All-wheel-drive cars have their advantages, offering great grip in places where rear- or front-wheel-drive cars struggle. However, AWD has caveats like most good things. The setup adds weight, and while that doesn’t affect one’s day-to-day driving, the system does affect how a car performs on the track. A new Carwow video demonstrates this with an exciting drag race that pits the Audi RS3 with AWD against a rear-wheel-drive BMW M3.
The Audi RS3 powers all four wheels with a turbocharged 2.5-liter engine making 400 horsepower (298 kilowatts) and 368 pound-feet (500 Newton-meters) of torque. The engine pairs with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox with launch control. The BMW M3 is rear-wheel drive, but it’s also more powerful, with the brand’s twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter straight-six engine making 510 hp (380 kW) and 479 lb-ft (650 Nm) of torque. Its eight-speed automatic features launch control. The Audi weighs 3,461 pounds (1,570 kilograms) while the BMW weighs 3,813 lbs (1,730 kg).
