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Volkswagen Polo R And Audi S1 Coming, With All-Wheel-Drive: Report

The on-again off-again saga of the rumoured Polo R and all-wheel-drive Audi S1 continues this week, with reports out of Europe claiming that Volkswagen and its luxury brand Audi are now hard at work on both cars.

Despite reports in May that Volkswa


The on-again off-again saga of the rumoured Polo R and all-wheel-drive Audi S1 continues this week, with reports out of Europe claiming that Volkswagen and its luxury brand Audi are now hard at work on both cars.

Despite reports in May that Volkswagen would follow the launch of the Golf's flagship R model with a Polo equivalent, the company's technical chief Dr Ernst Linder wrote it off weeks later as mere media speculation.

More recently, Audi reportedly cancelled plans to launch a front-wheel-drive S1 at the Paris Auto Show, naming it instead the A1 1.4 TFSI (the same engine driving the Polo GTI) - leaving room for a more powerful S1 flagship down the track.

This week, a report by British magazine Autocar claims that Volkswagen has revisited the idea and is now developing an all-wheel-drive version of its PQ25 architecture; the platform that currently underpins both the A1 and the Volkswagen Polo.

If the report is to be believed, the Audi S range will remain all-wheel-drive right through to the S1. More, for the development costs to be worthwhile, all-wheel-drive Polo models could conceivably be produced - in the form of the S1-equivalent Polo R and, in Europe at least, the CrossPolo.

While the Polo GTI and the range-topping A1 are powered by a turbo- and super-charged 1.4 litre TSI petrol engine developing a respectable 135kW, the S1 and Polo R would likely feature a more highly-tuned version of the same engine, or a larger 1.6 litre engine.

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