Winter in Sweden is one of the best times of year to get a look at the future Audi model lineup. They bring their cars here often hidden under the bodywork of existing or previous models to verify that their vehicles will operate in the extreme cold.

Today we bring you a TT RS hidden underneath the body of the current generation TT-S. How do we know it is a TT RS? There’re a few giveaways: The rear diffusor looks similar to one found in the RS 3, they are two big oval exhaust tips which are exclusive to the RS line, and the lightweight wave style drilled rotors with the RS logos just barely visible on the calipers.

So what will power this TT RS? The current rumors are that it will be a 2.5-Liter inline-5 from the previous TT RS. However, the heavy iron block will be replaced with an aluminum block, and it will produce 400-horsepower. This test car, fitted with a 3rd pedal, 6-speed manual gearbox and paired with quattro is awesome. We are hoping that this will be the standard configuration and that the s-tronic will be an option. The halidex system should also receive a more aggressive tune.

Interestingly enough this test car is also fitted with a partial roll cage, Sparco racing seats and a 4-point harness. Naturally, we do not think these features will make it to the production model. However, It is interesting to see, and we are guessing that the Audi test drives may be following the practice of “never lift” during their testing.

When will it debut? Our guess would be later this year in Paris. At that point, we can expect a sportier looking front spoiler and bigger air intakes as well as a new honeycomb grille and full RS interior.