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Blink and you'll miss it: The Audi S1 is coming!

'Hmm', you may be thinking, 'That name certainly rings a bell somewhere.' And you'd be right. The S1 was a mid-80's loony car, the direct replacement for the much respected original Quattro. So no pressure for this new car then.


At first, it just looks like a normal Audi A1 with a back somebody forgot to paint. And, for around £25,000, that is an insane amount of money for what is basically a blinged up VW Polo. But then you start to notice the quad exhausts, the beefed up bumpers, the excellent looking wheels. There is no mistaking that this is a rather good looking car. But that still doesn't justify a mad price. We need to look further into this.

This is Audi's smallest car, wearing an S badge. So logically, you'd expect it to have the same 1.4TFSI power plant as found in the Polo GTi. But no. It comes with a whopping 2.0 litre engine, and if that wasn't enough, it's a bloody turbocharged 2.0 litre engine! That means you get 228bhp, 273lb/ft of torque and of course, the quattro system sending the power nicely to all four wheels.

The upshot of all this is that the 0-60 sprint is done and dusted in 5.8 seconds (!) and 5.9 for the 5-door Sportback model. Both of these models are naturally limited to the very German 155mph.

But, ladies and gentleman, the good news is yet to be given. The new Audi S1 will come with a proper six-speed manual gearbox as standard. Yes! In a day and age where the Renault Sport Clio RS comes with a completely disengaging flappy paddle affair, it's nice to see that Audi is making the S1 as fun as possible.

Now for the yawny bits. The combined fuel economy of the S1 is 40.4mpg whilst emissions sit at 162g/km. That shouldn't put too much of a hole in your wallet, but really, modern German engines shouldn't anyway these days.

The problem I see is that the £25,000 price kind of puts the S1 out of any competition. Sports flavoured cars the same size as the S1 sit happily below the £20k mark, and it'd be unfair to pitch this car against bigger cars like the Focus ST or Golf GTi. However, the S1 would still win in a race. The only real competition would be the rumoured Fiesta RS. If it ever gets released, that is.

Numbers only tell half the story. Once it's been driven, will the S1 really be good enough to adopt such a legendary name?
Blink and you'll miss it: The Audi S1 is coming! Blink and you'll miss it: The Audi S1 is coming! Reviewed by Jack Cooper on February 12, 2014 Rating: 5

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