Audi TT RS a goer for Oz

Build it, and they will come. That's the word from one of Audi Australia's senior executives on the future of the tyre-shredding Audi TT RS, a hard-core super sports car that will be offered to Australians as soon as it's officially confirmed.

Audi is this week launching its new third-generation TT Roadster in Australia, powered by a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine that bangs out 169kW/370Nm – enough to propel it to 100km/h in less than six seconds with a little help from launch control software.

But the rip-snorting TT RS is shaping up to reliably bang out sub-four-second 0-100km/h sprints, thanks to what could be the most venomous five-cylinder turbo-petrol engine ever deployed at Ingolstadt.

Although Audi Australia's general manager of corporate communications, Anna Burgdorf, wouldn't confirm the existence of the TT RS just yet – and neither have the head honchos at Quattro GmbH in Germany – she agreed that if it did happen, Aussies will have access to it.

"It hasn't been confirmed, no. But the TT range has certainly got room for further expansion," advanced Burgdorf, observing that "the TT RS was incredibly successful in the previous generation".

She concurred with motoring.com.au that Australians' love affair with high-end performance cars is the stuff of legend. So if the TT RS was confirmed, would Audi Australia import it?

"Yes we would," stated Burgdorf.

"For us, the whole proliferation of S and RS models and customers' appetite for them is increasing. And so our role is to fulfill people's desires for sports cars."

The new TT RS is expected to be powered by a beefed-up version of the 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo-petrol engine that will become available to Aussies later in 2015 under the bonnet of the Audi RS3. However, that car's 270kW/465Nm outputs are likely to be upped to around 300kW for the TT RS via a larger turbo.

Burgdorf wouldn't be drawn on whether we'd see a TT RS at the 2015 Frankfurt motor show in September, the biennial 'home ground' motor show of the big three German luxury car brands, so there's certainly the possibility that it may not see the light of day for another 12 months or perhaps more. But she did concede that the TT range will expand.

"We've seen some interesting concepts in the TT model line – there was talk of a five-door model. There's been no further announcement on that model but I think that with the TT range, being as popular as it is worldwide, certainly there's more opportunity for us [to expand] there.

"We've made no secret of our desire to increase the number of niche models."

Australians wanting a more powerful Audi TT can get their hands on the TT S variants in September/October, packing a higher-output version of the standard 169kW TT's 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine worth around 220kW.

There's also a road-going TT Cup racer variant in the works, expected to develop around 240kW while taking advantage of several weight-reducing techniques.

There will be plenty more RS models to whet Audiphiles' appetites over the next few years too, including the next RS 4, which looks certain to ditch its naturally-aspirated V8 in favour of a more efficient downsized force-fed engine.

The aforementioned RS 3 Sportback, which is claimed to hit 100km/h in just 4.3 seconds, is due in Australia in October priced around $80,000, and when the next-generation versions of the Audi A5 come online, they too will spawn go-fast RS variants.

While the current RS 4 Avant and RS 5 Coupe and Cabriolet are now out of production, Audi Sport continues to offer the recently upgraded RS 6 Avant and RS 7 Sportback, plus the RS Q3, and is about to launch its new R8 supercar range-topper.

Australia was one of the first markets in the world to introduce the Audi Sport retail concept last year and local demand for Audi Sport vehicles – including S models – means Audi Australia continues to get more say in all things RS.

"We'd be close to a top 10 [global market for RS models] and in general the growth in our sales and the increase in all of the activities that we're doing means that we have a voice in a lot of decisions," said Burgdorf.