I TENTATIVELY pushed my foot down and revelled in the sonic accompaniment as the horizon leapt to meet me.

The huge power was at first intimidating but as soon as I learned to be careful with the incredible and almost unbelievable urge under my right foot, I started to enjoy myself.

There are quite a number of supercars that these words could apply to, but few of them cost just a shade over £50,000 like the Audi TT RS.

It's a true supercar, with the most mind numbing acceleration from any speed and enough grunt to embarrass hot rods on a drag strip.

It's also a hell of a bargain, when arch-rivals from BMW, Mercedes and Porsche are thousands of pounds more expensive and slower to 62mph.

This is the pinnacle of the TT range and well-deserves the RS moniker - which years ago stood for Rally Special but has now come to mean much less with some car makers.

Supercar is also a much over used word, but with a 0-62mph time of 3.7 seconds, this is most certainly one of them.

Way back in the annals of time, I road tested the iconic Audi Quattro - the original rally bred coupe. It would have trouble keeping up with this RS on any road.

Things have moved on since those days and the RS is not only supremely quick, it's refined and comfortable in a way that the original Quattro could not get near.

That said, the awesome, addictive sound is just the same - a turbo five cylinder powerhouse that is as lovely as a smooth six.

In the RS, it's a 2.5-litre and produces a mighty 394bhp, with quattro drive to all four wheels through a seven speed S-Tronic twin clutch automatic (the VW DSG to those that don't already know).

The combination is quite superb.

The four-wheel drive system can send up to 100% of the power to the front or rear wheels as required by the on-board computers, helping transfer all that power onto the tarmac with amazing effect - even in the wet.

So the level of grip through corners is among the best you can get, making it very enjoyable and amazingly safe.

The steering isn't as precise or communicative as the best sadly, but when everything else is so good and so much fun, I can forgive it that.

The standard Drive Select System can change the steering, gearbox, engine response and the exhaust note at the turn of a wheel, with four modes - comfort, auto, dynamic, and individual.

It even has a decent ride for such an out and out sporting machine and I found it very accomplished over some very pock-marked country roads.

Paddles behind the wheel can be used to change gear in the manual setting, but the full auto does everything better, so why would you bother.

Standard equipment, as befits a range topper, includes sat nav, multi-function steering wheel, alarm, CD autochanger, Bluetooth, and parking sensors front and rear.