bradley emmanuel

In many ways this 840lb, tandem-seat machine is the most important car at the show and just as much a supercar as the Lamborghini Reventón or Bugatti Sang Bleu.

It teaches people that 'super’ powers don’t have to equate with a gargantuan size, weight and fuel consumption. Super is as super does and the L1 has super in spades.
Very much Dr Ferdinand Piëch’s ba(he ordered former R&D boss Ulrich Eichhorn to build a one litre per 100km or 283mpg car in 1998), the L1’s the result of VW’s heavyweight research into using lightweight exotic body materials such as carbon fibre in less expensive ways.

It uses one half of a 1.6-litre TDI engine in a hybrid installation to give amazing fuel economy. It also looks the business. The 800cc, twin-cylinder, common-rail, turbodiesel is joined by a 14bhp electric motor.

The engine operates in two modes with the eco mode giving 7bhp and sport mode 29bhp, the electric motor provides extra acceleration and can power the L1 on its own for short distances.

The L1’s headline fuel consumption is an EU Combined figure of 180mpg with CO2 emissions of 39g/km. In spite of its Lilliputian power, lightweight and a remarkable aerodynamic drag coefficient of just 0.195 means the L1 can achieve a top speed of 99mph, with 0-62mph acceleration in 14.3sec.

VW, knowing of The Telegraph’s interest in the technology, gave us a view the car before the show opened. To sit in, the L1 is very like the original one-litre concept, but better upholstered and with more space between the driver and the wrap-around dashboard.

The powered Plexiglass canopy shuts silently but the cabin is light and airy and there is no sense of claustrophobia. To avoid the drag of wing mirrors, small television cameras display rear views on each side of the dashboard.

One aspect of the driving experience which has been retained from the concept is the 'sailing’ feature. When you take your foot off the throttle, the VW will coast with the engine off, or “sail”, as the German engineers put it