This looks like game over. A pair of tall
and extremely solid steel sliding gates block our road. Which is annoying, as we’ve been driving for hours and have got
within a couple of miles of our destination, a tiny island the other side of
the bridge-causeway that these gates are protecting. We draw the S1 to a
halt. No one’s around, which is OK, as we’ve been avoiding people all day.
Then, bidden by unseen will, the gates glide apart. Glancing furtively around,
we advance.
We’re not exactly fugitives, but neither are we quite
supposed to be here. Audi has lent TG its new S1 in central Sweden, on the
understanding we’ll have a brief, closely supervised play in the snow in the
immediate vicinity, then meekly hand it back. But, of course, we want to know
what it’s like on actual tarmac. So as they hand over the key, I mumble that
I’ll stick to their rules, while strenuously avoiding all eye contact. Because
I know that once out of their clutches, we’ve got many hours of driving ahead,
clear across a vast slab of the Scandiwegian
peninsula to the Atlantic coast of Norway, where the sea keeps things warmer
and snow-free – if wetter and windier and unrelentingly greyer.
The Audi S1 is
rapid, engaging and fun in all weather conditions
This is a handy getaway car. Small and nuggety in size, big in heart and capability. Its
generously turbocharged endowment of torque and power has quattro,
all its four wheels clawing at whatever perfidious surfaces lie beneath. Plus
it’s on tyres that resemble the equipment on an
original Audi S1, the Group B car, tackling an ice stage of the Monte. We’re
wearing more studs than a San Francisco bikers’ meet.
Thumbing the starter wakes the familiar VW Group 2.0-litre
variable-valve-lift FSI turbo, the one with 231bhp and 273lb ft. It’s hot in a Golf GTI, perfectly OK even in a Q5. Sure enough, it’s a
right firecracker in an A1: 0–62mph in 5.8 seconds. At idle, there’s a cheeky
little throb. I wriggle down into the tall-backed RecaroClutch?
Yes, this car is refreshingly innocent of gadgetry. No S tronic transmission, no cameras nor radar, no active
steering. The driver’s connection to the road is largely unmediated by digital
interventions. Why, it’s even got an actual handbrake, operated by human
muscle.
throne, set the bum-warmer to stun and press the clutch.
Peak torque of
272lb ft arrives at 1600rpm
You sit high in this upright little car, which is the right
viewpoint for attacking the snowy, icy, gravelly forest tracks that break us
free from Audi’s minders. No chance of using much of the power yet. First dab
of the throttle and all four wheels loosen their hold. Do the same in a corner
and the centre diff awakes,
the back wheels get in on the act and the attitude swings accordingly. The
intermediate ESP setting lets you hold a skid-lite without any particular input
of skill.
Can’t be too lairy,
though, because it’s not as empty as it looks round here. Aside from the
threat of a van-sized piece of antler-wearing wildlife presenting itself in
your windscreen, here’s a bloke on Nordic skis, making rapid progress along our
route. His auxiliary power comes from a harness drawn along by a vigorously
panting husky dog.
The S1 sits 25mm
lower than the A1 and wears 17 inches alloys
We turn onto the main road, a road so main it has a proper
European E-number, but it’s gloriously deserted all the same. Off we set
westwards. It will be a long time before anything else happens. It’s a broad
highway, flanked by deep swathes cut out of the forest, its curves so
wide-radius they barely register. The palette is grey sky, light grey snow,
dark grey rock, grey-brown fields, grey-green moss, and a streak of yellow
Audi.
