Category: Affordable Sports 
Price Range: £25,420 to £42,985
Explosive performance, all-wheel-drive traction, added visual menace, 2.5-litre engine's sound.
Not quite involving enough, concerns over stiff ride, awful rear spoiler, tasteless styling details.
Audi's baby R8 outguns all its rivals against the clock but ultimately misses out on the levels of engagement delivered by competitors.
On paper the new RS Audi leads the coupe class with its explosive performance, while in the flesh it finally packs the visual aggression but can it finally outdrive the class-leading Porsche Cayman?
Sadly, the short and brutal answer is no, but the RS comes closer than any TT before. After the sensational RS4 and sublime R8, you can't blame us for expecting more.
Let's start with the positive.
The new 335bhp 2.5-litre 5-cylinder is a gem. From standstill to 62mph the Audi coupe outguns all its rivals taking just 4.6 seconds. Aiding its blistering getaway from the line is the superb traction provided by the Haldex 4x4 system that efficiently shuffles torque to the axle with most grip, and it is torque that dominates in the RS.
With the maximum 332lb-ft delivered from just 1,600rpm the new engine has a broad spread of power and decent go anywhere in the rev range.
Where a Cayman would require third for blistering exit from a medium speed corner the Audi will suffice with fourth.
Emphasising the TT's strong overtaking performance is a close-ratio gearbox that is both snappy and fast to use. Perversely, despite Audi pioneering the technology, the double clutch DSG, is not offered on the RS.
That said, close-ratio box or not, away from traffic-light grands prix and cross country the RS doesn't feel substantially quicker than the equivalent Cayman S.
A quick look at the tech sheet and it's easy to see why. The RS is burdened with a 100kg (the weight of a portly adult) weight handicap that blunts the Audi's power-to-weight ratio. Even with 'just' 315bhp the Porsche has the fractionally superior power-to-weight ratio that helps claw back some ground over the blistering Audi, although this advantage would shrink in damp or slippery conditions where the Porsche's rear-wheel drive would be no match for the TT's all-wheel-drive traction advantage.
Strangely, for perhaps for what's supposed to be the most extreme and hardcore TT, the RS uses the speed-sensitive power steering that feels supermini-light at parking speeds.
At speed we'd also prefer a more predictable and linear weighting and more feeling. The RS also is less playful, responding less to mid-corner throttle inputs, instead preferring to shrug off a series of corners with its huge reserves of grip. It's fast and neat, thanks to the torque-juggling abilities of the Haldex all-wheel-drive system.
It is tidy and organised but it's less fun than the Cayman S, which isn't so clinical in the way it goes about its work. The Porsche also feels the better balanced of the two and far more adjustable even if its rear-wheel-drive isn't always the fastest way out of the bend.
The Porsche has also got finer, more communicative steering, although the 3.4-litre will need working far harder with its peakier torque delivery. With the howling flat-six soundtrack that's no chore.
Top speed, meanwhile, for the TT RS is a mighty 174mph, but only if you kindly pay Audi an additional £1,300. Otherwise it's limited to 'just' 155mph.
