Drive Test: Audi TT RS (2018) is not a reduced R8

I should hunt around for my road test notes circa 2010 when the first-generation TT RS morphed into life. Those early scribbles would likely bear a striking resemblance to today’s written the same superlatives: grip, accessibility, value… all of them peppered across visceral acceleration.

Of course things were different back then. There was no Jaguar F-Type, hot hatches were front-wheel drive and the GTI was the breed’s flagship. But the Audi TT RS has, in contrast to those, remained remarkably committed to the engineering mantra over those years; retaining the 5-cylinder turbo, wieldy proportions, quattro and driver-focussed cabin. So forgive me for thinking like I’ve teleported back in time.

I made comment recently that whatever unfolds this year, Audi TT RS will be one of the highlights – we’ve just returned from Geneva so I know the gravitas of what’s on the horizon.

Our blue 2018 Audi TT RS arrived with the electrically-operated wing versus the preferably, to our eyes, fixed aero aid. But even so, look at the value of our higher spec’d version with the lovely quilted sport seats, louder Bang & Olufsen system and ditto the sports exhaust.  Comparable to the RS 3 on pricing but you’re getting the package in exotic wrapping, pseudo R8 with its own motorsport series known as TT Cup – Gran Turismo Sport players raise your hand…

Audi’s catalogue is currently swollen with luxury, ‘family’ cars that will do 0-100km/h in under or on 4 seconds, even for the hamfisted driver and quite honestly the TT RS pulverises short sprints and hairpins with a robustness that supercars would only manage on perfectly smooth roads. Not the TT RS as it devours all the difficult surface changes then keeps up a lot of that pace into the approaching set of corners, nonplussed by the variation.

Driving modes are twiddled often – TT RS really needs to find a faster means of skipping to the one you want instantly – and in its extremist setting the bias moves aft of centre and traction control is loosened but still malleable to all driving levels. In the dry you can be as ragged as you like with the ESC off and it’ll barely tease the chassis. Steering feel is not dripping with confidence but again you’re not looking for minor inputs – this is a chuckable chassis that always, against the odds, ends up safely, at some ridiculous speed, with the offbeat five doing the Bruce Banner/Hulk impersonation. A sound that’s raw. Explosive. A fraction off Audi’s deafening V10, only because it can’t do the same rpm.

And the cabin. I had a poke around a 718 GTS the other day which predictably is slathered in alcantara but it’s not as cossetting as our Audi’s. And the visually reduced architecture suits the nature of the TT better than any other Audi with all the tech selfishly aimed at the driver. Yes we might prefer a central screen (my eyes instinctively went there every time I selected reverse) but then the TT RS isn’t a car for sharing…Andrew Leopold

SPECIFICATION

• R963 000
• 2480cc 5cyl, turbo petrol, AWD, 294kW, 480Nm
• 8.2l/100km, 187g/km
• 0-100km/h in 3.7secs, 280km/h
• 1440kg
• Tester’s notes: Exists in the sacrosanct world of supercars. Democratises performance.