Photo: Virtuel Car
Fast Audis are for people who want to go fast in a straight line. And rumor has it that a tiny RS1 is coming to fill the void at the bottom of the range in 2017.
There's a difference between a regular fast car and an RS model. Audi charges a lot of money and installs engine technology that used to belong on supercars.
Just take the C-segment hatchbacks as an example. If a Skoda Octavia RS takes around 8 seconds to reach 100 km/h with a 2.0 TDI, the Audi RS3 takes just over 4 seconds. What's weird is that both are based on the same MQB platform, which is like the Ferrari 458 Sider and Fiat 124 Spider somehow being sister cars.
That's precisely why we still can't imagine an RS1 ever existing, because it would be based on the same platform as the Skoda Fabia Combi. Just look at that fat piglet!
Yet if there is a company that can and wants to do a 300 horsepower 4-meter car, it's Audi. It already installed fully independent rear suspension and quattro into the A1 just to make the 231 PS S1 models. And now that the MINI Cooper JCW has caught up, it's probably motivated to do even more.
Even when we announced the rumor a couple of days ago, we had a set of renderings lined up. However, there's been an update from French website Virtuel Car. It features several design elements from the RS3, just as the rumors predicted. These include the gaping intakes with the silver blades at the bottom, a hexagonal grille and the entire rear diffuser plus exhaust combo.
As a fan of the Audi brand, I really don't get why you would buy such a car when the S3 does the same job. Audi is never going to be able to stuff a 2.5-liter turbo into the S1 body, so you're going to be left without that special soundtrack.
Also, the current platform is just too old and was never designed to be turned into a €45,000 luxury rocket.
Just take the C-segment hatchbacks as an example. If a Skoda Octavia RS takes around 8 seconds to reach 100 km/h with a 2.0 TDI, the Audi RS3 takes just over 4 seconds. What's weird is that both are based on the same MQB platform, which is like the Ferrari 458 Sider and Fiat 124 Spider somehow being sister cars.
That's precisely why we still can't imagine an RS1 ever existing, because it would be based on the same platform as the Skoda Fabia Combi. Just look at that fat piglet!
Yet if there is a company that can and wants to do a 300 horsepower 4-meter car, it's Audi. It already installed fully independent rear suspension and quattro into the A1 just to make the 231 PS S1 models. And now that the MINI Cooper JCW has caught up, it's probably motivated to do even more.
Even when we announced the rumor a couple of days ago, we had a set of renderings lined up. However, there's been an update from French website Virtuel Car. It features several design elements from the RS3, just as the rumors predicted. These include the gaping intakes with the silver blades at the bottom, a hexagonal grille and the entire rear diffuser plus exhaust combo.
As a fan of the Audi brand, I really don't get why you would buy such a car when the S3 does the same job. Audi is never going to be able to stuff a 2.5-liter turbo into the S1 body, so you're going to be left without that special soundtrack.
Also, the current platform is just too old and was never designed to be turned into a €45,000 luxury rocket.
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