Supercar

Those who prioritise standout design with a peppy level of sportiness must have a huge soft spot for the Audi TT through three generations, triggered by its daring Bauhaus styling influences at its launch, and the careful evolutionary maturation of its looks and behaviour since.

It has always strived to give us entertaining levels of performance in a shape that commands attention. See a TT passing by and there is never a chance you’ll confuse it with anything else.

Initially a style beacon which has strived for acceptance as a true hot performing enthusiast’s car, it is now pushing the performance envelope in its latest Audi Sport RS versions of the TT Coupe and Roadster, the latter sold in Australia for the first time.

The last TT RS (for renn or race sport) was quick. This one is faster again. Damned quick. Supercar quick.

It looks edgy enough without being overtly ostentatious, instantly identifiable with a bold new front with larger intakes in the lower corners to suck in cooling air, a honeycomb grille, and a more pronounced lower spoiler.  At the rear, the RS has larger exhaust pipes, a prominent diffuser, and a fixed rear wing.

To prepare the TT RS for the racetrack, do nothing more than belt up tight and make the obvious Drive Select pick. Dynamic optimises the key elements for fast lap times; livelier throttle, steering, transmission, quattro, firmer dampers….then there’s that engine…

The new lightweight aluminium version of the acclaimed turbocharged 2.5-litre in-line five-cylinder TFSI bangs out 294kW – equivalent to 400 horsepower in the old money – and 480Nm. That’s an extra 44kW over the recent second-generation TT RS. More grunt in a lighter machine.

Hooked up to  the dual-clutch S tronic paddle shifting transmission and quattro all-paw grab-and-go, and using launch control, the new under-bonnet business section fires the TT RS Coupe from rest to 100km/h in a hugely impressive 3.7 seconds.  

So the muscled-up little Audi can embarrass quite a bunch of exotic models costing twice as much. We won’t name names.

All this performance is accompanied by a fantastic, natural soundtrack from the large exhaust pipes, a magical growling and cackling and popping as the revs rise as you upshift, or on the over run. A button on the console opens flaps in the exhaust, unleashing glorious, fully amplified sounds  – deeper and louder.

The cockpit feels right too, from the alcantara and leather flat-bottomed sports wheel (with red starter button prominent), the dash which is a mix of style and an underlying serious intent, with the virtual cockpit providing three display modes. For the track there’s a sport mode with central rev counter and performance-oriented secondary displays such as lap timer, charge pressure et al. Other RS-specific functions include a gear shift light, G-Meter, shift light and tyre pressure or tyre temperature readings.

Importantly, the driver’s torso and tush are firmly located in luxury-look diamond quilt-stitched leather sports buckets, adjustable every which way.

The TT RS is a track machine that can flatter less-experienced drivers, such is its composure and absence of body roll through the fast corners at Phillip Island Raceway, sometime approaching 200km/h.

The balance has been improved with the lighter engine. Having 26 fewer kilograms over the front wheels has reduced the natural tendency to understeer. The front end will still push out when pushing hard, but then simply offset by easing off the accelerator.

It feels unfussed. Yet the lap timer doesn’t tell fibs. It’s a very accomplished track machine.

Cutting a number of laps does ask questions of overworked 20-inch 30-series tyres, especially the fronts. It starts to slide more, but even so the Audi is easily tamed by sensibly using the throttle in conjunction with the quite direct steering. Its inherent high grip levels, and clever quattro system which directs torque to the wheel or wheels that need it most, must make the TT RS such a great weapon in rainy track conditions or in tarmac events like Targa Tasmania where nasty surprises await competitors around many blind corners.

The TT RS pair also present with larger front brakes – 370mm front rotors clamped by eight-piston fixed calipers, and 310mm rotors with single-piston sliding calipers in the rear. And if you like to hit the track frequently, there are optional $8900 carbon-ceramic rotors for the front wheels. Mad if you don’t tick this box.

In these days of nanny-state tut-tutting, even high-performance cars are not supposed to guzzle like footy players on Mad Mondays. The TT RS’s 8.2 litres/100km combined cycle claim is more than impressive when factoring in its potential for feverish hammer-down performance.

A lengthy drive along back roads circling Melbourne through the Yarra Valley showed the TT RS is an easy cruiser along semi-rural secondary roads, its naturally firm suspension dominated by the standard ‘super-dooper' adaptive magnetic ride technology and influenced by experimenting with the spread of Drive Select choices, but inevitably always retaining overt sportiness. If your backside demands a ‘plush’ mode, you are doomed to disappointment.

Left to do its own gear changes in the ‘Comfort’ setting, the TT RS ambles along effortlessly, its lashings of peak torque (available at 1700rpm and still on tap until peak power at 5850rpm) and S tronic seven speeder removing much of the thinking and effort from motoring.

The first-time availability here of the TT RS Roadster will excite drop top traditionalists who like their hair riffled by the open air as they drive under the stars or bathed in sunshine.

With a soft top lowered or raised in just 10 seconds, the RS Roadster has a few nice extra features including a neck-level blower heating, pop-up electric wind block, roll hoops,  and tiny button microphones in the seatbelts to better engage with Siri, or your passenger.

The trade-off for the choice of a hideaway power roof is a little more cabin noise and ever-so-slightly slower acceleration due to it being 90 kilos heavier and a teeny bit less slippery through the air. There are also a couple of predictable compromises in functionality about which sports car owners know well.

 The Roadster is a two seater with a 280-litre cargo boot. Big enough for a dirty weekend away.

Alongside the drop top, the RS Coupe seems spectacularly practical, being capable of carrying a couple of littlies in the rear as well as having a slightly larger 305 litre cargo area, expanding to 712 with seats folded.       

With the TT RS Coupe selling for $137,900 with the Roadster another $4000, the bang for the buck quotient of both is impossible to ignore, the TT RS’s appeal broadened by its versatility as a fun track car or a friendly daily driver.