The People have Spoken: Audi TT RS Coming to America, Sales Start Next Year

To the surprise of few, after more than 11,500 fans in the USA expressed their interest for the spicy hot TT RS in a survey on Facebook in just over a month, Audi announced today that it is bringing the five-cylinder coupe to the U.S. market by the third quarter of 2011. Only the coupe version of the TT RS will make its way on this side of the pond with pricing and standard features to be announced closer to the launch date.

"With performance and agility rooted in Audi motorsports success, the TT RS is truly an emotional sports car," said Johan de Nysschen, President, Audi of America in a prepared statement. "That emotion became abundantly clear as we explored interest across the country."

Even though the press release from Audi of America makes word three times of the same 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder engine producing "360-horsepower" and 332 lb-ft of torque found on the European-spec model, we all know that the TT RS's five-pot pot delivers 340HP (the torque figure is correct).

The 2.5T engine will be paired with a six-speed manual transmission and quattro all-wheel drive system allowing the TT RS to complete the a 0 to 62 mph - 100km/h (and not 0-60mph as wrongfully mentioned in the press release) sprint in 4.6 seconds.

Audi Presents Updated Navigation System Plus for A3, TT and R8

Just like any other electronic product, navigation systems are continuously upgrade with better software and hardware. Audi's updated navigation system plus with MMI (Multi Media Interface) for the A3, TT and R8 models promises to offer improved route calculation speeds thanks to a latest-generation processor clocked at 600 MHz while another significant enhancement is are the 800 x 480 pixel, high-resolution graphics displayed on the 6.5-inch screen.

On the back of the display, which can be folded away at the push of a button, are two slots for SD and SDHC cards with capacities of up to 32 GB, enough to store about 14,000 songs or 700 hours of music.

Also new on Audi's updated navigation system plus is the optical parking assistant which can be combined in the Audi R8 with the rearview camera. Aside from the acoustic warning signals, the distance to the front and to the rear is now displayed optically on the high-resolution display.

The new system is available for order now with prices ranging between €2,270 and €2,565, depending on the model.

eBay Find: Mini-Me Audi TT Roadster Replica

If the original Audi TT was the hairdresser's car in some people's eyes, then this lookalike replica of the TT Roadster is beyond doubt, Mickey Mouse's car... Discovered on UK's eBay, the seller does not state on which car it is based, but it's almost certain that the donor car is the Banham X21, a small British roadster which in turn was based on the Austin Metro mini and used a 1.3-liter engine. The X21 already looked a lot like the TT Roadster so if that's the case, then conversion wasn't that hard of a task. Check out the creepy little bugger in the gallery after the jump.

Audi TT RS Coupe and Roadster: New Album with 80 High-Res Photos

If you have a liking for the hottest TT ever, then you'll appreciate our new gallery on the Coupe and Roadster versions of the new RS that was recently introduced to the members of the press in Europe. Revealed for the first time at the 2009 Geneva motorshow in March, Audi's brawny TT RS revives the German firm's five-cylinder engine tradition with its turbocharged and direct fuel-injected 2.5-liter five-pot churning out 340HP and 450 Nm (331.90 lb.-ft.) of torque. Drive is sent to all four wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox, though expect to see a S-Tronic dual clutch transmission being offered in the near future.

According to the Ingolstadt carmaker, the TT RS Coupe accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) in 4.6 seconds while the Roadster variant completes the sprint in 4.7 seconds. Top speed is electronically restricted to 250 km/h or 155mph but customers have the option of removing the limiter in which case the RS can go up to 280 km/h or 174mph.

In spite of the fact that Audi supports that it has no plans of bringing either version of the RS in the States at this time, there have been rumors that the company is delaying the sportscar's introduction in the U.S. to help the sales of the 265HP TT S models.

source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com