Rendezvous with the Transporters

For someone with a head like a potato and a Michael Caine-like inability to do any voice other than the one God gave him, Jason Statham has done pretty well out of Hollywood. He is one of our greatest character actors, as long as the character he is playing is Jason Statham. This in fact may summarise the success of ‘The Transporter’ trilogy. Statham has done away with the series, but as they say in showbiz, the extremely lucrative business must go on.

So EuropaCorp is pressing onward with ‘The Transporter Refueled’, starring what they hope will be the next Statham. His name is Ed Skrein (you might remember him as Daario version 1.0 from ‘Game of Thrones’). While, we’ll let the world burn debating on if Skrein can do a Statham in the movie. The new film also stars the 2015 Audi A8 (hopefully, for that is the one in the trailer and must be true it’s on TV too). Sadly though, we aren’t here to tell you how good the A8 is.

Instead we will tell you how good the new gen Audi A3 and A6 are. Oh Come on! You didn’t get Statham either, so please bear with us. Audi A6 Spotting the Audi! The beautifully tailored LED headlights, the goatee front grill and sharp 18 inch wheels had all come together to make something truly spectacular.

The story was the same on the inside. We were greeted with soft leather to sit on and the cockpit just swept around us. Audi A6 was more or less a class of physics for us.

There was this central button– something similar to the ones you see inside the revised BMWs. But this had a powerful stereo built by Bose, a touchpad that reads gestures, and then there came the four-zone climate control, the car threw the luxury to all the four occupants inside it to adjust the air temperature and fan speed to their liking.

And then…the drive began, only as we put the seat belt on, else it won’t move an inch. This has been one of the reasons why, the car boast to be one of the safest in the segment competing against the Jaguar XF, BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E Class or the Cadillac ATS in the world market.

Rev the engine and the car explodes like a sports car, but it never let you misbehave, for if it comes to know you are, the computer will kick in and take control of the board, telling you, “Look at me! I am the captain now.”

There was one thing that kept pounding. A déjà vu! The car is exactly like its elder sibling A8, though a little shrunk. Stopover, get out and then sit on the A3, and you feel it! Audi A3 A descent is oft a bumpy one, and after driving the A6 and jumping onto an A3 was a bad decision. For the other guy was far more equipped, far more powerful and far more flamboyant. But then, that also reminded us that the car in front was twice as expensive as the one we were about to drive, so these comparisons would rather be nitpicking.

Inside the A3 is the Audi TT-like dashboard, though minimalist compared to the other, had its share of interesting details. The A3 was undoubtedly a handsome ride. Apparently there was a beast sleeping under the aluminum bonnet of our test car. The 1.8- litre direct-injection turbo-petrol engine produced a very healthy 177hp. So on the first empty stretch of tarmac, we floored the throttle.

Set to Sport mode, the A3 rocketed forward with no lag, no break in momentum and no hesitation from either the engine or the sevenspeed gearbox. The motor was smooth and punchy, while the solid and stiff chassis translated to top-class ride and handling. For an enthusiast, the A3 checked the right boxes.