RS3 Sportback

Some Sardinian roads reward agility over outright power: the hairpins climbing to San Pantaleo between the granite spires of Gallura, the coast road that stitches San Teodoro to Budoni, the rises and dips of the Orientale Sarda above Cala Gonone. A supercar nearly two metres wide demands caution here; the RS3 Sportback, by contrast, slips through everywhere, uses every metre of asphalt and turns the run to the beach into a drive worth remembering. We have gathered ten of these routes in our selection of the island's most beautiful driving roads.

Then there is the holiday itself: the tight parking bays of Palau and Santa Teresa Gallura, narrow village lanes, the shuffle of manoeuvres above a crowded cove. With five doors, five seats and the footprint of a compact, the RS3 is the sports car that imposes no logistical compromise. Among the sports cars available to rent in Sardinia, it is the choice for those who want to drive every single day — not merely be looked at.

The 2.5 TFSI is the last turbocharged five-cylinder left in production, and its voice resembles nothing else on the road: the 1-2-4-5-3 firing order creates that uneven, almost syncopated beat that builds with the revs and fills the coastal tunnels with metallic harmonics. There are 400 hp on call, managed by a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox that, in the more aggressive drive modes, snaps through its shifts with a sharp crack from the exhaust.

The 3.8-second 0–100 km/h figure is what you read on the spec sheet; what you feel is quattro all-wheel drive pulling out of hairpins as if on rails, steering that loads up progressively as the corner tightens, and a chassis that is firm yet never punishing over the undulating surfaces of Sardinia's provincial roads. It is a car that hands you confidence within the first kilometre and saves its aggression for the moments you ask for it.

Since the current generation, the RS3 has carried the RS Torque Splitter, an active rear axle that apportions torque between the two rear wheels: through fast corners it drives the outside wheel harder, rotating the car into the line and erasing the understeer you would expect from an all-wheel-drive machine. On Sardinia's tight, twisting back roads it amounts to a physics lesson in the service of pure enjoyment — the car tucks itself towards the apex, and your grin widens to match.

That balance of engineering and character captures the four-rings philosophy perfectly. To explore the rest of the range, from the estate to the grand tourer, see our page dedicated to Audi rental in Sardinia: it belongs to a fleet spanning more than 100 models and over 150 versions in total.