Thank you, I enjoy this thread as well. Let's keep it alive.
Monaro is such a cool car! I'd love to have a ride in one of those.
Having this power at the rear wheels sends smokes of joy into the air, haha.
Oh, so you can directly compare the R to a TT?
I did that too. The TT is disappointing in a direct comparison with the R. The R feels like a stingy hornet or like an overdriven puppy, jumping left and right always ready to change its direction. Very pointy and eager to follow the impulses of the steering wheels.
Compared to that the TT feels heavy, sluggish and clunky. There is a hesitance between steering impulses and the car's movement. Also I had the feeling it drags a bit of heavy metal underneath, somewhere, which can be felt all the time while riding.
The suspension was subtle but crashy over bumps.
I haven't tried the latest incarnation of the TT. But I did drive extensively the 2020 Audi RS3 which is the same platform (?). The RS3 felt fine, but a bit boring (apart from that 5 pot engine which is cool). Still it was a huge improvement over the previous understeery generations.
So, back to the R.
I loved the way I could rush my R over B roads and let the rear dance at the corner's exit. She did that swing with her arse, just few inches while the tyres just started to squeak. But this "dance of the arse" added some nice drama to a proper run. Add to it the exhaust sound (mind, my was starting to get loudish after over 150k miles) and it was such a blast with her to run down all those B roads.
I had a "ring run" around my area providing me over 100 miles of finest B roads. At a Saturday evening when most people already sat in front of their tellys, I had the roads to my own. Beautiful.
Honestly I only had more/similar fun on B roads in a Fiesta ST (old and new version).