The TT RS debuted at the March 2009 Geneva Motor Show as Audi's first RS-badged compact sports car: a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five (engine code CEPA) rated 335 hp (340 PS), with standard quattro, developed by Audi's quattro GmbH performance division but, unusually for an RS model, assembled alongside the regular TT at Audi Hungaria in Győr rather than at quattro GmbH's usual Neckarsulm plant. It launched with a 6-speed manual; a 7-speed S tronic dual-clutch was added from 2010.

This generation of the TT RS was never sold new in the US. Audi didn't confirm a US-bound TT RS until 2010, and the car didn't actually reach US dealers until Q3 2011 as a 2012 model, on the facelifted MK2.5 body, following a consumer petition that gathered over 11,000 signatures. Any 2009-2010 TT RS on US roads got here as a gray-market import, not a factory US-spec car; it's tracked in this taxonomy for research and import-interest completeness rather than as a US-market vehicle.