I always managed to keep my Rising Blue Scirocco looking smart - it was a bit of a standout colour on the roads when 40% of the cars on the road seem to be white, and 50% of the remainder were a greyscale shade. Carbon Steel Grey and similar shades (like Audi Daytona grey) are my preferred area of the greyscale. My first Scirocco was a grey that got discontinued early on, not sure why, it was a great colour, had a strong purple hue about it.
Looking at the pics link, for me it has to be reflex silver (as long as it doesn't look bare/unpainted - some cars do) or Lapiz blue. I've had a few black pearl Polos and Golfs in the past, and they do look great if you don't mind washing the car every day (not as keen on washing the car more than once a week as I used to be).
I'll be steering clear of Tornado red if I get an R, it just doesn't seem like an R colour to me and i've been a bit shocked by the thickness (or lack of) of the paint - a strong metallic colour needs a thicker coat to achieve the colour opacity. Hopefully that means fewer paint chips that go down to the basecoat.
Still don't see the need to load up spec - keyless might be the only thing i'd think of adding, and that would be purely for the novelty.
Specced up an Audi Sportback S3 to minimum spec i'd want (about 2/3 of the standard spec on the R that is optional on the S3), and with a 10% discount on both, the R would be costing about £2800 (10%) less than the S3. It's a bit of a toss-up between the 2. 5 door R is externally nicer than the Sportback IMO, but the S3 interior is just the best you'll see on a car less than £50k, the R is reputed to be a slightly better drive, but will you only notice hooning around a track and driving it like you stole it, as the journos do. The Audi dealerships around me do seem to look you up and down to determine if you can afford their products or whether you're just "riff-raff". There's just one more thing to consider between the 2, it's obligatory to be a twit behind the wheel in the Audi and non-one will flash you out of a junction as karmic payback.

I think I might be swaying more to the R