Earlier hopes of a hotted up all-wheel drive Audi A1, likely to wear Audi’s hallowed S1 badge, ready to take it up to the MINI John Cooper Works could be dashed.
Back in January Auto Express told us of Audi’s plans to build a 200hp S1 fitted with a rear-biased quattro drivetrain. Now, new details suggest that Audi’s quattro system will not be found on any A1-based car. A real sense of irony, then, that the 21st century S1 appears to be FWD only.
According to a recent article from German website AutoBild the A1 will utilise a solely front-wheel drive platform and is due for its first major reveal, in coupé form only, at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Market release for the three door will follow some time around September 2010. Sales of the five-door Sportback model would commence in late 2011, with plans for a cabrio version to be released in 2012.
Getting back to the feisty S1 model, it is expected to be fitted with a 1.4 TFSI producing around 140kW and 250Nm of torque. Australian customers will get a glimpse of that engine when the next Polo GTI is launched down under in 2010.
The only transmission option available for the S1 would be a 7-speed S tronic. The car should be capable of reaching 100km/h somewhere in the high 6 second range.
The AutoBild piece has quite a lot of interesting tidbits in there. Copy the link below and stick it into your favourite online translator and see just how serious Audi is at taking up the challenge to MINI.
[Source: AutoBild via The German Car Blog]
3 replies on “No quattro for Audi S1?”
Would be a shame not to have an AWD S1 in my view – would be a good way to differentiate between all the rest of the baby hot hatches
I couldn’t agree more.
[…] new S1 will have a quattro drivetrain. Regular readers will remember last month’s report speculation from Auto Bild that the A1 platform, and S1 with it, would be only available in a front-wheel drive […]