We review the Audi TT TFSI 1 Roadster from price to economy and all its features

A few months ago it released a manual version of the banshee V12 Vantage, the Vantage S. As we all know, in this game S stands for Sport.

It stands for Special, Superb and Stupidly mental

It stands for Special, Superb and Stupidly mental. If it comes with an S after its name, it promises to be a licence-shredding cop-baiter.

It was awarded an S because it has a gearstick. All right, it has more power — but you see what I'm getting at.

Gearsticks are for the enthusiast. It turned the Audi TT 1.8-litre Roadster — the 180bhp entry model to the Roadster range — from a good car to a great one.

Being the baby of the bunch, the 1.8 turbo TT doesn't boast Tarmacmelting performance. It is nippy, at 7.2 seconds 0-62, but not fast.

It is front-wheel drive only too, while the rest of the range come with optional Audi quattro.

Even so, it is an incredible joy to drive and unless you had the £40,000 for the fire-breathingTTS, I would recommend it.

The Roadster is a luxury, weekend toy. At best, it is a full-time car only for the young and fancy-free. It has two seats, no room in the boot and a roof that folds down for all that great weather we get in the UK. (See how it earns its "hairdresser car" status?) And yet at £29,000 on the road, it feels cheap at the price.

The steering is pin-sharp and while you have to work that engine, hanging it on the turbo to keep the blood pumping through, it is a grin machine.

It is a grin machine

Twisty lanes become a playground, the manual gearbox letting you bounce your way off the rev-limiter through the seven speeds. No killjoy auto giving the engine a break by upshifting just as things are becoming interesting.

The lower power is suddenly a bonus.

It is never giddy and there are no traction warning lights blinding you every few seconds. But it is eager, nicely aggressive without being boisterous.

Inside, it is full-on Audi. It uses the same virtual dash as the rest of the TT range, so the interior looks better than Margot Robbie's posterior in Suicide Squad.

If I had to fault it — and you can always fault a car — it sounds a bit puny.

The rest of the TT line-up boast a seductive engine rasp missing on the 1.8. And, as I said, it is completely impractical. But these are niggles and the 1.8 Roadster is such an accomplished driver's car.

Shame it is considered an Essex crimper's motor.

For the car-illiterate, those pub bores who think they know about motors, it will always be that.

But they are also the people who think they are telling you something new by saying Skodas are no longer bad cars or that they used to beat Lewis Hamilton in go-karts when growing up.