Stuck at home while my house is being painted. A bit cooped up (ha!) so did a quick run through of the fun coupes in my saved file and hoping to complete this before the fumes get to me. As I write CarMax has 1,679 cars nationwide officially listed as “coupes”. I could easily get wrapped around the axle finding Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs, M3’s, Infiniti Q60’s that fit the bill but there are just so many of them. So I’m going with these three Audi TT’s, and this weekend perhaps a 1 of 1,418 model worthy of it’s own page. If you can guess what it is you win.
This 2012 Audi TT RS has been available for quite some time. The little coupe has a 2.5 liter five cylinder turbo pumping 360 hp. Car and Driver calls it a “mini-R8”. The dual clutch version tested in Europe sprinted to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, and later the US model six-speed manual transmission TT RS hit it in 4.0 seconds flat – disappointing only in comparison to the dual clutch – still faster than my 911 was! Top speed was limited to 174 mph. The first gen RS only came to the US in manual mode. Only 641 were imported in 2012, and about the same for 2013 before the car was discontinued. The TT RS was reintroduced to the US market from 2018-2022, when it ended again. Even with the second generation, annually only a few hundred of the TT models were sold as RS. A unicorn.
Car and Driver panned the TT RS for highway drone, but otherwise loved the almost 1g of AWD lateral grip and rip snorting performance once past the turbo lag. The only other criticism? “The TT RS is so competent,” we reported, “so coldly immune to human clumsiness as to diminish the role of the driver.” I tried on a regular TT once, and while getting in and out was as challenging as any low slung car once inside I was surprised how roomy the cockpit was for my 6’4″ 225 lb frame.
The 2012 Audi TT RS sold new for almost $60,000. For a ten year old car with 71,000 miles it’s still a bit high priced. But it’s a bit unique with only a dozen or more for sale across the country. As with other older European cars, MaxCare is only available for 48 months and capped at 125,000 miles. I’d buy it, and enjoy this mini-R8 for 13,500 miles a year – plenty of space for a daily driver! Find this one owner, accident free Audi here in Garland, Texas.
Stock # 21055355 VIN # TRUB3AFK9C1901418
