Audi S1 UK first drive

Audi’s bad-boy Audi A1 supermini, the S1 – finally available in the UK, and in series-production right-hand-drive form.

Offering permanent quattro four-wheel drive, a totally redesigned suspension system and a reworked Volkswagen Golf GTI engine with enough power and torque to put a full-size hot hatch in the shade, this car offers much more than the average warmed-up supermini. And with a full-fat asking price starting just below the £25k marker, it needs to.

The irony is that the S1 takes the place of the limited-run A1 Quattro – a car that sold out at a price north of £40,000. So even given that it's close to Renault Mégane RS 265 money, the S1 almost looks like good value.

But does it drive like it? The likes of the Mini GP and the Citroën DS3 Racing have already shown that it can make sense to downsize your fast hatchback by a class for a machine of real purpose, verve and distinction – and we rated both.

A full road test on the S1, unlocking every last scrabble and lunge of character and fun, will be forthcoming in a few weeks. Meanwhile, for some first impressions on British roads, read on.

The new Audi S1 is fast, desirable and highly specialised – all good signs.

In three-door form the S1 cracks 62mph from rest in 5.8sec – a solitary tenth of a second slower than the last Ford Focus RS we figured in 2009. And it’s offered with a six-speed manual gearbox only, so with a launch control-enabled S-tronic transmission, it might have been quicker still.

The S1’s engine is yet another version of the Volkswagen Group’s ‘EA888’ turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol, as featured in cars as distantly related as the Seat Leon Cupra and the forthcoming entry-level Porsche Macan. Knowing that, you can’t help wondering if Audi might have given the S1 even more power than the 228bhp they’ve ended up with. Or, perhaps, if they’re deliberately leaving room for a near-300bhp RS1 in years to come.

Either way, the S1 hardly feels like it could do with the extra poke. Point-to-point accelerative pace is full-on, grown-up and very serious. It’s defined more by the instant rush of mid-range torque than by high-rpm power.

Flatten the accelerator and the engine wakes up and chimes in with a not-so-subtle thump of 273lb ft from about 2000rpm, but by 4500rpm, the show is over, more or less. The engine will still pull cleanly, but no more urgently, nearer the redline. Given that its four-cylinder growl lacks a little bit of detail and audible charm, you’d say the engine is both impressive and effective – but it’s short on enticing character.

More transformative than that engine, in fact, is the S1’s four-wheel drive system. It's a proprietary set-up driven by a multi-plate clutch rather than the passive, Haldex-type system that Audi has used on its transverse-engined cars in previous years.

Under normal conditions, it splits engine torque 60/40 front to rear, but when wheelspin is detected up front, up to 50 per cent of drive goes rearwards. So there’s always a healthy portion of power at the rear wheels, whether the front ones have started to run out of grip or not.