Think of an S3 with more power and less mass and you have the 24 Sport – a hot-hatch concept that could go into production. By BARRY PARK.

It’s low, lean, and purposefully mean. Meet the performance-focused Audi that you could soon buy in Australia – the A3 24 Sport.

Audi had rolled out the Sport for its lightweight technology day, giving motoring journalists from around the world a chance to jump behind the wheel of a stripped-out, lightweight car and judge for themselves how shedding all that weight can improve a vehicle’s dynamics.

Its name reflects the scope of the race car on which the 24 Sport is based — developed for the punishing Nurburgring 24-hour endurance-driving challenge.

Incidentally, we’re at the proving grounds about 150 kilometres outside Frankfurt, owned by components maker Bosch. The company lets car makers use the grounds for prototype testing.

Already we’ve had tantalising, close-up looks at the BMW X1, a heavily camouflaged Ferrari 599 with a huge, squared off power bulge in the middle of the bonnet, the next-generation diesel-engined Suzuki Swift, a nondescript-looking Porsche Panamera bulleting around the handling circuit, an Audi A8 lapping the speed bowl, and over at the skid pan a heavily modified X5 is letting out tortured tyre squeals as engineers thoroughly punish it.

At one stage a convoy of Citroen C4s stream in through the main gate, and we wonder why the lead car wears a veneer of gaffa tape in several places.

No cameras allowed, unfortunately.

Where were we? Oh yes, at the moment there are only two of these seriously modified Audi three-door hatchbacks in Germany that we’re trying to concentrate on despite the constant stream crudely fettled prototypes that surround us. They’ve been built as a concept rather than a full-blown production car, but the engineers swarming around it were all hinting at the possibility that the Sport will make it to showrooms.

The car we’re driving uses a standard S3 chassis, utilising the range-topping A3’s extensive use of lightweight aluminium components compared with the steel-heavy models further down the range.

Under the hood is a stock 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine borrowed from the S3, but featuring a few minor add-ons to the anti-pollution gear and air intakes. It puts out 230kW of power – 42kW more than the S3 you can buy today.

The engine is mated to an old-school six-speed automatic gearbox; the one where you push the shifter to the right to lock it into tiptronic mode. No flappy paddles on the steering wheel, unfortunately.

Externally, it sits low on 17-inch rims that for today’s demonstration feature almost-slick race treads. The guards aren’t even plumped, although a huge, speed bump-unfriendly splitter pokes out from under the front bumper, and wind tunnel-tested vents are cut into the carbon fibre-reinforced plastic bonnet and aluminium guards.

Inside the front wheels are a huge set of brake rotors borrowed from the R8 supercar. There ars screws set into the lip of the hatch below the rear window, evidence that at one stage someone has had a big spoiler fitted.

The first obstacles to getting inside the Sport are the doors. The external door handles don’t work, so you need to put an arm in through the permanently half=open window and use the inner door handle to unlatch it. They might want to fix that in the showroom car.

The second obstacle is a full race cage that reduces the amount of space for getting into the car to a letterbox-like slit.

Padding on the roll bars makes contact with the spaceframe a little more tolerable.

Once inside, there are deep Recaro seats and a five-point harness to manage. There are no back seats, partly because the over-shoulder seat-belt straps running to the rear of the Sport would be a tad bothersome for rear-pew passengers.

Rear-seat passengers would also probably baulk at the hoses of the air jacks that snake all across the floor and walls of the cabin.

The dash is very simple, with speedo, tacho and trip computer. However, there’s no radio, sat-nav or other obvious creature comforts, and the front passenger seat is so far back on its rails that it almost seems as though it really might be a back seat.

It drives brilliantly. Admittedly, the ride and handling loop on which we were taking it was billiard-table smooth and incredibly sticky, though it didn’t feel like a race car.

Ride was surprisingly smooth and compliant, without the bone-jarring harshness you’d expect of a race car’s set-up. That’s probably a function of the variable damper control knobs sitting on top of the transmission tunnel rotated to their softest setting.

Acceleration is accompanied by a loud pop from the exhaust as the automatic transmission raced up through the gears, and a snarl under deceleration as the engine automatically blipped the throttle to match the revs needed for the next gear down.

Outside the car, the Sport sounds a little like a race car. Inside the stripped-out cabin it roars with a spine-tingling ferocity as the sound bounces off the bare metal shell that features from the B pillar back.

The R8 brakes bleed off speed at a staggering rate, with excellent feel and not too much assist. Tip the car into a corner, and there’s no hesitation as the Sport willingly changes direction.

Getting out of the corner requires a gentle right foot, as this car has none of the electronic driver aids found in a normal car that would leap in and take control as soon as ambition outgrows ability. Jump on the throttle too early and the Sport will give a little buck as the unloaded inner wheel struggles to find grip.

It’s an intoxicating car, as yet only a concept and with the odds of it coming to Australia fairly well stacked against it.

And despite all its stripped-out insides and totally impractical features, it’s unlikely to be cheaper than the $66,403 Audi S3 that supplies some of the parts for the 24 Sport, despite the Sport losing pretty much all the expensive comforts that the S3 boasts, apart from a radio and air-conditioning.

Australians will have to wait until early next year to get their hands on the magnificent Audi A5 Sportback which is now on-sale in Europe.

The superbly styled Sportback joins the Coupe and Cabriolet to complete Audi’s A5 lineup. Local specifications have not been finalized but Audi Australia says both petrol and diesel versions are heading this way.

Gloriously proportioned, the A5 Sportback features four frameless doors, a long wheelbase and wide track. The long, tapered rear end is finished with flat C-pillars, a subtle rear hatch spoiler and sporty diffuser.

Alloy wheels ranging from 17-inch to 20-inch complete yet another outstanding styling job from Audi.

Inside is the usual array of Audi luxury features and a handy luggage capacity of 480 litres with the rear seats in place or 980 litres when folded.

Currently in Europe, Audi is offering six engines (three petrol and three TDI diesels) with three more powerplants to follow in 2010.

The petrol engines are two 2.0-litre versions (132kW or 155kW) and the 195kW 3.2-litre V6.

For the diesel versions, Audi is offering a 2.0-litre TDI (125kW) – complete with a start-stop system which switches the engine off when stationary in traffic  plus a 140kW 2.7-litre TDI and the 3.0-litre TDI which delivers 176kW and drives though Audi’s S-tronic seven-speed automatic transmission.

All engines have a recuperation system which recovers energy during braking and deceleration, storing it in the battery.

The three petrol engines and the two top TDIs feature the Quattro all-wheel-drive system and there is an optional sport differential which delivers enhanced driving dynamics. Other driving aids available include an electronic differential lock for front-wheel-drive models, adaptive shock absorber control and dynamic steering with variable boost for the power-assistance.

Joshua Dowling

It looks like something out of a science fiction movie… Or the kind of bling West Coast Customs might add to an Audi R8. But it’s actually a concept version of Audi’s supercar that doesn’t have a V8 or a V10 in sight.

In fact, it doesn’t need petrol at all. Instead it’s powered by four electric motors’ one for each wheel.

The e-tron, as Audi has dubbed it, has a combined output of 230kW and 4500Nm that last figure is not a misprint, the torque of electric motors is huge. Not surprisingly it can accelerate from rest to 100km/h in 4.8 seconds on the way to a limited top speed of 200km/h and has a driving range of 248km.

Recharge time is between six and eight hours, or less than two hours on a fast charger. Check out the inside info on the car’s internal technology — the way it generates its power is astonishing.

And e-tron has a few other electriconic tricks up its sleeve, including an experimental version of Audi’s car-to-car or car-to-infrastructure technology. For example, if a car equipped with the technology has crashed on the road ahead, it can send a signal to the e-tron to slow down in time to avoid another crash.

The e-tron looks at a glance like an Audi R8 with some chrome, but in fact there are significant changes. The body has been modified to accommodate the removal of the side air vents. And the headlights are an experimental free flow design that follows the contour of the body, possible now thanks to new LED technology. It means that designers can use smaller headlight area to create the same level of illumination as more conventional lamps.

The thin-spoke alloy wheels look elegant but also serve two purposes: they are designed to be more aero efficient, and help cool the brakes.

As with most electric cars, the e-tron uses regenerative braking to recharge the onboard battery pack.

Audi says there are no plans to bring the e-tron into production but clearly the technology could be quickly adapted should the company find enough motivation and enough customers.

Look out for carsales Network’s technical reveal of the e-tron later today and don’t miss the Carsales Network’s Frankfurt show preview and brand-by-brand summaries. Frankfurt show news and first drives will continue in the days to come.