And up against the A45 AMG.. is the Audi S1!

[NissanSkylineN1]

Today, Autoblog reported spy photos of the Audi A1's sportier brother, the Audi S1!

The engineers at Audi look to be hard at work on a more potent version of the company's A1 hatchback. Spy photographers spotted this machine out on public streets for testing, and the presence of a set of quad exhaust out back leads us to believe this could be the rumored S1 model. It's unclear whether this machine will slot under the limited-edition 256-horsepower A1 Quattro or be sold as a less extreme version of the hottest of Audi hatches when that car's production slots fill up. Photographers report this is a gasoline-powered model, which means the company's 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine is likely kicking behind the headlights.

If that's true, we can expect between 220 and 250 horsepower shuttled to all four wheels via the German automaker's Quattro all-wheel drive system. If you were wondering why Audi didn't use the S1 name for the A1 Quattro, you may very well be looking at the reason.

Full Article:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/audi-s1-spy-shots/

 

[Slash]

I figured they'd do this. What that on the wheels?

 

[Crumpet]

I'm guessing it is used to test something with the brakes maybe? ^

Or something mechanical.

 

[Zenith]

I'm thinking my next car might be a hatch...

 

[RocZX]

Didn't they have spy pics of the RS1 a few moths ago and now they changed it to the S1.

 

[Kiddir420]

The devices on the wheels are used to detect movement in the wheels and suspension, so that the car can be set-up accordingly.
As much as dislike the A1 with its bland styling and high price, I'm glad Audi have entered the small hot hatch niche. Going to be a good year for hot hatches :-)

 

[eSZee]

The conclusion of S1 vs A45 must be your own quickly formed opinion. Like the previous articles stated, the A45 is likely made to compete with the RS3. Audi making a 250hp hatch to compete with a 370hp hatch just makes no sense.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

But look at it sizewize.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Even sizewise it's not competing. The S1 is a sub-compact, while the A45 is a compact. Over here in the EU, the S1 will be operating in the same segment as Clio, Corsa, DS3, Pole, etc., while the A45 will operate in the same segment as 1-series, A3, etc.

I understand that in the US the story is different, because there hardly is a subcompact segment there, let alone a sporty subcompact segment. Really looking forward to seeing a proper roadtest of the S1 BTW, could be an interesting replacement for my RS250 in the future.

 

[kikie]

Is this one a quattro?

 

[NLxAROSA]

Is this one a quattro?

Uhm, yes and no. It has AWD, but it's FWD-based, not RWD-based Quattro (like the higher end Audis).

 

[symustafa1996]

The other day I saw 3 blue Audis, S4, S4 Avant and S5 with the same thing on the wheels, except they were connected by big wires to the engine and boot. It looks strange, and there wasn't any camouflage whatsoever.

 

[Prince.M5]

I don't really think this is comparable to the A45 because the Merc has more power and I think bigger in size. The S1 is smaller and has less power. This one is much more comparable to the M135i BMW but then again it has around 320HP which is about 100 more than what we could expect from the S1.

 

[RocZX]

 

[Kitten]

OHMYGAWD :ded:

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

Ew, 5-door.. Why no 3-door, would look a lot better..

 

[CodeRedR51]

Audi, Y U NO SELL IN USA!?

 

[homeforsummer]

I wouldn't get too worried. It'll be like the majority of other Audi performance cars - understeery, overly firmly sprung and a bit numb. I've driven a regular A1 and while the extra power of an S1 would be nice, I can't imagine it suddenly being transformed into a wonderful drivers car.

 

[RocZX]

Ew, 5-door.. Why no 3-door, would look a lot better..

Here the 3 door

 

[SlipZtrEm]

What an ugly little thing. The red elements in the headlights being particularly off-putting.

 

[Cano]

Oi, look. Matte black. I've gotz performance.

 

[zedextreme8177]

I actually like the way it looks!

 

[TheCracker]

Neither BMW nor Merc produce a car that competes with the A1 in size. This is a competitor to The Mini Cooper S, Renault Sport Clio or Fiesta ST.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

How can they in good conscious name that little wart an S1?

 

[Beeblebrox237]

How can they in good conscious name that little wart an S1?

I guess because anyone who knows enough to know about the quattro S1 will know that the new S1 is a far inferior and very different car? Even if it is a notable Audi name, I'd rather they used it and tainted it than pulling a BMW and calling it the A1 S.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Perhaps. But at least when I search youtube for 'BMW M1' (this isn't infrequent) I don't have to worry about the new car cluttering my results.

 

[BKGlover]

Was that quattro called the S1 from go, or was it applied when the S2 quattro came in?

Eunos, I seem to recall that being BMWs reason for calling it the 1M, but I think they can go with it now due to the fact that the original M1 is 30 years old now, was the first thing "M" badged, and was a general flop.

Oh right, this thing doesn't look right. It looks awkward to me, too tall perhaps.

 

[TheCracker]

Was that quattro called the S1 from go, or was it applied when the S2 quattro came in?

Audi perhaps aren't quite so paranoid about using previous titles for something totally different. The car was the Audi Quattro or Audi Sport Quattro for the SWB version. 'S1' or 'S2' were just versions of the Sport, not the actual car's name itself, unlike the BMW M1. In fact, the rally versions of the earlier, original non-SWB Quattro, were identified as 'A1' and 'A2' - Audi's already used those names for subsequent models.

 

[Wolfe]

I will say that before opening this thread, I expected a sporty coupe evoking the lineage of the S1 Eunos_Cosmo posted, like a production version of the Sport Quattro concept or something.

 

[YSSMAN]

Its a funky little thing that we'll never see here, and that's fine I guess. It'd be priced $15k higher than the already rather nice Fiesta ST, no idea what kind of market share Audi would expect with something like that.