CarWOW has set up a rather unusual drag race, pitting two stock Audi RS 3 hot hatches up against each other. Both cars share the generation and engine specs, heck, both are painted the same shade of white! What’s the catch?
The catch is that the first car was produced in 2017, before European environmental laws started requiring the installation of debris particle filters (DPF) on gasoline engines and not just diesel ones, like before. The 2019 model has the filter installed and comes with the same spec sheet as its predecessor, but it is really the same?
The RS 3 comes equipped with the same turbocharged five-cylinder engine model sporting 2.5 liters of displacement and 400 hp (298 kW) along with 480 Nm (358 lb-ft) of torque.
The race showed that both cars fared about equally well on the tarmac, so CarWOW put them on the dyno. Dyno tests showed that both Audis delivered 355 actual horsepower (265 kW) to the wheels, but the car without the filter hits maximum torque 500 RPM sooner than its filtered counterpart and has smoother overall torque curve.
In conclusion, it has to be said that most car owners will hardly notice the difference in real use scenarios, but racing drivers may find their track projectiles affected by the filters to the point when it decides between victory and failure.