SPY PICS: Audi tests RS 1

The possibilities are not exactly endless, but Audi’s A1 does have enormous potential to become a pint-sized hot hatch with more muscle than would appear to be decent.

Audi has such a number of 2.0-litre petrol engines at its disposal that deciding exactly what power-weight ratio should be applied to a vehicle as light as the A1 is little more than a formality.

Thus the upcoming RS 1 model, recently snapped by the Carparazzi team as it manoeuvred in the light industrial surrounds of an unidentified German hamlet.

With its deep grille, gaping twin lower air intakes, prominent roof spoiler, low-profile tyres on big wheels and telltale twin exhausts there’s no suggestion this is an ordinary A1 – even if the ride height looks a bit lofty for something due to wear an RS title.

The RS 1 Audi could be powered by anything from the A5 Sportback’s 155kW 2.0-litre to the also-2.0-litre 200kW engine employed in the TT. Speculation is rife about what power the RS 1 will eventually flaunt, but the odds seem to favour the engine in S3 Sportback 2.0 TFSI tune, where it produces 188kW and 330Nm.

With a weight of around 1200kg this would give a decent power-weight ratio of around 157kW per tonne – or a bit better than a Porsche Cayman. That would suggest zero to 100km/h acceleration around the mid five-second mark.

The availability of all-wheel drive helps too. There’s no risk of unwieldy torque steer as the back wheels do part of the job distributing power to the road.

However this is all speculation. We probably won’t know the real answer before the Audi RS1 debuts at the Geneva motor show in March 2012.

-- with Carparazzi

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