BEIJING MOTOR SHOW: Audi slams down 294kW TT RS

The junior supercar ranks have a new player, with Audi ramping up the power and speed for its new TT RS.

The new bewinged liftback is now so fast that it is capable of seriously frightening drivers of the German brand's upcoming R8 supercar.

A serious overhaul of its 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo-petrol engine has cranked out so much power that it slashes a full second from the 0-100km/h sprint of its predecessor and now hauls across the mark in just 3.7 seconds.

That sort of performance is so blisteringly quick from the MQB chassis that it’s just 0.2 seconds slower than the aluminium space-framed R8 V10 super-coupe to 100km/h, though the R8 'plus' retains its full half-second advantage.

Even the convertible roadster version of the TT RS, which retains its cloth roof, whips through to 100km/h in less than four seconds.

With its power raised to 294kW, the TT RS leaves the tantalising prospect of a TT RS 'plus' with somewhere around 310kW when it arrives in late 2017 or early 2018.

The power upgrade gives the TT RS a 66kW jump over the current range-topper, the TT S. It leaps more than 10 per cent in power over the TT RS plus, which had 265kW of power from the same core engine, while it has a 44kW advantage over the outgoing TT RS.

Its top speed will be limited to 250km/h, or 280km/h on request, in both body styles.

It uses the same lower (by 10mm) ride height as the TT S and will come standard with an electronically controlled all-wheel drive system, a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and 235/45 R19 tyres.

Its standard package will include enormous eight-piston front brake callipers to clamp onto the 370mm steel brake discs, though carbon-ceramic units are optional, as is a set of adaptive magnetic-ride dampers. A set of lighter, forged alloy wheels is an option (complete with the switch to 255/30 R20 rubber), as are carbon-ceramic brake discs.

When it arrives here later this year, TT RS buyers will be able to choose to stand out with the fixed, two-strut rear wing or use the no-cost option of the standard, automatically activated rear wing that integrates back into the liftback lid.

The rear-end will be dominated by an enormous diffuser beneath the bumper and a pair of elliptical tailpipe tips, while at the front Audi fills the single-frame grille with menacing black hexagons.

While LED technology is standard for the headlights and tail-lights, the TT RS also delivers optional Matrix LED headlights and Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) as an option for the tail-lights.

BMW claimed the bragging rights to be first with OLED tail-lights, but that was for the limited-edition M4 GTS, while the TT RS is a full production car. It will swap out the stock LEDs for 4mm-thick OLED wafers for each tail-light. The light will have a three-dimensional look, getting thinner from the outside in, while the largest wafer will sport both TT and Audi logos in its design.

While the first-generation OLED lights from Audi will be heavily promoted, the TT RS’s engineering team concentrated on old-school mechanical andelectronic engineering to eke more performance out of its 2480cc five-cylinder engine.

It’s not just power, which eclipses Mercedes-AMG's 280kW turbo-four and the turbo-five in Audi's own RS 3 (270kW), but torque now also shades them both, rising to 480Nm in an incredibly flat line from 1700rpm through to 5850rpm – leaving it just 60Nm shy of the pure-bred atmo V10 of the R8 and only 80Nm shy of the company’s flagship sports car, the R8 Plus.

It also lifts the TT RS brand torque up from the old car’s 450Nm and the outgoing TT RS plus’s 464Nm, while jumping up 100Nm from the current TT S.

Just 50cm long, the engine lost 26kg of weight thanks in part to the move to an aluminium crankcase, while it retains its single-turbo configuration, feeding up to 1.35 bar of air pressure.

Audi also hollowed out the crankshaft to save weight, shaved 6mm from the crankshaft main bearings, used plasma coating to line the cylinders and integrated oil channels into the aluminium pistons themselves.

With its 144-degree firing interval and 1-2-4-5-3 firing order, Audi insists it has retained the engine’s unique deep, rich sound while improving its performance, reducing its fuel consumption (which it has yet to finalise) and lowering its weight.

The motor retains the 2480cc capacity but now uses both direct (into the combustion chamber) and indirect (into the inlet manifold) fuel-injection.

Even with the extra performance, the new TT RS will weigh 1440kg, or 10kg lighter than the car it replaces, though the roadster is inexplicably 90kg heavier (at 1530kg). Even so, it hits 100km/h in a claimed 3.9 seconds.

It takes lessons from the standard TT inside, with the 12-3-inch Virtual Cockpit dominating the driver’s eye line, plus an eight-speaker sound system and lightweight, aggressive RS sports seats as standard.