Slideshow: Anger Management with This Over 1,000HP A3

What Is It?

There is a man named Tommy Schönberg in Norway and he set out to make the fastest Audi A3 the world has ever seen. He took a stock A3 with its Quattro all-wheel drive and five-cylinder engine and managed to pump over 1,000 horsepower into the little thing. He didn’t just want the headline four-digit horsepower number, oh no…he wanted 1,000 usable horsepower that could be fully exploited on track. This is a daring man and stopped at nothing to make his angry A3 a reality. Jeez...what's with these Scandinavian folks and their thirst for speed? Must be in the water.

>>Join the conversation about this 1,000hp A3 right here in the AudiWorld Forum!

How Did It Start Off?

Tommy decided in 2004 that he wanted to make his dream a reality. The only question was, “Which tiny German hatch would it be?” The Volkswagen GTI is an obvious choice but that was done before him. He wanted something new, something fresh. He had already done work on an A4 Avant before and decided that the A4, 5, and 6 were too big. After much deliberation and a long process of shipping the car over from Germany, the turbo-diesel 4WD Audi A3 landed and he got to work. He quickly found someone who was willing to swap the A3’s stock parts for an old RS2’s parts. There was a problem converting the engine and 4WD system layouts to match the RS2’s but through enough trial and error, Tommy succeeded.

>>Join the conversation about this 1,000hp A3 right here in the AudiWorld Forum!

Driveline and Transmission

Since the A3 was going to withstand over 5 times the power it was used to, the driveshaft had to be super strong. So they did what anyone would do: call a local rifle manufacturer to help piece the new harder driveshaft together. Obviously. The transmission is a triple-plate carbon clutch with no first gear. Seriously, the car can’t use the first gear properly due to its intense power delivery. Tommy was quoted saying that his launches at the startling are always much slower than the competition but he easily catches up when the A3 gets going.

>>Join the conversation about this 1,000hp A3 right here in the AudiWorld Forum!

Engine

Tommy and his friends built an entirely new engine, taking inspiration from the RS2. the engine is a 5-cylinder diesel block with a massive Precision 7175 Turbo. The firepower explodes out of two exhaust pipes on each side of the car. The engine was supposed to make the haloed 1,000 horsepower—or at least they thought. The A3 actually made 1150hp on 2.5-bar (36psi). That was pretty bonkers so Tommy toned it down a bit to 29 psi so that the Audi made something around the 1,000 hp mark. Remember, he wanted usable horsepower! 

>>Join the conversation about this 1,000hp A3 right here in the AudiWorld Forum!

Other Upgrades

A car with this amount of grunt requires intense cooling so they attached a huge radiator to the back of the car. To keep the engine filled with much-needed fuel, two Bosch pumps are connected to the 30-liter fuel tank. Tommy also added carbon doors and dash along with a digital instrument cluster and Sparco seats. KW supplied all the suspension needs. Sticky Michelin racing tires are on all four corners as well as powerful Brembo brakes.

>>Join the conversation about this 1,000hp A3 right here in the AudiWorld Forum!

What’s It Like?

To no one’s surprise, the Audi is a monster; a freak of nature. Weighing in around 1,200 kilograms, the A3 has a ridiculous power-to-weight ratio. The car is no stranger to oversteer but Tommy has added the necessary upgrades to change that. Around his local track at Rudskogen, Tommy bullets around the track as all facets of the tiny car work in tandem with each other. Unfortunately, Tommy doesn't plan on bringing his little beast to big tracks where it can be compared to other supercars and hypercars. 

>>Join the conversation about this 1,000hp A3 right here in the AudiWorld Forum!

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