Thursday 22 December 2011

Road - Audi's baby Quattro

If you haven’t yet posted your Christmas list up the lum to Santa you might want to add something. Audi are to build a baby Quattro. That’s the good news, the bad news is that they will only make 333 of the rascals – in total!

Based on the A1, the little flyer will have a turbocharged, directly injected 2.0 litre four-cylinder petrol engine with 253 bhp and 350 Nm of torque. This should give it the performance to hit 62 mph from rest in 5.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 152 mph. And if you need to justify it to the wife/girlfriend/parents then just tell them it can do 33.2 mpg.

A six-speed manual gearbox manages the all wheel drive transmission although it will run as FWD drive in normal conditions until it senses any loss of traction, at which point the clutch will transfer torque steplessly to the rear axle. The secret is an electronically controlled, hydraulically actuated multi-plate clutch in which the plates rotate in an oil bath.

In a matter of milliseconds the package of plates are forced together to provide drive to the rear axle. In fact the multi-plate clutch has been positioned on the rear axle to ensure optimum weight distribution.
There are no colour choices, as the car comes in black and white only, and is finished off with an exclusive set of 18-inch turbine design alloy wheels and two big 100 mm exhaust pipes poking out the back.


Naturally the interior gets the treatment too with black Silk Nappa leather trim and contrasting red stitching. The multi-adjustable front S sport seats are deeply sculpted with a flat-bottomed steering wheel dead ahead.

And when you’re sitting still you can play with  the 465-watt 14-speaker Bose sound system with illuminated woofers in the doors!

There’s no price as yet, but the really bad news is that Audi has no plans to import the left hand drive only car into the UK – unless there is sufficient public demand! Over to you.

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