Audi's New 280bhp RS1 Will Be Stupid Fun

Sticking big power into small cars is a good thing, and Audi has good news for you with plans for an ultra-aggressive performance flagship that's set to eclipse the S1

Matt Kimberley

Updated: 01 Sep 2016

Audi's New 280bhp RS1 Will Be Stupid Fun

We’re massive fans of small cars with big power, and here’s another to drool over. Audi has given the green light to an RS-badged A1 with 280bhp, and it could hang on to a manual gearbox, too.

The four-wheel-drive RS1 is set to use the same 2.0-litre EA888 turbocharged petrol engine as the Golf GTI, Octavia vRS and a host of other performance-minded large VW Group cars, and it’s likely to be at least as fast as all of them.

The S1 Sportback's days as the flagship A1 are numbered

Audi insiders see it as the spiritual successor to the slightly bonkers limited-production A1 quattro, which had four-wheel drive, 258bhp and the steering wheel on the left side only. Just 19 were sold in the UK, pretty much guaranteeing collector status.

It is being billed as a direct rival to the Mini John Cooper Works, which pushes out the same power and uses a similarly dinky platform.

The RS1's styling will be more extreme than the S1's

No official images have yet been released by Audi, but the body styling of an RS1 will be more extreme than the current S1 (pictured), with its paltry 228bhp version of the EA888 four-pot.

As for performance we expect the extra 52bhp of the RS1 to knock a few tenths off the S1’s 5.8-second 0-62mph time, as well as smashing it into an electronic 155mph limiter. The car will arrive next year, but with a new A1 expected in 2018, the RS flagship is seen as a run-out experiment, testing the water for customer demand. With any luck it’ll catch on.

Comments

Imagine a rs7 engine in a S1

That would be one stuffed trunk.

Audi should return to rally with this car. I see a lot of potential in it. Suspension and dampers would need to be hella soft doe haha

There are A1 rallye cars.

Anyone who says that they can’t fit a 5 cylinder in a A1. I would love one of those in my garage

on wikipedia it says the EA888 can push 300hp so you could chiptune it a bit, right? so it also get 300+.

VW currently has the GTI engine and the R engine. They are almost the same, but the R engine uses a bigger turbo. The GTI engine is found in the regular Mk7 GTI, Audi TT, Skoda Octavia vRS, and everything else that has around 230hp.
The R engine is found in the Golf 7R, the GTI Clubsport, the Seat Leon Cupra, the TTS, S3, etc etc.
The R engine makes from 265 to 310hp [on paper].

The GTI engine can be pushed up to around 300hp, that’s the turbo’s limit.
The R engine can be pushed to around 400hp.

Audi will probably put the R engine into the RS1, since the GTI engine would be too close to it’s limit, and VW likes to put the stronger 2 liter into smaller cars for special editions.