First Drive: 2010 Audi TT RS

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2010 Audi TT RS Front
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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.

2010 Audi TT RS Front
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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.

2010 Audi TT RS Front Three Quarter
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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.

MR.KAKAR