A lightweight coupe featuring a turbocharged 5 cylinder engine and four wheel drive with 335bhp from factory already sounds perfect, so how do you make it any better? Well, combine this with air suspension, multiple sets of wheels, various performance mods and an owner who has a ‘mild’ carbon fibre addiction and you get a Mk2 TT RS with the perfect balance of form and function!
The car is an Audi TTRS 8J that I bought in November 2018 after wanting one for a while and fancying something newer than my previous Honda S2000, I had looked into S5/RS5s but the sound of the 5 pot engine in these was something I needed. I had always set my sights for subtle and minimal mods which you will soon see didn’t happen.
My first purchase for the car was the Airlift air ride, which I bought before I had even found the car! A good friend of mine from Shedwerx sorted me out a great deal on a whole kit and I couldn’t pass it up, so from that point onward it was a TTRS I was getting. Initially I was going to wait until I had sold my S2000 to buy a TTRS but one had come up on the market which was stock (bar a Miltek exhaust) and so I made the 500 mile round trip to Milton Keynes to pick her up. The main things I wanted were for it to be white, auto, black leather and low mileage which this car was, the fact it had a Miltek exhaust already was a bonus!
So the first thing to do was get the air ride fitted, a totally new thing to me but after 2 days of messing around with a couple of mates we finally managed to get it all fitted. The hardest part was feeding all the airlines through the car where they wouldn’t catch on the wheels or anything else and then making it all look neat. From then I was on the lookout for anything carbon fibre to get rid of the horrible aluminium trims all over the car. It started off with carbon mirrors, fuel cap and spoiler and then it all got slightly out of hand. Anything I could lay my hands on was then bought in carbon and anything that wasn’t available in carbon I either skinned in carbon myself or had done by Control Customs UK.
Throughout lockdown I had been furloughed and spent everyday carbon skinning parts for the car, literally anything that could be taken off even down to my exhaust tips. I also tackled the inside of the car and had been in contact with a company called Control Customs UK and they had made me a stunning custom carbon re shaped and fully re trimmed steering wheel, once this was fitted I needed to get rid of all aluminium trim in the car, they skinned my door handles, grab handles, centre console and glovebox trim and I skinned the handbrake cover, seatbelt trims and seat backs. Also, to make things a little different, I bought some air vents from a 2019 RS3 and carbon skinned them to update the interior. Final area to cover was the engine bay, a few parts were available to buy which I did but majority of it is skinned including the air intake which was from an RS3 and totally cut up and reshaped to fit my car and then of course carbon skinned, still something I’m yet to see anyone else do.
Off the scent of carbon throughout the ownership I have also fitted a Forge intercooler which very neatly fits, had also replaced the sports cat for a decat, and bought the option TTRS wingbacks seats along with the TTRS embroidered matching door cards.
My first set of wheels were 20″ 2019 TTRS wheels which I looked for long and hard but ended up selling for a set of 20″ 3 piece Rotiform OZTs, I then bought another set of 20″ TTRS wheels for winter and have recently bought a set of 20″ Oz Ultraleggera wheels also (don’t ask why I have so many wheels).
The car is currently running 450bhp all to the thanks of Bevo Tuning for being a master in this field of tuning cars especially Audi RSs, a few of us all from Bevo Tuning had gone away recently to Santa pod for a day of drag racing. I’m not overly bothered about chasing times but found myself getting easily hooked into losing milliseconds where I could, that’s all i’ve managed to do this year due to covid but hoping next year to have much of the same with many car shows and possibly even a few track days to actually use the car more.
For anyone looking to buy one I would strongly consider an auto but know it’s personal preference and they are also a little more to buy so budget dependent, I wanted something I could just cruise around in so it was perfect for me. A common issue is warped brakes so always see if they are, I uprated to Reyland floating brakes which have solved this issue. But like any car you’ll soon get to know if the previous owner has looked after it or not by seeing service history and receipts of what he has bought and done to the car.
Car Facts:
Make: Audi
Model: TTRS8J
Year: 2011
Engine: 2.5 5cyl turbo
BHP: 450
0-62mph Time: 3.5 seconds
Weight: 1520kg (full tank of fuel)
Additional Mods:
EXTERIOR: Rotiform OZT 3 piece, Airlift 3P, ILR carbon race wing, Carbon mirrors, Carbon fuel cap, Maxton front lip, Maxton side skirts, Carbon front grill and side vents, Carbon rear diffuser, Carbon exhaust tips.
INTERIOR: Custom carbon steering wheel, Carbon shift paddles, Yellow rewebbed seatbelts, Carbon centre console, Carbon grab handles, Carbon gearknob, Carbon interior door handles, Carbon glovebox cover, Recaro wingback seats carbon backs and inserts, Carbon RS3 interior vents, Carbon handbrake cover, Carbon door sills, Carbon dash end panels, Carbon seatbelt trim, Pioneer double din headunit carbon surround.
ENGINE/BRAKES: Full milltek exhaust, Forge front mount, Carbon 034 motorsport intake, Dv dump valve, Carbon fuse box cover, Carbon intake cover, Carbon engine cover, Carbon coilpack cover, Carbon oil cap, Carbon coolant cap, Carbon custom RS3 intake, Reyland floating front disc, Reyland bolted bigger rear discs.