I’m a huge fan of small cars; most of them are lightweight which makes them super fun to throw around in corners. The small cars available in North America do have one major problem, lack of power, I did own a Cooper S but the 175 HP didn’t seem enough. There is a new small car on the market that takes care of that problem, the car is the Audi A1 Quattro and it comes with 256 ponies, unfortunately it won’t be sold in North America, so we’re back at square one…
The Audi A1 Quattro comes with the company’s famous all-wheel-drive system, a first for the A1 series. The sub-compact hatchback is powered by a turbocharged 2.0 liter engine with direct injection and puts out 256 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 258 pound-feet (350 Nm) of torque from 2,000 to 4,300 rpm. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission helping the car reach 62 mph in 5.7 seconds with an electronically controlled top speed of 152 mph.
The car’s white body and wheel paint scheme takes inspiration from the Quattro rally cars of the 80’s. The A1 Quattro features a very sporty exterior with an aggressive front bumper with large air-intakes, side skirts, a rear diffuser, and a roof mounted spoiler. The car rides on 18” cast alloy wheels with 225/35 series tires.
The interior is typical Audi with dark colors and aluminum trim; the sporty buckets seats are covered in black Nappa leather with contrasting red stitches.
The Audi A1 Quattro will be available in the second half of 2012 as a limited edition model; only 333 of these pocket rockets will be produced.
Audi A1 Quattro Pictures
What about the 2011/2012 Subaru WRX? It’s not exactly as small as a Mini, but the sedan is still pretty small by today’s standards. It’s got 265HP stock, all-wheel drive, and it does 0-60 in 4.6s. All for $25K!
Granted, it’s a bare-bones car, spartan in comparison to an Audi.. But since the A1 isn’t coming to the states, that’s really a moot point. 🙂
The WRX is a good car but still not that small IMO. Sub-compacts like the Fiat 500, Cooper, Fiesta etc with 250+ HP would make life very interesting and if the manufacturers threw in rear-wheel drive, then sign me up!!
Well, keep waiting. We’re getting the Focus ST this year and a new WRX should be coming very soon (seems the 2012 Impreza is an excellent base), and if those aren’t small enough, there’s a Fiesta ST coming (~180bhp, but in that size should be a blast), and the 500 Abarth will be arriving around 180bhp too. There’s always the JCW mini too, and the excellent GTI with ~200bhp. We’ll get the Golf R too, with AWD and ~265bhp, and GTI’s are easily chipped to around the same if pure power is your priority.
You can’t really just “throw in” real wheel drive, and we don’t get a lot of rear wheel drive platforms here due to lack of demand/consumer knowledge. That said, we have the BMW 1M coupe and now we’ll be getting the BRZ and FR-S, with likely turbo versions on their way. They’re not hatchbacks, but they’re the smallest you’re like to get (even in Europe really) on a RWD platform.
Cheers,
Ben
Yeah I’m looking forward to the Focus ST, I forgot about the 1M which should be a blast to drive. Also looking forward to the FR-S/BRZ, I was a bit disappointed with the 200 HP figure but I did hear Toyota is working on a supercharged version, hopefully that puts out over 250 HP, it should be serious competition to the 370Z, I know the Z has more power but it’s a heavier car. 2012 is looking good.
Agreed on all points.
I’ve always been a fan of the 370Z, but competition can only be a good thing, and the lower weight and centre of gravity on the FR-S/BRZ pair seems promising. It’ll be interesting to see the face off between Subaru’s turbocharged version and Toyota’s supercharged one.
The Audi hatch looks amazing but you can be sure it will cost close to $40K in such limited production numbers. If your talking sub compacts one really has to consider Car and Drivers top 10 small “hot hatch” pick the Mazdaspeed 3. At ~ $24K fully loaded it packs a whopping 263 hp. Sure the torque steer will give you fits at first but once you master the point and shoot steering this baby will run with and around cars three times it’s price. With a cold air intake and cat back you are producing close to 300 hp….go with the factory Mazdaspeed coil overs and shocks and some sticky tread and you will need 60 grand worth of auto to stay in the hunt.