Mid-Life Crisis

I am finding myself possibly in the market for a used daily driver, and am considering another Audi (have owned two S4's and one S5 Sportback previously). I have set a budget of spending no more than $40K for a used vehicle, and no older than MY 2016. And with the Audi's I'm looking primarily for the virtual cockpit and other technological goodies. I come from a lonnnnnng line of high performance cars (currently '14 Jaguar XFR-S, previously, a couple of GT-R's, CTS-V's, Maserati Granturismo Sport, just to name a few), so I need something that moves. Acceleration is far more important to me than top end speed. I've been very interested in the newer edition TT RS and RS3, however the former, used, is selling in the $60K range, and the latter, in the $50K range. With a budget of $40K those vehicles are out of my price range right now. So my question is, how about an newer (MY 2016 or newer) S3 or TTS, that has been modded? How would that compare performance wise to the RS3 and TT RS? I owned a '15 S4 and went Stage II tune engine and transmission, along with intakes, resonated downpipes, and touring exhaust, and that really woke the S4 up. I know you have to play cat and mouse with the tune, but I'm okay with that.

Mid-Life Crisis

Come on, I can't believe I've stumped everyone, ha-ha.

Spinnetti

Well, seems like you answered already. Tuned S4 is prolly best bang for the buck. I've got an S3 modded to RS3 level plus lots of suspension/chassis mods and its good fun, but at the drag strip it wasn't as fast as an equivalently tuned S4/S5. Still, will spin all 4 with traction control off and in the right conditions duck into the 11's in the quarter. Modded TTS will be a bit faster, or and older TTRS would work.. A bit over your budget would be a used S7, and tuned is quite a sprinter. I'd have one but the wife said Nope since I have an R8 already, so S3 (which was a good value). Stretch and get a GTR? Its got some really kickass mid-range, though the older ones DCT is pretty clunky and there is some lag.

Mid-Life Crisis

I've owned two GT-R's previously, and nothing really compares with them in my personal opinion. For the Audis, I will probably hold back and wait until the prices of the RS3's or TT RS come down.