RS 3 Competition Limited a last blast for RS 3 and Ingolstadt’s signature snorter.

SYNONYMOUS with Audi since 1976, but now it’s the end of the road for the make’s famous five-cylinder petrol: But it’s not leaving the scene quietly.

This is the Audi RS 3 Competition Limited and it's a car serving two purposes.

For one, it almost certainly signs the end of the three-generation RS 3 line. Also, it also signals the end of five decades of service for the Audi five-pot.

With just 750 cars built for all worldwide markets, it's a highly limited edition and whether any are absolutely earmarked for New Zealand is not yet clear.

But Audi NZ has good ‘in’ with Ingolstadt, having historically always done extremely well with RS product.

Per head of capita our take-up is world-leading. So maybe one or two could be sidelined for the make’s farthest-flung market, whose rally roads were special to the brand.

Chances are we will see it as a Sportback; it also comes in sedan form but the split of body styles is heavily weighted to the five-door hatch - 585 Competitions will be Sportbacks, 165 in four door.

Even though output from the turbocharged 2.5-litre unit is the same 294kW and 500Nm, so will nail 0-100kmh in the same 3.8 seconds, rest assured the CL is very much more spesh than the standard NZ-specification $129,990 RS 3, so it’s hard to see it being quickly snaffled whatever the sticker.

Potential of what that could be is perhaps indicated by where it places in Germany. There it is about 10 percent more than a fully loaded-up RS 3.

Peak top of speed of 290kmh is higher than with the regular version in its standard trim and other stuff makes this edition special.

One big allure is that it has 'coilover' suspension, something you can't fit to any other RS 3.

Here the setup is composed of twin-tube dampers all round, constructed of stainless steel at the front and aluminium at the rear. The front shocks have external reservoirs, while the rear items have larger-diameter tubes and thicker piston rods as well, along with an uprated, stiffer anti-roll bar.

There are three modes of (old-school physical) adjustment, with 12 settings for low-speed compression, 15 settings of high-speed compression and 16 settings of rebound. The company will sell the CL with the relevant toolkit plus full instructions on how to fine-tune it. o need to remove the wheels first unless you unless you want to raise or lower the ride height; it can be dropped 10mm closer to the deck than any other RS 3.

The CL continues with a torque-splitting rear differential to give it lively handling, but the carbon-ceramic brakes that are a cost-option on other RS 3s is standard.

Audi adds red callipers for good measure. Plus the car’s 19-inch wheels can clad in semi-slick Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tyres, should an owner determine issues with the regular P Zero rubber.

How to pick it at that quattro club meet? As expected, there’s much matte-effect carbon fibre on the outside; this applying to the side skirts, door-mirror caps and the insert above the rear diffuser. It’s also used for the CL unique features of a big roof spoiler a front splitter and aero-improving 'canards' on the outer edges of the bumper at the nose.

At start up, the lights mimic the firing order of the five-cylinder engine with an animation in a 1-2-4-5-3 formation. Geeky? Sure. But also quite cool.

Those wheels being rendered in Neodymium Gold and the RS Heritage 'RS 3' logos on the front and rear being in black, with a red, white and black stripe motif alongside) and a discreet legend in the quarterlight glass of the rear doors which reads 'RS 3 Competition Limited’ are all special type exclusive tell-tales.

So, too, one of the colours. Malachite Green is a shade last seen on Audi's legendary Sport Quattro short-wheelbase road car of the 1980s.

Gold also runs into the the central seat fabric and parts of the door cards, with Ginger White (yup, that’s apparently a thing), is used for the contrast stitching, the seatbelts and some of the 'RS 3 Competition Limited' logos.

The carbon-backed RS Sports bucket seats and the digital Virtual Cockpit cluster of the Competition Limited are Easter eggs for fans. The dials' background is white, which is a direct homage to the 1994 Audi RS 2 Avant, which had the same thing (albeit analogue).

The sports exhaust was already an option on other RS 3s, but in the CL Audi Sport has cut away some of the sound-deadening in the firewall. While the car is no louder from the outside, on the inside the engine’s howl is more pronounced.

What a way to go, right?

And it is truly the end of the line. EU7 emissions regs make the engine unviable from a financial perspective. Talk is it has, at best, another year in production.

So, expect special editions of the Volkswagen Golf R and Cupra Formentor VZ5 as well.