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.

Mystery Audi Sports Coupe / Spyder (R4?) Filmed at Ski Resort in the Alps

Audi gone viral or someone at the right place, with... almost the right equipment at the right time? Well, we can't answer that, but we do know that a Youtube user filmed a series of videos showing a mysterious Audi sports coupe (or Spyder) in covers being transferred via helicopter to the Olympia Ski Resort in the Tyrolean Alps, close to Innsbruck, in Austria - or at least that's what we understood, so any corrections welcome. The person who filmed the car said Audi was making some sort of a promotional video.

The mysterious Audi sport coupe's shape looks very similar to the e-Tron Concept model shown at the Detroit motor show earlier this year, but that's all we could make about the vehicle from the videos we've added below.

While the possibilities are almost endless, recent reports from Germany suggest that along with the A7 Sportback and S1 hot hatch, Audi will lift the covers off a more production ready version of the e-Tron Concept called the R4 - possibly in Spyder form- at this month's Paris Motor Show.

Could this be that car or is it something different such as a concept version for a new TT? Watch the videos below and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Hat tip to Marcus!