You would expect the prospect of driving the sportier, more powerful version of the already impressive TT coupe would be enough to get the pulse of a true petrolhead racing. Not mine. Maybe I’m just spoilt or a bit jaded, but by the time the S finally arrived in SA, my attention had already shifted to the unclad spyshots of the meatier, more imposing RS version.
The prospect of buying into an even ‘older news’ S while knowing that the RS version is soon to follow, was a bit like signing Mark Webber to your F1 team when it is clear the younger, quicker Sebastian Vettel would do a better job.

But walk up to the TTS and view its beautifully sculptured body lines and balanced proportions, and all defiance dies. It’s an arresting sight and it’s not hard to see why the TT won the coveted Euro Car Body Design Award in 2006 and later went on to win the 2007 World Car Design of the Year Award. Then add the S-line package (a R18 210 option on the baseline TT), a set of R8-inspired 18 inch alloys and those chic LEDs in the front bi-xenons (all standard fare) and the TTS starts to look a bit like a bite-size R8.

But it was only after I had settled into the Audi’s electrically adjustable leather sport seats and turned the key that I realised this was far more than a facelift. At idle the force-fed 2.0 litre has an agitated urgency to its exhaust note and felt more enticing and intimidating than the 147kW GTI version. In standard TT form, even the front-wheel drive 2.0 litre base version always offered better urgency, involvement and reward than the lacklustre 3.2 V6. The likes of the 188kW S3 and 177kW Leon Cupra showed that the TT’s force-fed four always had more power potential, and the ‘S’ version’s 200kW and 350Nm is proof.
Against the clock, Audi’s 5.4sec 0-100km/h claim is a little optimistic though and we suspect the figure derives from the 0-60mph (96.5km/h) claimed times from the US. Our 6.11sec time entailed a second gear change at around 95km/h which lost at least 0.5sec in the 0-100km/h test. In cooler winter temperatures we believe the TTS could have just slipped under the 6.0sec mark, but no less.

But the Audi’s strength is less in the numbers than in how power is transmitted to the tarmac, and how it rewards with every turn of its flat-bottomed steering wheel. The transfer of power to the road is the task of the standard quattro all-wheel drive system which, together with Audi’s magnetic ride adaptive damping system (a R13 420 option on the standard version), allows the TTS to carve its way through curves and corners with an immense amount of grip and traction.
The magnetic ride system gives the driver a choice of two settings: ‘Standard’ mode is designed for more civilised, comfortable commuting, whereas ’Sport’ turns the TTS into a track racer, lowering the body by 10mm and harnessing the potential of its sports suspension to deliver uncompromisingly dynamic handling. Its mostly-aluminium front suspension helps keep weight on the manual Coupé to just 1395kg, meaning a power-to-weight ratio of 143.36kW/tonne.