Can the Audi TT RS topple Porsche's newly neutered four-cylinder Cayman S?

Porsche's handicapped the CaymaN S, lopping two cylinders off its glorious flat-six. time for the new 395bhp Audi TT RS to pinch its sports car crown?

5y ago
30.1K

Cayman meets TT. For a decade these twin tests have been a mere formality, like the newly elected British Prime Minister asking the Queen if she wouldn’t mind awfully if they formed a government, or Max Verstappen’s F1 crew polishing his car to a mirror finish knowing full well that five minutes later he’ll have spread its componentry across the track like he’s shooting a double-page spread for a Red Bull workshop manual. We all had to go through with the charade, but were never in doubt of the outcome: TT nice; Porsche, the sports car real deal.

But this time things could be different. This year the scales have begun to tip the other way. The latest third-gen TT is a properly handy bit of kit, for a start. Even the basic car, front-wheel drive, and powered by a simple Golf GTI motor is fun, and this RS is a monster. At 3.7 seconds to 62mph it’s closer to the 3.3 seconds of a real RS, the 911 GT3 RS, than the 4.6 seconds of a Cayman S, and the blown in-line five makes all the right noises on the way.

All the right noises? Not something you can say for the Cayman, which gains the rose-tinted 718 tag, reminding us of famous four-pot racing Porsches to sweeten the loss of two much-loved cylinders. Porsche has a history of flat-fours, but so what? Does that make the sound any less inferior to last year’s flat-six? Or make the too-linear power delivery any more interesting? Nope. This is going to be a close one.

Surprisingly, given their badges and those badges’ supposed rankings in the VW Group hierarchy, the Porsche is cheaper than the Audi. Outfit our six-speed manual Cayman S with the optional PDK to match the spec of the twin-clutch-only TT RS though, and they’d both cost an almost identical £51k. The TT’s handsome, but it still looks pretty much like a TT you could buy for £27k, and so not as special. The boxy RS kit doesn’t do it many favours either in terms of aesthetic purity, but does add sparkle. RS-specific morsels include a fixed rear spoiler (swappable for the standard hideaway one for the demure), oval tailpipes and a honeycomb front grille.

Inside you get a flat-bottomed leather and Alcantara wheel featuring buttons to start the engine and select the drive mode, and a pair of shockingly cheap-feeling shift paddles. The fabulous full-width TFT Virtual Cockpit instrument display is standard and for the RS is upgraded with a special screen featuring tyre pressure displays and a huge rev counter that strobes at you like a Rastafarian disco to warn you’re hitting the redline.

In terms of covering ground quickly, the TT RS gets to B before A has even noticed it’s left

Chris Chilton

The Porsche makes mostly do with boring old analogue dials that, whad’ya know, work equally well, and the overall interior quality is every bit a match for the TT RS. The driving position and the way the controls almost seem moulded around you, is slightly better too, suggesting that this is still the proper sports car of the pair.

And is it? The old TT RS was a horribly blunt thing. Shockingly rapid but more heavy handed than an ogre at a game of snap, it quickly wore out its welcome once the thrill of its drivetrain had worn off. This one’s better. There’s more delicacy to it, a lightness of touch that was missing before, and no wonder, because this one has lost 35kg, much of it from the nose. It grips heroically and the brakes feel so strong you just pray those extraocular muscles can cling on to your eyeballs when you really beat on that middle pedal. In terms of covering ground quickly, the RS gets to B before A has even noticed it’s left. That much hasn’t changed. What has is that this time you might crack a smile on the way.

But it still doesn’t steer as well as the Porsche, from either end. I don’t think the Cayman S is any kind of paragon of steering feel, but the 718 still keys you into the road surface in the way the TT can’t, while its calmer ratio feels more natural. And for all its supposed ability to send power to the rear tyres, the Audi is still an old fashioned front-led all-paw sports car. And the trouble is, cars like the Focus RS have shown you can do sure-footed and do the shits ’n’ giggles thing too.

Which is what the Porsche does, in its own way. There’s stacks of traction, but with 310lb ft of torque, you’ve got enough to overwhelm it if you insist. It’s not even about sliding around like Jezza on an empty airfield, because almost no one does that on the road. It’s more that feeling of a subtle rear weight bias and how it makes the car feel on the way into a corner, and then rolling onto the power on the way out and feeling the car tighten its line. It’s fun, in case you haven’t tried it, Audi. Oh that’s right you have, because you build the R8. So what gives?

The Porsche's four-cylinder soundtrack is a monologue delivered with the charisma and nuance of Stephen Hawking reciting a sonnet

Chris Chilton

Maybe it was too busy planning Porsche’s humiliation with this fab five-cylinder engine. It’s a new all-alloy lump that develops 395bhp and a thumpy 354lb ft. You’ll need the optional sports exhaust to really get the engine singing (part of the £1600 Dynamic Pack along with adaptive dampers) but even then, it doesn’t start growling until you’ve got 4000rpm on the dial. By which time you’re effectively holding a lighter underneath your licence. This is a seriously rapid coupe.

The Audi’s launch control does exaggerate the real-world performance difference, mind, because the Cayman S is no sloth. In fact it feels substantially quicker than the old flat-six in real situations thanks to all that new-found torque. Yep, loads of torque, but not much in the way of tone, because it’s a monologue delivered with the charisma and nuance of Stephen Hawking reciting a sonnet. The flat-four is more interesting than an inline four would have been, but its bass-heavy soundtrack is dull, quite likely to genuinely give you a headache, and you just never feel like its encouraging you to wind the thing out to the redline.

But cards on the table, I’d still take the Porsche. Yeah, yeah, I know, predictable, huh? But honestly, this time it was a proper points decision, definitely not a knockout, and I wouldn’t blame you if you went shopping for rings even without your significant other in mind. I’d much rather listen to the Audi’s sweet five-cylinder gargle than the dull blare of the Porsche’s flat-four, or its hateful tyre howl on the southern stretch of the M25 motorway. If you want a great fast and luxurious coupe, value the plus-two seating and big boot, the TT does a fine job of selling itself, though you could get much of that from a much cheaper TT or TTS. But if you want a sports car that really drives like one, that looks like one, and, let’s face it, has the badge to go with one, then the Porsche wins. If nothing else though, the Audi reinforces one point: we miss the old flat-six even more than we realised. But this is a family affair, right? How about a Cayman with the TT’s five. Come on Tribes, someone make it happen.

Photography by Dean Smith

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Comments (17)

  • I'd have the 981 Cayman GTS

      5 years ago
  • I think I'll just hang onto my Cayman R, thanks.

    I don't have anything against a good turbo-four lump - my daily is a Mk3 Focus RS and it's a fabulously quick and capable car - but that's simple not what I want from a Porsche. The sound of a flat-six howling on it's way to 7,000rpm and beyond has always been part of the appeal.

      4 years ago
  • The 982 718 Cayman S is a very very good car - neutered that's a very silly comment - this is a car that can "ring" in a comparable time to GT4.

    In contrast the only decent Audi I have driven is the R8.

    A good performance car is about balance, poise and performance. The Cayman has all that is spades - the chassis is genuinely sublime, right up there with the very very best.

      5 years ago
  • It doesn't make sense for VAG to campaign Audi vs Porsche. The brands serve two distinctly separate functions- I think this is why the author would "choose" the Porsche. Porsche is an aspirational brand for a lot of people. Why cannibalize sales from Porsche (higher margins), by making the Audi into a Porsche fighter? Apples to oranges comparison.

      5 years ago
  • BTW Drive Tribe's format is terrible in most every way. It's a mess in presentation of tribes and articles (impossible to leaf through, find content, etc. conveniently), comment section is awful and prehistoric with zero functionality, etc.

    Even the only slight positive, design and look of the site, is actually horrible at least for us with big screens since all that white makes everything way too bright.

    The whole site is much as difficult as possible to use. But then again it's old Brits at the wheel, so what do you expect... (Good enough, they can praise bodged-together British products on it.)

      5 years ago
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