2017 Audi TT RS Review
No jokes, this TT is serious. Okay, well maybe just a couple…
By Shahzad Sheikh
Click below now to watch my 2017 Audi TT RS Review
Let’s get the facts and figures out of the way first in order to dismiss your perceptions of a namby-pamby limp-wristed fashion-mall runabout.
This is a TT that brings the thunder with an extraordinary 400bhp and 354lb ft of torque from a 2.5 five-cylinder motor, giving it a 0-100kph time of 3.7 seconds and a derestricted flat-out velocity of 280kph, all delivered with Quattro grip.
There’s a couple of nipples on the steering wheel – well it is a TT after all (okay I did say there would be at least a joke or two in here right?) which form a starter button and a drive mode button, so as to emphasise the importance of the piloting rather than posing in this little coupe.
You may think of this as a diva’s driver, but it’s a cat amongst pigeons if the latter were supercars. It’s roarty and rampant, eager to prove its metal, capable of shocking anyone who dares underestimate its abilities.
There is a but though, and I don’t just mean the bootylcious butt with the fixed wing spoiler that glues the rear to the road and ensures no twerking for this tarmac terroriser, and that it is that it should ditch the demureness, and be visually more exotic, more dramatic, more trashy even.
On the road, this TT is so far away from the regular TT and even TT S, that it really should make a more sensational statement of its spectacular speed and performance.
Go more ferocious with that front end, pump out those wheelarches, give it flashier skirts, and slash the side with an R8-style blade why not? And how about more extreme wheels, an even taller spoiler and stickers – ‘Audi Sport’ and racing stripes.
Inside too it’s not much different from its lesser siblings, so again, a hint of vulgarity may not have been remiss in this cabin considering it’s extreme nature.
And when you’re sitting in a car you’ve paid more for, you do want to be reminded why. And you would’ve paid AED307,000 ($84k) including VAT at least for this (about AED50k more than the S and .
As for the driving experience – well it’s literally jaw-droppingly quick. And the spread of torque is unrelenting even after the snappy initial acceleration.
On the go there’s a hint of understeer but tremendous grip and go from the chassis, the ride is firm all the time, perhaps a little too much around town (certainly not a car to be applying lipstick in on the go) and I would like more heft and feel to the steering, which is otherwise precise and accurate.
Stick this on your shortlist if you’re looking for a dynamic and stunningly quick city-sized coupe, and then keep a little extra budget aside to cosmetically customise it to stand out from the TT crowd, because it certainly deserves a pedestal of its own.
Alternatives at this money? Well it would definitely be worth checking out the Porsche 718 Cayman and Jaguar F-Type 3.0 Supercharged.
