Audi’s secret TT RS rival

Ask an Audi spokesperson what the competitors are for its new TT RS super coupe and you'll get an answer with a big hole in it.

"Obviously there's BMW, with the M2 and Mercedes, and then there might be another car that we wouldn't actually be competing with because it's from our sister company but you can probably guess what it is," is how one reluctant person wearing an Audi polo shirt put it during the launch of the TT RS in Spain this week.

Officially, Audi and Porsche don't fight each other for sales - why would Volkswagen Group want that when those two are the biggest money makers in the giant global family, basically propping up the tainted, and less profitable per unit VW?

But the simple fact is that Porsche's Cayman S is the most obvious car a potential TT RS customer would be shopping against.

Roland Waschkau, chassis development specialist for the TT RS, makes no bones about which cars his team benchmarked the new car against.

"The BMW M2 and the Porsche Cayman, both of these are good cars and they are the ones we looked at," he says.

"The Cayman is a very good car, but we are not afraid of it, because it does not have all-wheel drive like we do, so it cannot be as fast."

So, considering that both companies are essentially sisters, or best frenemies, and that in this case they are building two cars with very similar aims, do they ever get together to share ideas, or parts?

"There is some technology sharing between Audi and Porsche, yes," Waschkau says, through somewhat gritted teeth.

"And there are times when we work together, on things like Cayenne in particular, but not on a car like this. Nothing, not at all. Never.

"With a sports car like this, it's a totally different set up, and we don't share anything. We are competitors."

Friendly competitors, of course, but still competitors.

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