503-hp Audi A1 clubsport quattro hints at Audi RS1

Audi A1 clubsport quattro

Audi recently showcased its 503-hp A1 Clubsport at the annual Worthersee GTI Festival in Austria: a gathering that was founded by GTI enthusiasts and gained attention by Audi, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen themselves. What does that mean? It means that Audi might be in the works of a future RS1 model, as even hinted by their head of design, Stefan Sielaff.

“Internally we refer to this car (the Clubsport) as the RS1,” he said.

Featuring a highly tuned version of the 2.5L five-banger, which normally produces 332-hp and is found in the TTRS and the RS3 Sportback, the Audi A1 Clubsport’s was reworked to produce 503-hp after also being reworked to 400-hp in an experimental TT. Mated to a six-speed manual cog swapper with Audi’s traditional Quattro all-wheel drive system, the Audi A1 Clubsport can get from 0-60 in 3.7 seconds and do 0-124 in 11 seconds.

Click here for our original post on the Audi A1 clubsport quattro.

“The A1’s engine bay doesn’t need modified to house the five-cylinder motor,” said the design chief. Additionally, the A1’s steel unibody was lightened by 400kg thanks to large doses of carbon fiber.

Currently, Sielaff said that the model current rendition would be way extreme for mass production, not because of cost, but because there’s much more design and engineering potential such as reducing the car’s weight by an additional 200kg.

On the outside, all of the panels are wider than on the standard A1 and on the inside, the rear seats were removed so that racing harnesses and two crash helmets could be placed, both donning the names of Audi’s CEO Rpert Stadler and R&D’s chief Michael Dick.

Audi A1 clubsport quattro:

Audi A1 clubsport quattro Audi A1 clubsport quattro Audi A1 clubsport quattro Audi A1 clubsport quattro

– By: Chris Chin

Source: WhatCar