TT RS’s acceleration was tested and it came up at consistent 4.15 or so seconds, which is very fair considering the Brisbane weather and less than ideal road conditions. What is a little frustrating is the noticeable lag caused by that larger turbo down low, which means you always have to find yourself in the right gear at the right time to get the might of the engine to the ground properly.
The engine is tuned very conventionally and has an extreme amount of potential, which anyone well-known with this new family of Audi engines will tell you, means an extra 50kW or so can easily be extracted with a basic software tune, and much more with some minor hardware changes.
It seems to principally come down to the front nose, which feels a tad heavy and has a tendency to understeer if not driven with exact precision. Though one could easily blame this as an inherent nature of the Quattro system, that’s not the case. There is a fair bit of diving under brakes which tends to hinder turn in, and if you get a bit more aggressive with later entry and harder braking, the front end will start misbehaving even more.
It’s not something you’d feel unless you’re pushing close to the car’s grip limit but once you find it, it’s hard to ignore. Even so, the TT RS Roadster is well balanced in the long sweepers and the speed that can be carried into such long corners is hard to believe.
Dynamically, the TT RS Roadster is perhaps somewhat compromised compared to its coupe sibling (90kg heavier at 1530kg kerb weight), on the other hand given the open air freedom its convertible nature brings (roof operation works at up to 50km/h and takes around 10 seconds), we can look past its shortcomings and enjoy the fresh air instead.
