Audi RS 3 Vorsprung

The RS 3 is the last of a dying breed — a turbocharged five-cylinder engine, an engine layout almost nobody else builds any more, with an offbeat warble under load that no four or six can imitate. Audi have kept it because nothing else sounds like it.

Vorsprung is the top specification, so it arrives with everything already on it: matrix LED headlights, the Bang & Olufsen sound system, the RS sport exhaust, panoramic roof and the full black styling package inside and out.

Ours is finished in black over black RS honeycomb-quilted sports seats, with gloss-black alloys and red brake calipers. The torque-splitter rear axle sends drive to whichever back wheel needs it, so it puts its power down in the wet as confidently as it does in the dry.

It is valeted, safety-checked and fuelled before every handover, and photographed at collection and return so there is never any dispute about condition.