Ingolstadt’s smallest SUV is at its most confident and capable in a hot crossover format.

 Price: $80,900

Powertrain and economy: 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol, 221kW/400Nm, 7-speed direct shift gearbox, four-wheel drive, combined economy 7.2 L/100km, xx g/km.

Vital statistics: 4210mm long, 1802mm wide, 1524mm high, mm wheelbase. Luggage space 355/726 litres. 19-inch alloy wheels.

We like: Super nimble, seriously rorty, practical, a looker.

We don’t like: Firm urban ride, cockpit design dating now. 

ALPHANUMERICS in place of model names has always been the Audi way,  but not to any detriment – if anything, it’s become incredible how even a modest catchment of letters and numerals can say so much.

 Example: Audi defines the Q2 as its smallest sports utility. You might determine it to be a crossover but, anyway, semantics aside when an S prefix is added it becomes an exceptionally spirited one: 0-100kmh in under five seconds, a top speed comfortably above 200kmh. 

 That something so small could be so sensational makes sense when you look into the name. Basically, it has to be quick because of history.

Remove the Q and you’re left with a nameplate that has big kudos within the Audi Sport family.

The S2 was a muscled coupe that was built in the early 1990s as an evolution of the famous Quattro, a car that became the precursor to the first-ever Renn Sport car, the RS2.

Turn the clock back to today and the SQ2 is … well, clearly not the same thing in look as that famous forebear. So different you’d not be on the wrong track if finding it hard to conceive seeing this small luxury crossover running with race numbers. Simply, you won’t.

However, the motorsport side of things is worth discussing for one reason. Look under the bonnet and you’ll find an engine that has acquitted famously in that arena.

The EA888 turbocharged petrol 2.0-litre engine, a mill that has very much become a hot hatch hero choice within the Volkswagen Group. The Golf GTi, for one, would not be going anywhere without it.

Beside being a road car ripper, this engine has another occupation. It’s also the powerplant that’s the basis for the engine you’ll find in the Golf GTI and Audi RS3 LMS TCR, that being shorthand for ‘touring car racing’. Sure, the racing version delivers in a more highly-developed form than the brand would ever allow on the road (potentially a disappointment to those who bought into the TCR limited edition version of the previous Golf GTi).

Even so, this is exactly the kind of bombshell factoid that will be needed when discussing the SQ2 with car nerds, should they start to pick on the visual impression.

For sure, it doesn’t look like a hot hatch, nor could it because … well, like I say, SUV/crossover. Regardless that it’s not actually intended for off-seal driving, being a member of Audi’s ‘Q’ branch brings requirement to at least affect some degree of impression that it’s got a degree of gumption for rock-climbing.

 Thus it has an elevated ride height. Not by a huge amount – in fact, in this mode it’s 20mm lower than a regular Q2 – yet, it still seems to stand a bit too high to be considered a tarmac hugger.

Don’t sweat it. Crack on in this car with confidence; you’ll discover it’s high-set ways have little relevant bearing on its demeanour. That it scampers around corners every bit as adeptly as Audi’s equivalent pukka performance hatch, the S3 (which has the same engine) suggests it’s got the good genes.

Which isn’t a new impression, by the way. It’s hardly been more than a year since I last drove this model. The 2021 version brings some changes, but mainly in the cabin technology. Nothing that alters the basic DNA. Which is great.

The big attraction is how well-developed it is, insofar as the engineering goes. Like I say, when you push, it comes into its own. The quattro side of things is as emphatically attuned to fast road driving as the drivetrain and the ‘S-specific’ steering and big brakes likewise.

 Body control is tight enough that you feel confident enacting rapid direction changes. Grip is unflappable and though you can feel the Haldex system metering the power among the wheels under heavy load, with propensity for understeer if you go too hard too soon, it’s not ever without traction.

Find a road with as many bends as straights, snick into the Sport modes and … well, it’s SO much livelier and involving than the standard Q2 as to make you wonder if they’ve simply taken the donor’s badge, and nothing else, for attachment to an entirely new thing.

The engine’s generous torque is a talking point - there’s so much low-down pulling power, and yet it doesn’t mind being wrung out to the redline, too.

The ‘progressive steering’, aka a variable ratio set-up, is accurate and responsive, allowing you to place the car with ease.

Any flaws? In any performance model developed to a German formula, the ride quality is firm, but here the springs seem especially stiff. Around town  it feels fidgety and harsh and it doesn’t really settle down at speed, either. And there’s a lot of road noise off coarse chip.

One other thing. From looking at it, you might wonder how it could be such a little monster. As much as the low-profile rubber and a performance bodykit, with a more pronounced front splitter, four exhaust pipes – as is the standard for an Audi S car – lift interest, it is still just a bit … well … cutesy in kerbside ambience.

Slipping inside, meanwhile, delivers different thought. Even with the usual sporty garnishes implanted, the emphasis on the interior treatment does seem to be a push more toward posh and premium than performance.

It’s also becoming apparent that, even with the Virtual Cockpit tech, the architecture is starting to date. Not just size but also font style betray the MMI screen’s age. You could say that it also having a physical set of buttons for stuff like the climate controls is also a sign of it being from another period, yet … well, actually, I quite like those. You can change the temperature in the cabin without having to glance down at the centre console.

It’s obviously a small car, to the point that with a tall driver on board rear leg space directly behind becomes basically non-existent, but the driving position is fantastic.

You can set the race-style chair very low and also adjust the steering column as well to maintain best relationship with that thick-rimmed, leather-wrapped steering wheel, to the point where it feels more sports car than little SUV. The compromises on interior space also intrude into the boot, though for a different reason; the S-model loses 50 litres of boot space due to the exhaust back-box under the boot floor. Seems a small price to pay for a playful note.

And there’s a word that sums up the SQ2. Buy into this and you’re bypassing hard and fast value – Audi is so fortunate there’s no direct equivalent for this in the VW, Cupra and Skoda ranges - for frivolity and verve, the likes of which are fast heading into the sunset. in the here and now, this model does a sweet job and is far too good to restrict to the café beat and school run.

In the future? Well, with Audi moving fast to establish high ground among providers of premium electric performance-themed models, it’d be great to see something exactly like this plugging into that formula at some point.