Hot Tuner
Gallery 1
Harding Performance has a long history of modifying kit from the broader Volkswagen family, so it was no real surprise to learn that the Audi S1 had copped the full treatment.
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Except, according to boss man Guy Harding, it didn’t. Pardon? Well, it seems Harding’s brand-new bionic knee has had him on crutches and out of the workshop for a month. And that absence has had an impact on what his team were able to achieve in the run up to Hot Tuner.
“The car has one of the first Stage 3 turbochargers which has all new internals and is capable of exceeding 500 horsepower. Unfortunately, we didn’t get time to finish the engine calibration, so we had to wind the power output right down to safely make the event.”
“The clutch was one of the things we had to overcome. We had to ditch the factory, self-adjusting unit and put in something nice and driveable, but capable of handling 600Nm. We have achieved that well with good driveability, but even with the raised RPM limit [on the launch control system] she’s still tricky to launch.”
He’s not kidding. Part of the solution there was to develop in-house a performance flywheel to suit the clutch. There’s also a HP four-piston brake conversion kit, which uses bits and pieces like Porsche 996/987S calipers and an increase in both thickness and diameter of the rotors. “For track laps, this gives us a nice, consistent pedal feel where the stockers fade out super-fast.”
So tell us about the wild paint scheme, Guy. “The livery was our interpretation of the true meaning of S1. I decided to do that after we hit over 500 horsepower in crank testing. Unfortunately – like I said – we couldn’t bring that unfinished calibration with us for Hot Tuner, as long-term testing hadn’t been done. And, yeah, the same thing happened with our Golf R.”
So how’s that Terminator knee? “It’s getting there,” says the stoic Harding. Kinda like the Audi S1, truth be told.
SPECIFICATIONS Drive: all-wheel Engine: 1984cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo Gearbox: 6-speed manual Suspension: A-arms, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 330mm ventilated/slotted discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 272mm solid discs, single-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 18 x 8.0-inch (f/r) Tyres: 225/35 ZR18 (f/r); Continental Contact Sport S
PARTS AND PRICES Stage 3 kit: $5500 Intercooler: $1695 Exhaust: $4450 Intake: $995 Clutch/flywheel: $1995 Suspension: $3900 Bushes: $280 Brakes: $1995 Wheels/Tyres: $3395 Total mods cost: $24,205 Vehicle cost (mSrp): $49,900 Total cost: $74,105
