The picture here is taken in Montreal, where the car is currently the star attraction of a little self-congratulatory shindig Audi is having called 'Fascination of quattro'. It's apparently been running for 31 years.
Interestingly, the accompanying press release makes no mention of what's under the bonnet of this prototype, but it does say this: '[The car] reaffirms the Vorsprung durch Technik brand's commitment, made at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, to underpin future high performance variants of the A1 with this proven driver aid.'
High-performance it is, then. Could it be the 180hp 1.4-litre TFSI found in the VW Polo GTI and Skoda Fabia RS? Or something even fierier? Imagine that. We'll find out soon enough - probably at the Geneva Show in March.
For the time being, what this car certainly means is that every single model in Audi's range now has a quattro version somewhere. Audi totals it at 120 variants, from this through to the R8 supercar.
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