We’re accustomed these days to a car inducing the kind of flagrant love/hate response that would previously only have applied to a jar of Marmite. Yet even allowing for the instincts of a swipe left/right culture, the run-out TT RS Iconic Edition did a good job of cleaving anecdotal impressions neatly in two last months. In the PH office, its addenda-happy styling pack - as forthright as LEDs on your trainers - was universally derided. But the man on the street (literally, in the case of a chap walking past) was effusive to the point of rapture at the sight of so much Nardo Grey. Some old school chums, too, all of them senior enough for Max Power to have left its indelible mark in adolescence, declared a liking.
It’s likely then - or possible, at least - that what you think about the Iconic Edition has much to do with your lasting impression of the Audi TT in general. As a collective, the PH office has driven virtually every noteworthy iteration of TT ever launched, and has therefore never allowed itself to fully overcome the notion that the model never quite lived up to our exalted expectations for a modern-day sports car. For anyone unencumbered by that experience - or unbothered by it - the TT likely stands for something else. And that thing is very probably the carefully nurtured image that has sustained the manufacturer’s remarkable sales volume for the past 40 years - i.e. that virtually any appropriately chiselled model can be considered desirable by dint of it being fast and expensive and adorned with four rings.
The R8 is often cited as the standout example of this remarkable feat because it succeeded where many had previously failed in taking a notable bite out of Porsche’s customer base. But that perception rather leaves aside the fact that it was a genuinely remarkable car in its own right. No doubt its design and Audi’s reputation for build quality gave it a significant leg up in terms of public opinion, yet elsewhere among the reasons for its success was the never-known-to-fail combination of great engine and stonking chassis. Had the VW Group brain trust fallen into madness and badged it a SEAT, the R8 would’ve found willing buyers.
In contrast, and to a much larger extent, the TT has always relied upon the implied status conferred by its branding. Which isn’t to suggest it has no redeeming features; it has many. As John indicated when he drove the Iconic Edition abroad back in November, the fit and finish remains off the scale for a model intended to be, in entry-level costume at least, vaguely affordable. Moreover, because it has not been subjected to another update, the TT’s cabin almost qualifies as analogue by the standard of 2023. There is no giant screen taking up valuable dashboard real estate or spoiling the view; the oversized HVAC system remains front and centre, flanked by actual buttons and dials. It has a proper gear lever, too, and - in the Iconic’s case - a steering wheel clad in Alcantara along with some superb two-tone, contrast-stitched seats.
True enough, Audi’s attempt to sweep all infotainment functions into the instrument cluster never qualified as a resounding success. Multiple control surfaces (split between the steering wheel and the centre console) hardly make it intuitive to use, and, because of its comparative lack of scale, important information is too often downgraded or jettisoned entirely. Had Audi persisted with the TT it would’ve almost certainly reverted to a more conventional solution; as it is, for all its visual bells and whistles, the Iconic Edition presents much like every Mk3 TT - i.e. as a time capsule from 2014.
For the most part, this definition extends to the way its drives. The good thing about that, as John alluded to last year, is that the third generation was by some distance the best. Direct, determined and with the 400hp 2.5-litre five-pot aboard, ferociously fast, the Iconic Edition still covers ground rapaciously and with the sort of clenched jaw attitude that tended to mark out RS cars of its era. The abiding memory of running one on the PH Fleet back in 2017 was that it was fundamentally too stiff for its own good on UK roads - and while Audi does seem to have taken another run at the damping in the meantime, that sentiment holds true today. Seemingly short on both suspension travel and tyre sidewall, the Iconic Edition cannot flow instinctively with a B road like a Cayman or an A110 does, or ensorcel you with the calibre of its feedback.
The mistake, of course, was to ever assume that it would. Porsche and Alpine deliberately furnished their two-seat sports cars with purpose-built mid-engine, rear-drive architecture. Inevitably they enjoy an advantage over the front-engine, one-size-fits-all platform that has always underpinned the TT. For the R8, the state-of-the-art Audi Space Frame was created; for the TT, it simply made do. Even the packaging trade-off was not without its advantages - let’s not forget you get back seats (usable in a pinch) and something like a proper boot in the TT. And the flexibility of the MQB platform has meant that pretty much any transverse engine could be stuffed under the bonnet.
Naturally only one unit would befit something calling itself the Iconic Edition. If you’re inclined to think that the Mk3 was actually at its best in its middleweight TTS format, with a manual gearbox and 310hp, then you’ll hear no dissenting opinion from me. Nevertheless, there’s no quibbling with the star-making quality of the inline-five. Some of its fighting spirit might have been surrendered to the particulate filter, that’s true, yet the engine still equips the RS with a voracious appetite for revs and distant horizons. Mated, as ever, to the seven-speed S tronic and with traction-by-quattro, the Iconic’s performance is sufficiently breakneck for it to part justify the tarmac rally bodykit Audi has draped over it.
But, as was ever the case - and more so here because of the price - you need to be mainlining Ingolstadt-brand Kool-Aid for the Iconic Edition to appeal over and above the A110 S and 718 GTS we twin tested in the same month. Both are slower, of course. And cheaper and better. With just 100 examples made available to Europe, and only 11 coming to the UK, such comparisons hardly matter. Yet it is probably indicative of the TT’s long-running reputation that Audi chose to mark its departure not with a tricked-up, last-gasp fire-breather - but rather a car that looks like one. Physically, the Iconic Edition works as well as any other TT RS to move you up the road. Emotionally, not so much.
Specification | 2023 Audi TT RS Iconic Edition
Engine: 2,480cc, five-cylinder, turbocharged
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch auto, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 400 @ 5,850-7,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 354 @ 1,950-5,850rpm
0-62mph: 3.7 seconds
Top speed: 174mph
Weight: 1,475kg
MPG: 31.0 (WLTP)
CO2: 207g/km (WLTP)
Price: £87,000
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