Audi A1 review:
1.4 TSI 122PS Competition Line
by Mike Grundon (26 January 2012)
Honestly, I feel so cheap for being so easily led, but even as I approached this special edition version of the Audi A1 I was already starting to smile. Despite only having the 120bhp version of the 1.4-litre petrol engine, the car is painted up like a quattro rally car with 18" black alloy wheels, ivory paint with coloured stripes on the outside and inside, and a great big number 1 on the bonnet and, unusually enough, indoors on the side of the transmission tunnel.
It was a rich soup of mixed emotions as I got into the black leather driving seat. I was trying hard to be cool about the little car, to take a dispassionate and objective test drive to see what it's really like, to put aside the influence of the garish paint job. At the same time I was smiling widely inside and simultaneously proud of my borrowed carriage, and slightly nervous that if I put just one foot wrong on the Queen's highway, everyone would notice and get very grumpy indeed.
Having a small car painted like a dragon-slaying rally car is effectively like having a do-it-yourself get-arrested kit. The world thinks "boy racer", even if I'm clearly in the finishing stretch of the race to the age of 50 and many decades beyond the upper limits of the term "boy". And if the lieges are watching, any passing patrol car is going to be paying particular attention to my positioning on the carriageway, my speed relative to conditions, by-laws and legislation, and my general attitude to fellow road users.
In short, I may see myself as every inch the stylish and sexually potent rally driver, but the rest of the world sees "bad attitude" and prepares to stick the moral boot in.
So there's me firing up the engine, adjusting the seat and tying myself into the seatbelt as I'm working out how to put the car through its paces without drawing attention to myself. The only conclusion I could reach was, "To hell with it. Get out there and enjoy yourself."
And enjoy myself I did. The little car is a hoot. Just like in the bog standard model, the front wheels are driven by a four-cylinder 1390cc petrol engine which despite its pocket capacity has its power boosted by a turbocharger and intercooler. Although it's one of the smallest Audis on the road, both in dimensions and power, it pumps out enough go to bring up 62mph in just under nine seconds and rumble on up to a top speed of 126mph.
The suspension is far from harsh but it is undeniably firm so it has no problem keeping a car weighing just 1100kg upright through the corners. Couple this with swift and accurate steering and a similarly taut short-shifting manual six-speed gearbox, and you have a recipe for top fun.
The car is so easy to place on the road, visibility all-round is so good and the engine so free-revving and responsive that you feel you're wearing the car rather than sitting in it. You enjoy the twist and shout roads because they force you to play with the box of gears, you look forward to the corners because there's something nice about going round them flat-out and flat, and you don't resent other traffic for holding you up because it's so quick and easy to overtake.
Having driven the little three-door hatchback at the end of a day of relatively performance and prestige cars, I genuinely concluded that this was the best fun I'd yet had, and while it wasn't totally down to the wild paint job, the rally look did add significantly to the experience.
And I suspect the model without the go-faster stripes has a similar sized pot of joy to be dipped into. Audi has some nice colour combinations, though I'm not so sure about the silvered metal-arch that runs up the A pillar, along the roof line, and down the tail.
It's such a good-looking car, though, with those narrowed headlights, the sleek cockpit and the aesthetically pleasing proportions between the amount of flank metal and wheel. Beside most other small cars, it has a purposeful and grown-up look to it. And it has those four rings on the bonnet that say so much.
I think Audi should run this Competition Line edition to a limited production of 99 cars, all with a unique number of their own and automatic membership of an owners' club. There could be rallies, conventions, time trials, hillclimbs and other pride-of-ownership events organised around them and everyone would have a fine time of it.
Members could do good public works and raise money for charity and get a name for good manners, good attitudes and a healthy attitude to having fun on the road. Other road users would have spotters' guides and smile as if they'd ticked another Eddie Stobart lorry off their list.
The one thing that could slow enthusiasm for the idea would have to be the price, because this version sells for almost £17,500 despite its relatively low spec and easy road manners. But it's a genuinely useful little car with plenty of comfortable space for passengers inside.
It'll officially do an average of over 53 miles on a gallon of unleaded, but with this alarming paint job and the accompanying styling effort trying to draw you on at pace, I suspect you'd need the patience of a saint to achieve such a thing.
It's not the quickest accelerating car in the world but it feels keen and urgent when you step on the go pedal. There's more enthusiasm than ability, but that enthusiasm seems limitless so no apology is necessary.
I have nothing bad to say about the car. It's adequately quick, satisfyingly nimble and very good-looking, with or without the jazz graphics outside and in. But it's a special little car that calls for a special kind of owner – one with supreme self-confidence and who doesn't mind all eyes being on him or her.
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