Up close with Luke’s Audi A1 Quattro for the last time
That kickass Audi A1 Quattro that dominated Instagram? That’s what this article is about
There’s those few times in a decade when a car manufacturer actually builds a car you’ve been dreaming of, for me the Audi A1 Quattro is one of those. Rally Group B was something I was obsessed about back in the day. Fair enough, I’m not that old but you get the point: this A1 looks ready to rally. When Audi launched the 5-cylinder carrying, 500hp concept in 2011, the assumption that it would never be real krept into my head. Audi never actually did build that car, instead they went crazy on a serie of 333 Audi A1 units.
Over triple the price of its entry-level siblings, it actually feels three times as special. Feels yes, as it’s hard to rationalize that feeling. Or isn’t it? There are plenty of unique traits to this car, traits like a 2 liter TFSI engine pushing out 256 horsepower, it only weighing slightly more than a standard A1, it having a manual gearbox and its Quattro drivetrain. There was nothing similar out there when it was launched, but there used to be. As it is often referred to as the symbolic Audi S1 successor and that little Audi A1 Quattro really feels like it wants to rally.
“What body part do you think I can sell for this car?” – Beau
Of course I didn’t rally with the beast, but we covered plenty of distance with it. Wether it was just for grabbing a pizza at Vapiano, driving down to Turin for Cars and Coffee or making a video, each meter covered meant I knew more about the car. One of the times we ended up in Zurich and it actually managed to stand out between all the supercars, ladies and the gold plated streets. It seriously had that much of a presence that Beau and I were kind of overwhelmed the first time we saw it. “What body part do you think I can sell for this car?” Beau asked me. It really was that bad.
All those miles with this pocket-sized supercar makes you realize how unique these things are with their unbreakable grip, killer interiors, uniquely constructed fuel tanks and other details like the highly desired rims. And then there’s Luke’s touch to the car, including lowering it to a point beyond what’s considered practical. Not the engine tune to 300-and-one horsepower made the biggest change, that was when Luke slapped on a concept inspired grill. It’s not the A1 Quattro concept, but it does come close.
He sold the car a few weeks back, meaning this is one of the last times we’ll be writing or posting about this infamous Audi A1 Quattro. Looking back, it’s safe to say that the hype for this car is justified. Leaving us to conclude that we’re going to miss an Audi. Who would have thought.
