The petite and versatile TT is good. This one with a barely-tamed 400-PS Audi RS heart simply blows your socks off.
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Audi AG
The best way to get close to the sweet balance of a six while getting more out of a four is a five. Is that what it is though? Audi have a more potent 2.5-five in the new TT RS, and Car India was invited to Madrid and the Jarama race track in Spain to load up on the essence and see what it was all about.
Now, the 2.5-litre straight-five motor isn’t all-new. It showed up in a YouTube video of a little red car drifting on ice where Audi asked you and I, the fans, to guess what motor was making that sort of noise. What that was, was an RS 3 with the 2.5 five-cylinder in-line motor making 340 PS and 450 Nm. Fast forward to the present and the latest version, with 367 PS and 465 Nm, is doing duty in the RS 3 and RS Q3. Of course, here, in the TT, today, it has all of 400 PS and 480 Nm, and sounds like the devil himself cackling at what was accomplished.
We’ve already seen what the TT is like, and we loved it. Personally, I think it’s one of the most useful cars out there. Its compact size, short wheelbase and frugal turbo-petrol motor make it a perfect everyday sports car. The RS is similar-sized and just as petite; however, it does look a lot sharper. Apart from the ‘TT RS’ badging, there’s a more pronounced front grille surround, wider air-intakes and lower-lip available with a silver matte-finish that identify it as the fastest of the lot. There are also larger, sleeker-looking 20-inch wheels with lower 255/35 rubber. At the rear are a set of absolutely hypnotic Matrix OLED 3D tail-lamp clusters that look jaw-droppingly alive; like something straight out of a psychedelic music video from the 1990s.
The interior is more than reminiscent of the R8, having everything from the Virtual Cockpit to the steering wheel, complete with the Audi drive select and big red start button. Like the R8, it also seems to have a particular urge to deplete Audi’s alcantara reserve. The seats are essentially sports buckets and have adjustable bolster support to make you fit as snugly as possible. My liking of having the seat at its lowest pays off here, grinning at how I’m improving the centre of gravity. Should be worth a tenth, shouldn’t it?
