Audi to reveal A1 with 503 horsepower in Austria

Every year V-Dub enthusiasts descend on the Austrian village of Wörthersee, and every year the Volkswagen group presents them with something spectacular for their loyalty. Sometimes it’s something mental, like in 2007 when VW brought along the Golf GTI W12-650, but sometimes it’s an actual car that eventually makes production. This year, Audi has tagged along to reveal the A1 clubsport quattro, and we genuinely hope it’s for real. Right now, it’s only a freshly painted one-off, but the stats are so insatiable it would be a sin not to offer it for sale. First off, it uses the award-winning five-pot turbocharged engine such as in the TT RS, here producing a ridiculous 503bhp and 660Nm of torque. The A1 clubsport Quattro also weighs just 1,390kg, meaning you’ll see 0-100kph in 3.7 seconds, and 0-200kph in less than 11. Best of all, you row your own gears through a six-speed manual quattro transmission. As you can see the exterior is also quite brash, with low-profile 19in wheels gloriously harking back to the Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO. The body kit bits are made of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer and the Audi roundel on the grille is solid aluminium, as is the gear lever inside. To ensure those horses are harnessed somehow, engineers widened the track by 60mm which gave the A1 clubsport quattro awesome box arches like on the Ur-quattro from the Eighties. All in all, it’s more than a fitting present to Ingolstadt's (and Wolfsburg's) most fateful brigade.