Audi S1 2014 review

Thirty years ago Audi went bush with a new concept – quattro all-wheel drive – and wiped the floor with its rally rivals. The Audi S1 went on to dominate the World Rally Championship and become the stuff of legend.

Now the suffix makes a return, this time on the road in the shape of the Audi S1 Sportback, a new flagship for the compact A1 line-up and the first Audi 'S' on the market for less than $50,000.

DESIGN

Like its antecedent was to rallying, the new S1 Sportback is designed to be the unrivalled embodiment of a road-going compact sports car. The pocket rocket does this in spades.

Take, for example, the sprint from zero to 100 kilometres per hour. Powered by a high-performance four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine pumping out 170kW and up to 370Nm, the S1 Sportback does the trip in 5.9 seconds, moving on to a governed top speed of 250km/h. The TFSI unit is no wastrel, consuming just 7.1 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres on the combined urban/highway cycle.

Hooked up to a slick shifting six-speed manual gearbox, power is put to ground via Audi's famed quattro all-wheel drive system, which directs power variously from 60 per cent to 40 per cent between the front and rear wheels according to need.

The whole suspension has been reworked, the electromechanical power steering newly developed, while the Audi drive select dynamic handling system comes with a range of settings from Efficiency to Auto or Dynamic to vary the response of the engine and the standard variable shock absorbers. Even the engine note is tuned to suit.

Question: Why did the echidna cross the road? Answer: to test the Audi S1 Sportback handling.

Brakes have been boosted by a larger master cylinder and discs, while red calipers with S1 identification can be had to order. The sporty compact five-door hatch rolls out of the factory on 17-inch wheels, with the option of 18-inch.

To look at, the new Audi S1 Sportback is the goods, made even more so with the addition of a range of options. The launch vehicle in question had quattro exterior and interior packages.

Added to the outside were xenon-plus headlights with red trim, S design red brake calipers, quattro roof spoiler, quattro signature on rear side doors, bumper with front spoiler lip in aluminium look and 18-inch wheels in five-arm design, matte black and partly polished ($3990). Topping off the architecture were a contrasting black roof ($720) and black boot lid ($300).

The interior featured S sport front seats in Nappa leather with back-rest cover in black with quattro logo, black centre console, door armrests in black with contrasting stitching, flat-bottom leather wrapped sport steering wheel with S-specific stitching, air vent sleeves with red inner ring and floor mats in black with contrasting double piping ($2490). Air vents were in high-gloss aluminium with red inner ring ($220).

With all the added attractions the car came in under sixty grand, plus on-road costs. Standard luxuries include the top-of-the-range MMI navigation plus, which includes two SDHC card readers and uses a Bluetooth interface and the Audi music interface to connect phones and mobile players.

The system comes with a DVD player and a voice control system. Using this voice control system the driver can speak the navigation address, and also control the main radio, media and telephone functions. The 6.5-inch colour screen provides high resolution images.

A further option is a Bose surround sound system with an output of 465 watts driving 14 speakers including subwoofer. LEDs and light guides illuminate in white the surrounds on the front woofers / mid-range speakers.

DRIVING

Question: Why did the echidna cross the road? Answer: to test the Audi S1 Sportback handling. Believe it or not, one of these 'spine covered, insectivorous monotreme mammals' owes its life to the exceptional capability of the above technology after it hove into view astride the centre white line on a fast bend during our road test of at the Australian media launch in Tasmania.

With a flick of the wrist at the last moment, the high-tech handling system had the S1 Sportback agilely skirting the critter, which remained totally focused on its amble and unaware of its fleeting meeting with the human interface of the 21st century world.

The rest of the ride was relatively free of wildlife, in and out of the car, with the S1 handling town traffic and highway freedom with equal aplomb.

It was left to laps of Baskerville Raceway to get the adrenalin flowing. However driven, Audi S1 Sportback showed itself to keep the limits of grip at arms length, this driver failing to dial up any sort of emergency despite treating some of the tighter corners of the narrow track with malice.

The torque spread kept gearshifts unhurried and to a minimum, and with familiarity, the track became more friend than foe, not the least as a result of a trim 1340 kg kerb weight.