Audi TT S Roadster 2015 Review

It’s hard to go past the TT’s cabin as a starting point. It’s a benchmark interior, shorn of frippery and jarring angles and clean in a way that will take its rivals at least half a generation to catch.

And now you can get it in a convertible. The two-seat TT Roadster is just the second Audi to benefit from its 12.3-inch TFT screen that replaces both the traditional multimedia screen in the middle of the dash and the old-school analogue speedo and tacho. And it does just about every other supplementary job you can imagine.

In the TT TDI and the TT TFSI, that means you get two different viewing options. One has smaller speedo and tacho gauges spread far and wide, with a bigger map or audio or whatever else you choose occupying the middle space. The second makes them bigger and pulls them closer to the centre of the instrument cluster, fitting the navigational instructions inside the speedo’s dial.

And then there’s the TT S. In the TT S, you can go one step further, discarding the speedo altogether in favour of one very large tacho, right in the centre of the instrument cluster. You know, like a proper sports or racing car.

And, what’s better, you can access all of this without your hands ever leaving the steering wheel. You can even go through the Audi Drive Select system to set up the Individual mode (where you can choose to mix and match the settings as best suit you or your regular roads) by flicking just your left thumb.

The screen is a bit brighter here (800 Candela, for the nerdy) than it is in the coupe, but that’s just a nod to the extra glare it will get in sunburnt countries, like Australia.

It’s a pretty important thing for Audi, because every fourth TT delivered so far in the badge’s history has been roofless and the TT S is by far the strongest of the new generation.

There are some key new additions to Audi’s convertible philosophy here, including a neck scarf to blow warming air on your neck and it also adopts the microphone-in-the-seatbelt trick from the roofless R8 to make calls sound clearer with the roof down.

Audi’s not a fan of the folding-metal roof anywhere in its range, so the new TT Roadster uses the multi-layer, 15mm-thick cloth roof that folds up or down in 10 seconds. To put that into perspective, that’s half the time it takes to fold the BMW 228i Convertible’s roof away (though the BMW roof is much larger).

Like the BMW, you can shoot the TT roof either way at up to 50km/h. If you want to look cool (or not, your call), you can also put the roof up or down from outside the car, as long as you and the key fob aren’t more than four metres away from it.

It’s also a lighter car than it was, with the 39kg roof system slicing away 3kg by itself, while taking up a smaller 'box' in the boot, which retains its 280-litre capacity.

The base 2.0-litre TFSI is 1320kg (with the six-speed manual), though the TT S, fitted with the S-tronic gearbox, is 1470kg. The TT S is 90kg heaver than the coupe version, but is 25kg lighter than its predecessor. It gains weight over the TFSI largely because the stronger engine needs bigger brakes and more cooling and, of course, it’s all-wheel drive.

It gets the same developmental step in the all-wheel drive as the coupe, with the electrohydraulic multi-plate clutch pack shifting the drive from front to rear much faster than in its predecessor.

It’s also designed to send more drive to the rear-end in its sports modes and even allows for controlled drifting thanks, in part, to its accurate four-link rear suspension.

All of this is easier to play with because Audi has snuck it into the Drive Select system for the first time.

Traditionally, Drive Select has combined things like the engine response, the noise, the damping (where it’s adjustable) and the gearshift settings. Now the centre-diff settings are dialled into it, too.

It also rides better, with the TT S gaining a new iteration of the magnetic dampers it used in the last generation, while the steering also delivers variable rates of assistance depending on the mode. There are also two noise-maker flaps in the exhaust, too.

The TT S version of the Roadster sits 10mm lower than the TFSI and though it has 18-inch wheels and 245/40 rubber as standard, it can be optioned up with either 19- or 20-inch boots, too. And they all wrap around the 338mm front brake discs.

It’s a more mature car than its predecessor on the road, and that’s in no small part down to its minimalist interior. It’s a rare, genuine piece of step-change engineering brought to life and there seem few details that have been overlooked.

For example, Audi spent 600 hours laser-etching the tool to create the dashboard for the TT S, making sure all the indented hexagons are precisely in line, no matter the shape they’re wrapping around. And everything displayed on the instrument cluster can be adjusted on the steering wheel, yet somehow it doesn’t feel crowded.

Sadly, though, the TT puts its airbags in the seats, which rules out the old baseball glove leather and stitching treatment.

Another reason for its newfound maturity is that it rides on the most sophisticated version of the Volkswagen Group’s MQB architecture, complete with its four-link rear-end and beaut magnetically variable dampers.

But the engine remains the headline act in the TT S, even if it never quite overshadows the rest of the engineering like it did in previous generations. With 228kW of power and 380Nm of torque from just 2.0 litres, it’s at the level of being mega strong without getting AMG-radical in its engineering.

It sounds deep and masculine, all raspy rumbling when it’s fired up. Then there’s the sheer, effortless strength at low rpm and its glee every time it approaches the top end of its rev range. It sounds masculine and powerful, with sharp pops cracking out of each upshift in the Dynamic mode and matched by powerful brakes on the way back down the speedo again.

It’s had upgrades over its predecessor, including stronger piston and connecting rods, plus a new alloy cylinder-head, a new main-bearing cover in the crankcase and new main-bearing seats, plus a new 1.2-bar turbocharger.
Its torque peak arrives at 1800rpm (just 50 revs later than the diesel) and stays on until 5700rpm, while it revs out to 6800rpm.

With the six-speed dual-clutch transmission attached (it was), it punches to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds and you feel there’s a bit more in it with some more aggressive tuning from Audi. And, in the last iteration, there was also a five-cylinder turbo version…

Even so, and with a governed 250km/h top speed, it uses just 6.9L/100km on the NEDC cycle and emits 159 grams of CO2 per kilometre.

For all its strength, the engine wouldn’t be any fun at all in a chassis that didn’t work well, and the TT S Roadster works pretty well – up to a point.

It feels stable and calm when you want it to be, especially when it’s cruising on freeways or two-way backroads and, in either its Auto or Comfort settings, it takes some maliciously neglected roads to upset its composure.

Find those and the TT S Roadster can get a wobble going up through the reinforced body and into the windscreen surround, but it never upsets its composure.

The handling is predictable and fun, though the Dynamic mode is often too stiff to get the best out of it on winding mountain roads. It feels more direct this way, sure, and it feels 'pointier' getting into corners, but it’s not its most athletic setting. For that, you have to delve into the Individual setting and push everything into Dynamic except the suspension setting, which works best in Auto mode.

Even then, though, the TT S Roadster is a great, fun thing up to about eighth-tenths of its ultimate ability, then falls into turn-in understeer that the Volkswagen Golf R -- which is an incredibly close relation -- doesn’t have (but then the Golf R has a metal roof…).

Instead, if the driver is comfortable with a small level of drift, it can feel like the car is struggling with turbo lag. In reality, though, its skid-control systems are holding the power deliver back until they’re confident the skid has been controlled. It’s a far sharper car when you turn the skid-control off, but that’s fraught with its own dangers.

You can adjust the initial understeer out of the cornering stance with the throttle if you’re brave, but be aware that it happens at a pretty high pace. The sort of pace where a Boxster S is really hitting its stride.

And that’s the difference. At the very outer edges of its ability, the more expensive Porsche starts to sparkle, while the TT S Roadster begins to fall away from the heights it promises earlier in its handling envelope.

But in the parts of that envelope where most drivers live, most often, the TT S Roadster is almost certainly the better car.