation in rallying, and after decades of shouting about its Quattro all-wheel drive, this should be the best in the business, right? However, Team O’Neil Rally School instructor Wyatt Knox took an Audi RS3 to the test track and found it quite clear that Audi had been out of World Rally competition since 1986. On the same course with Knox at the wheel, a Toyota GR Corolla completed a timed lap more than nine seconds faster than the $16,000 more expensive Audi, and it did so with two fewer cylinders and 101 fewer horsepower under the hood.

While the RS is a pretty serious contender for the most impressive compact sports sedan (perhaps because it’s one of the few compact sports sedans left on the market), it’s out of its element when the ground gets loose. “Is the chassis designed for performance driving?” asks Knox from behind the wheel of the RS3. “No, not at all,” he concludes.

To get the RS3 to perform optimally in snow and ice conditions on a slippery day, Knox and his team pulled the fuses for the car’s anti-lock braking system and stability control. Unfortunately, after some testing on the icy skidpad during drifts, the car’s electronically controlled all-wheel drive and suspension systems failed completely, putting the car in fully rigid front-wheel drive mode. For the timed run, Knox had to reinstall the fuses and deal with the driver assistance electronics that kept him in check when he didn’t want the so-called assistance.

There are about a thousand variables that could have made the Audi perform more impressively, not the least of which is reprogramming the car to disable ABS and stability control, not the least of which is fitting a better set of winter tires, perhaps with some carbide studs added to the mix. There’s a lot of potential, but from the factory there’s just too much electronics trying to control everything to make it seriously fast.

As it stands now, the Audi RS3 managed to set the same time on the course as a Mini Cooper Paceman All4 with 181 hp in the very first episode of the Will It Rally? YouTube series. That is not optimal.

Toyota Gazoo Racing is, at the time of writing, 1-2-3 in the World Rally Championship standings for 2026. Perhaps Audi can learn a thing or two about all-wheel drive by diving back into the WRC rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a similarly executed Formula 1 effort. Audi, you have a war to win, and these are compact rally hatches with all-wheel drive. What happened?