Before the Audi R8, it would have been a long shot for Audi to be invited behind the velvet rope of any VIP party for modern sports car makers. But now everyone knows Audi can build a Porsche 911 rival.
The R8's success is almost reason enough to believe Inglostadt's new Audi TT RS could pose a serious threat to its main bogey -- the venerable Cayman S. But on the road, does it work? The TT RS's approach to engineering is highly sophisticated, albeit very different from the Porsche's -- front versus mid engine, five-cylinder turbo versus flat six, largely aluminum body versus steel, electronically controlled AWD versus RWD.
It's the turbo five-cylinder that's the new and intriguing part for the RS version of the TT, which first came with a four-cylinder turbo and a V-6. Then the sporty TT S eschewed a V-6 in favor of a highly pressurized turbo four, in order to keep the weight down. For the TT RS, low weight again is a priority, so again there's no V-6.
Instead we have a new transverse 2.5-liter turbo five. Featuring direct gas injection and 1.2 bar of boost, it kicks out 340 horsepower. Its torque plateau runs from 1600 rpm to beyond 5000 (albeit with a bit of lag below 2500-ish), which gives it an easy-driving mid-range muscle.
But for Audi fans, the big deal about this motor is the sound. Its offbeat harmony echoes faithfully the music of the original Quattro, which established the company as a serious international motorsports player in the 1980s. Of course, that turbo five doesn't share any components with this one, but the heritage is there.
And maybe the five-ender isn't quite as charismatic-sounding as a Cayman's flat-six at full song, but the Audi's turbo muscle is massively useful in the middle of the rev range. Muscle that's so strong, by the way, that it would over-stress Audi's transverse version of its S tronic twin-clutch AMT. So we get a short-throw six-speed manual instead.
Audi claims a 4.6-second time to sprint to 62 mph, with the standard German 155 mph top speed. In case that's not fast enough, you can pay money for a delete-option on the limiter, giving you 174 mph. We went that high on the Autobahn. It didn't take long to get there, and it felt entirely happy: stable, true, and capable of the necessary searing feats of braking.
Audi's Quattro GmbH division has lately set the bar sky-high on handling: These guys did both the RS4 and the R8. For their edition of the TT, they took all expected measures: it's stiffened, lowered (by half-an-inch), with new anti-roll bars and bushes, stiffer shocks, new steering settings, and brake rotors on aluminum centers. Rolling stock is 18-inchers as standard; I drove it on 19s, but 20s are also available, as is Audi's excellent magnetorheological damping system.
