The TT RS might be the fastest in the range, but the Audi TTS offers an appeal that's far more subtle. It carries a substantially reworked 2.0-litre turbo generating 268bhp, mated to Audi's Quattro four-wheel drive system.
That makes the TTS good for a sprint to 62mph in 5.4sec, which you can shave to 5.2sec if you order the car with Audi’s optional S Tronic double clutch paddle shift. The roadster version, despite some extra mass and a shape that's slightly less slippery, will reach 62mph in 5.6sec. All versions are pegged at 155mph.
You can identify a TTS by its prominent, body-coloured front spoiler lip, a metallic grey-finished grille and rear diffuser, Audi’s trademark LED running lights, deeper sills, aluminium capped door mirrors, 18in alloys and a quartet of exhaust pipes from the outside – inside, it gets alcantara/leather seats, more aluminium finishing and grey-faced instruments.
On the mechanical front, magnetic variable rate dampers, with two settings, are standard, and packaged with stiffer springs and anti-roll bars. Otherwise, the TTS is largely stock TT, which means a lightweight bodyshell of aluminium and steel, the steel concentrated at the rear end in the quest for more favourable weight distribution.
The standard 2.0 TT is itself quite a brisk device, well able to spin its front wheels in the dry if you turn of the traction control, so it’s as well that the TTS gets four wheel drive, because it is obviously quicker still. This is very accessible power too, the strengthened balancer shaft four reaching peak torque at a low 2500rpm and staying there all the way to 5000rpm.
