With 268bhp and a full complement of ‘S’ badges, could this be the TT we’ve been waiting for?
Be careful what you wish for.
The original Audi TT stoked up an understandable yearning among discerning keen drivers who, sorely tempted by what they saw, very nearly signed on the dotted line.
If only it had performed and handled like it looked…
Audi duly obliged by making the second-generation TT less visually arresting, thereby removing the expectations generated by the original’s drop-dead design values.
Killjoys. Although changes under the skin had, in fact, made the new TT a notably better steer overall, the psychology felt depressingly downbeat.
Except for one small but significant caveat. The only place left to go for Audi was a TT that drives a lot better than it looks.
On paper, the TTS is that car. It checks in as the fastest, sportiest and most expensive TT to date, comfortably eclipsing the 247bhp 3.2-litre V6 thanks to its thoroughly re-worked 2-litre turbocharged four’s 268bhp and 258lb ft of torque, the latter sustained all the way from 2500 to 5000rpm.
A six-speed manual gearbox is standard, but here, on a rainy morning in Munich, our car is fitted with Audi’s S-tronic twin-clutch six-speed transmission that, for an extra £1400, shaves 0.2sec from the 0-62mph time and offers the promise of seamlessly streamed stonk effortlessly choreographed by a couple of paddles set behind the chunky, flat-bottomed steering wheel.
The headline figures are impressive in every way.
With its larger turbo, uprated intercooler, freer-flowing exhaust, myriad internal upgrades and palpably keener appetite for revs, the new motor turns in an almost eye-watering 5.2sec for the 0-62mph sprint (5.4 for the manual) and steams on to an electronically pegged 155mph.
The other big figure is the price. At £33,390, the manual TTS costs just £2800 less than a 2.7-litre Porsche Cayman.
Certainly, the Porsche can’t quite answer the Audi’s newfound straight-line pace, but then that was never really the issue.
It’s the way the Cayman steered, cornered and stopped that made the TT look silly.
And it’s here that Audi has put in the work to raise its little coupe’s game.
As ever, having the services of a quattro four-wheel-drive system that can push up to 100 per cent of the torque to the front or the rear as conditions dictate is a useful ally in a car with so much power and a nose-heavy weight distribution (58 per cent on the front) that will inevitably favour understeer.
In theory, the two-stage ESP should curb the front end’s enthusiasm to run wide, while for the subtler aspects of body control and composure the TTS teams stiffer springs and anti-roll bars with Delphi magnetic, variable-rate dampers.
Let it be said straight off that the TTS engine/S-tronic transmission combo, while hardly the most stirring of sonic partnerships, is strikingly effective, delivering an uninterrupted flow of near-furious acceleration with cool-browed precision.
The acquisition of serious speed has seldom seemed more stealthy. The engine has a silkiness that’s rare in a four-pot and, although it revs vigorously, it does so without any audible change in character. Audi has also finessed its twin-clutch, semi-auto transmission to the point where its contribution is almost invisible.
For anyone concerned about their blood pressure, this is undoubtedly the car to choose if you want to get from A to B in a hurry, but for those who like the feeling of adrenalin in the morning, it won’t provide much of a hit.
The massaged chassis tries to follow the same pace-without-consequence example and, for the most part, succeeds.
On dry tarmac, traction and grip are never issues.
Neither is torque-steer. Helm responses are a tad lightweight and lacking in detail feedback, but they’re decently accurate, linear and unsullied by squeezing the throttle all the way when exiting a bend – something you can do remarkably early where a Cayman driver might exhibit more caution.
In the wet, though, the TTS feels less sure of itself.
It will still dispatch distance at a cracking lick but, on the limit, it seems ill at ease, the torque-shifting Haldex transmission and understeer-quelling ESP failing to harmonise and robbing the TTS of any natural sense of balance and flow.
Switching off ESP restores some of the flow but brings back the understeer too.
This is still the best TT yet, but it’s not quite the R8’s kid brother we were hoping for.
The Cayman, for the time being, has no reason to blush.
[+] Best fast TT yet; great drivetrain.
[-] Lacks dynamic finesse and involvement.
Audi TTS | evo Car Reviews | Car Reviews | evo
Jarod.
