Audi S1 firms for Oz

Audi Australia's performance car push could extend to the smaller, more affordable end of town with the Audi S1 if new managing director Andrew Doyle gets his wish.

“As a guy who loves performance cars I'd love to say yes to the S1,” Doyle told motoring.com.au.

“It's a pure hot hatch and would be great for the brand and, talking emotionally, I'd love to bring it to Australia,” he said.

Audi is yet to officially confirm the existence of an S1-badged model to top the A1 line-up, which is currently crowned by the 1.4 TFSI Sport priced at $42,500 in both three- and five-door body styles.

However, it has hinted at a higher-performance version of its smallest model since 2011, when it revealed the radical A1 Clubsport quattro concept.

It's unlikely the S1 will be powered by the same engine as the Clubsport concept, which packed a turbocharged five-cylinder screamer that belted out a face-slapping 370kW of power and 660Nm of torque.

Indeed, the 2.5-litre turbo-five’s standard 250kW/450Nm outputs are already well above those of the S1’s most direct rival, the 160kW/280Nm MINI Cooper S JCW, and would make the S1 significantly more potent than the existing A1 range-topper, the 136kW/250Nm A1 Sport

But Audi Australia says the top-shelf A1, which shares its genes with the Volkswagen Polo, would need to earn its keep to get the green light here.

“It really depends at the end of the day on whether it's profitable,” said Doyle. “We don't always bring cars in based purely on business case, but it's an important factor in that segment.

“There's certain cars you can bring in for the halo effect because it makes sense, but at that level you'd probably need to do a good enough volume to do that.

“I'm not saying we couldn’t do that [necessary volume], but it's just a matter of doing that business case, which we haven’t done yet.”

The S1 has not yet been confirmed for production but Mr Doyle hinted that an announcement is imminent.

“I would suggest before this year is out we'd have a decision made on it,” said the Audi Australia boss.

Audi is currently undertaking a performance car assault on the Australian market, with the new RS 4 Avant hitting local shores in February this year, followed by an updated Audi R8 in April and the company's first S-badged SUV, the SQ5 TDI, this week.

With the addition of the S3 Sportback, RS 5 Cabriolet, and RS 6 Avant later the year, then the riotous Q3 RS in early 2014, Audi would have almost all performance bases covered with the S1.

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