Audi’s engineering boss Michael Dick has been dropping hints all over the place about the German luxury marque’s plans for the future, including the news that the 2014 Audi S4 and Audi S5 could each drop to four cylinders.

Now, in an interview with Dutch auto mag Autovisie, Dick has revealed that the company is looking at hanging the turbo-charged five-cylinder from the new 2009 Audi TT RS over the Audi A3’s engine bay and jumping on it until it fits.

Power?  Oh it will have power alright. An Audi RS3 pushed along by the same 253kW (340hp), 450Nm turbo 2.5 litre mill found in the TT RS would make the already delicious 188kW 2009 Audi S3 seem like a Peel P50 in comparison.

In fact, with that sort of power, the Audi RS3 would be looking at 0-100km/h runs in the neighbourhood of 5 seconds, which would just about make it the fastest hatch around.

It seems it all comes down to those five cylinders, with even the rumoured highly-tuned Volkswagen Golf GTI-R not expected to make more than 200kW from its turbo four.

Dick was quick to remind that no RS3 project has been ‘greenlit’ and the prospect is simply something Audi is giving thought to.  At this stage, that’s enough for us.