It's a car with which you can thumb your nose at the recession. Though you'd need to be one of the very rare recession-proof first, because such a gesture will cost.
Audi's TT has always been a car for the good life. A car to enjoy for a car's sake. For that hackneyed carmakers' marketing phrase, sheer motoring pleasure.
Now there's a version that provides rocket performance, the first time that Audi has stuck its RS performance badge on its compact sports car.
The brand new engine for the TT RS is a turbocharged 2.5 unit, providing 340hp. Aside from its ability to push the coupe from 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds, it does it in a really sublime fashion, thanks to more than 440Nm of torque available from as low as 1,600rpm. And yet it can amble through a village with all the ease of a cat on its daily meander.
The car has been stylistically tweaked to show that it is something more. The familiar grille has a black insert, matching the larger air intakes on either side. There's a different front apron. There are RS badges where they will impress the most.
Zenon headlamps are standard, as is quattro AWD. There are larger brakes, bigger wheels, and an ESP system designed for the kind of driving that this car invites. There's a Sport mode which tightens up the steering and engine response, and also opens a flap in the exhaust system that provides a more direct outlet as well as increasing the engine note.
If the car has downsides, they are relatively minor. For a tall person, it isn't the easiest to enter or exit. The two rear seats are really for occasional, short term and quite small people use. There's rather a dearth of places to put things in the front end.
The Audi TT RS is for those with joie de vivre. For those who hold that optimism is preferable to spreading the woes.
For those with €83,000 to spare. Or to spend on that chance to thumb the nose at recession.
Brian Byrne.
(A more complete version of this appeared in the print edition of Car+Travel.)
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