Audi's performance arm has a new boss, a new name and a new car to celebrate its new direction, the tough and terrific looking new RS3.

Powered by the same frenetic five-cylinder recently launched in the TT RS - another nice bit of work by the company that used to be called quattro GmbH but is now just Audi Sport - it will offer 294kW and 480Nm from its 2.5 litres.

Putting all that power to the ground via all-wheel drive it will to dash to 100km/h in a claimed 4.1 seconds (we estimate it might be even faster) and on to an optional top speed of 280km/h - most Australian buyers will no doubt settle for the 250km/h limit.

The beefy-looking four door shares many of its panels with the RS3 hatch, but is both more practical and more handsome. It should make a very challenging competitor for the similarly proportioned BMW M2 when it arrives in Australia around the middle of next year.

The name had to be Audi Sport, because motor sport is in our DNA.

The super sedan was unveiled at the Paris motor show by the new boss of the new Audi Sport, Stefan Winkelmann, who was most recently in charge of a very sporty part of the Volkswagen Group; Lamborghini.

The super-stylish German-born Italian is already making his mark on his new brand, both with the name change and a new strategy.

"The name had to be Audi Sport, because motor sport is in our DNA, just look at our successes at Le Mans and elsewhere, it's who we are," he beamed.

"As we set off on this new journey we had to make some decisions; we had to decide between going for volume and going for exclusivity.

"We chose to go for exclusivity, which means that only the most prestigious Audi models will get the RS badge from now on."

We are about passion, performance and prestige.

This sounds like a veiled swipe at his predecessors, but it seems unlikely that Audi Sport will stop putting its badge on the company's SUVs, like the RS Q3, because Winkelmann's plan, strangely, is to achieve exclusivity by launching lots of new models. You can bet an RS Q5 will be one of them.

"We will be announcing eight new Audi Sport cars in the next eight months," he said, indicating that, as he claims, he's been working his new team very hard indeed.

"These cars will be all about a combination of usability and sportiness, cars like the RS3 sedan. It's an athlete in a tailored suit.

"We are about passion, performance and prestige."

It sounds like it could be a Lamborghini tag line but undoubtedly, with the RS3 sedan, Winkelmann is off to a good start.

And more RS Audis can only be a good thing, particularly for Australia, which is one of the biggest markets in the world for sportier variants of premium cars.

Will you be lining up for a RS3 sedan, or do you prefer the barrel-of-laughs hatch? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.