If the regular Audi TT is too weedy for you, you’ll want this: the TTS. It’s the most potent variant available until the hardcore TT RS comes along in 2016.
The flagship TT (for now) differentiates itself from its lesser sibling with (optional) 20-inch wheels, quattro all-wheel-drive with torque vectoring and adaptive magnetorheological dampers.
More importantly, it packs a 2-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged engine (taken from the brilliant S3) that produces a mouth-watering 310bhp. Sounds all well and good, but is it worth the extra money (roughly 50 percent more, if the price gap between the current-generation entry-level TT and TTS is anything to go by) over the already superb TT?
If the five laps we were given with the car at the challenging Ascari Race Resort in southern Spain is any indication, I would say yes. For starters, it’s quick, though it’s also civilised about town. However, with a 4.7 seconds century sprint time and with 380Nm available from just 1800rpm, the TTS was clearly built for more exciting pursuits.
Rev the engine past 3000rpm and that induces a deep, burbly growl (helped by resonators in the cabin) from the 4-pot motor, with the car coming alive and hurling itself forward with an urgency hitherto unseen in TTs.
Leave the stability control on, and the car turns into corners like it’s on rails, helped in part by the all-wheel-drive and torque vectoring systems. Stray from the apex and the car magically pulls itself towards it as if the brakes on the inside wheel are being (gently) applied. It’s certainly effective, though eerie and not exactly entertaining.
Switching off the ESC turns the fun factor up a notch. Get on the gas early and the car becomes livelier, with the rear end even indulging in tiny rear-wheel drifts if I prod the throttle early and hard enough. But like all other quattro-equipped Audis, it’s more inclined to mild understeer than lurid oversteer shenanigans – it’s a competent track car, though not a richly rewarding one.
But if you don’t indulge in too many track days, it’s on public roads where the TTS, like its less “elevated” brethren, really shines. The experience is largely similar, in that you get the same refinement (except with a wider spectrum of damping ability thanks to adaptive suspension), and of course, more power. The impressive 4-pot pulls eagerly all the way to its 6800rpm redline without any noticeable dissipation of power. That, together with the car’s newfound agility, makes the TTS a cracker of a car around the twisty hilltop roads surrounding the Ascari circuit.
Inside, you get the same lovely tech-fest of a cabin as in the “standard” TT, but the TTS has an extra mode for the digital instrument cluster. When you select the car’s sportiest mode, it calls forth an oversized central rev counter.
If you have the dough, go for the TTS. It’s faster, more intense and a better all-rounder than the base version. But even if you find yourself “settling” for the TT, rest assured you won’t be disappointed.
SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE 1984cc, 16-valves, inline-4, turbocharged
MAX POWER 310bhp at 5800-6200rpm
MAX TORQUE 380Nm at 1800-5700rpm
GEARBOX 6-speed dual-clutch with manual select
0-100KM/H 4.6 seconds
TOP SPEED 250km/h
CONSUMPTION 14.7km/L (combined)
CO2 EMISSION 157g/km
PRICE INCL. COE
To be announced
