Anyone who knows ABT Sportsline knows that the German tuner isn’t the type to roll out tuning programs that border on obscenity. It’s not Mansory. It’s not TopCar. Heck, it’s not even Brabus. ABT Sportsline sits on the more refined side of the tuning fence, but every so often, it’s not afraid to let it’s hair down and go stir crazy. Such episodes can result in something like this: a “1of1” wide-body Audi A1 that’s going to make Tony Stark blush with envy. There’s absolutely nothing that’s refined about this particular Audi A1. It’s the kind of program you’re more likely to see at SEMA than at the Geneva Motor Show. There’s nothing wrong about it, though, and, in some ways, it speaks to a wild side that ABT Sportsline rarely gets to show. Judging by how raunchy this A1 looks, we’re not opposed to seeing ABT Sportsline’s alter ego more often.

I’m a big fan of ABT Sportsline. I’m a fan of its programs. I’m a fan of its projects. I’m a fan of what it has built in all its years in the aftermarket business. But like most fans, I have, at one point or another, lamented about ABT Sportsline’s seeming ambivalence in going out of its comfort zone in building a program that will simply blow people away.

Well, consider this Audi A1 “One of One” project a perfect example of how to “blow people away.” I’m not just blown away. I’m floored by this project. The exterior, for example, features an intricately designed red and black livery with incredible patterns and details laid out throughout the body of the hatchback. There’s gold trim, too, that adds more personality to the hot hatch. If the setup looks familiar, it’s because you've probably seen something like it in the past, specifically on the Audi RS6+ Avant Phoenix that ABT Sportsline built for Jon Olsson last year.

Even the interior went through significant changes, something that you don’t often see from a lot of ABT Sportsline’s publicized tuning programs. The rear seats in this hatchback are gone, replaced instead by a roll cage that should come handy when this hot hatch is laying waste to fools on the road or the strip. The front section, on the other hand, features bespoke sports seats while the rest of the interior is laid out in fine Alcantara.

Mind you, this A1 isn’t powered by the stock 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine like most A1s are. Instead, it’s powered by the motorsport-spec 2.0 TFSI engine from the TT Cup race car, the same engine that produces 310 horsepower and comes with an overboost function that temporarily squeezes an extra 30 horsepower, giving it an output of 340 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. It would’ve been impressive already if that was the end of that. But ABT Sportsline didn’t just drop the donor engine into the hot hatch; it also tweaked and fiddled with it to gain access to 400 horsepower. That kind of output can lay the smackdown on pretty much every hot hatch in the market today. Throw in a straight-pipe exhaust system that provides a brutal soundtrack and it’s easy to see why this creation more than lives up to its “One of One” billing.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2019 Audi A1.