Audi S1 melodrama
Deemed unfit to wear the hallowed 'S' badge, Audi's version of the Polo GTi will be merely an A1 after allAudi has tried to quietly kill off its upcoming S1 just weeks before its scheduled launch in southern France.
The company, which had been pinning its hopes on the bigger-engined A1 to take on MINI's Cooper S, made the critical decision to cancel the S1 early last week in an emergency meeting between its most senior managers.
Insiders have revealed that while the car will still be built, it will be stripped of its S1 badges and will be known as an A1 1.4 TFSI instead.
It is believed that senior managers finally decided the car was too heavy and too slow compared to the cheaper Volkswagen Polo GTi on which it is based. The final nail in its coffin was that Volkswagen Group boss Martin Winterkorn didn't want its front-wheel drive status diluting an "S" car line up that has been, up to now, exclusively all-wheel drive.
While Audi's engineering team had freed up another six horsepower more than the Polo GTi that shares its engine, gearbox and architecture, it was not enough to offset its extra weight in pure, straight-line performance or even in economy.
The sudden, last-ditch move has been seen as an embarrassing climb down for Audi boss, Rupert Stadler (pictured), who had pushed the S1 as a personal project.
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