| There are two things about the Audi TT V6 which are quite remarkable, one of which it shares with the rest of the TT range, and the other which it does not � its appearance and its gearbox.
When it comes to aesthetics, mention of the name Audi normally conjures up a mental image of automotive wallpaper, but the fact is that even that is an exaggeration � magnolia paint would be a better comparison. In the self-effacement stakes, the average Audi is all-conquering. The word �bland� was coined to describe the styling of every Audi ever built. Except one. The TT by comparison to its stable mates past and present, is a rainbow � the full palette - in glorious technicolour. Like it or loathe it (and, surprisingly, some do - but in cars, as in all things, there is no accounting for taste and some people just have no idea of the meaning of the word), you cannot ignore it. It stands out from the crowd. It makes a statement. As you may have deduced, I love it. I have been a fan of the car�s appearance from day one, but not of its powerplant � a rather weedy little four-pot with a turbo. I hate turbos on small engines (less than five litres) � you put your foot down and seemingly nothing happens for ages, then suddenly, wham, it hits you in the back just when you thought maybe you had run out of petrol. But with the fitment of a 3.2 litre normally aspirated V6, things changed dramatically and I let the moths out of my wallet. When describing the aesthetics of the TT, it is difficult not to sound like a refugee from Pseud�s Corner. It is that sort of car. A designer�s sort of car, if you know what I mean. The type of car an architect would buy. It is fresh and exciting, and undoubtedly contemporary, but, if one can use such an expression about an inanimate object, it clearly exhibits the DNA of its forebears, the mighty Auto Union Grand Prix cars that symbolised Nazi domination of the racetracks of Europe in the late 1930s. While we are on the (rather absurd) subject of automotive DNA, I might add (if I didn�t think the whole concept incredibly silly) that this may account for the overtones of �Porscheness� that its appearance provokes � the relationship between the Porsche family and Auto Union Audi spans three generations and then there was the Audi which was to have been a Volkswagen but became a Porsche (924) and was built by Audi (are you still with me? I�m not sure that I am!), so the two marques are very closely linked. And the interior is just as good. Like so many other cars today, it uses aluminium extensively. Being of the �wood, chrome and leather in saloons and just leather in sports cars� school myself, I don�t normally go a bundle on this, but in the TT it�s different. Unlike in so many other cars, it is real, solid aluminium, not aluminium-style plastic or wafer-thin �aluminium veneer�. And it was the TT that set the trend which others have slavishly imitated, with nowhere near the same panache and consequently very limited success. It is stylish and original, with a design theme that flows through every detail and gives it real integrity, but it is also functional, ergonomic and comfortable. What I don�t like, however, is the combination of black headlining, thick pillars and shallow windscreen, which gives you the feeling that you are looking out of a slit (maybe it�s that Porsche DNA again � after all, Ferdinand Snr. did design tanks for the Wermacht). Give me the light and airy glasshouse of a 911 or the original BMW CSL, with their slim, elegant pillars, any day of the week (a view with which my wife does not agree � she says they are unsafe, as in �what would happen if we had an accident� type of unsafe). Comparison with the 911 is appropriate. Like the 911, the TT is a practical 2+2 (except in rag-top form), with rear seats that fold down to take luggage instead of children when required. So a man with a modest family can use one very day and two people could make the grand tour in one. But unlike the 911, it has a really useful luggage compartment, because it is not half-full of engine and you can open the back window to put things in instead of having to insert them past the front seat backs. And also like the 911, it is small and compact (if a shade too wide) on the outside and spacious on the inside � in architectural terms, it has an excellent �gross to net�. This may not sound important to you, but drive a Ferrari Testarossa or a Bentley around the narrow lanes of Cornwall and you will very quickly understand what the late Colin Chapman knew so well � small, light and agile is worth a whole heap of horsepower, because it means that you can use all the performance all the time. Now to that gearbox. It can be an automatic, in that you can leave the car�s computer to change gear for you, but unlike a conventional automatic it does not have a torque converter in place of a clutch, with the consequent power loss. In fact it has no less than two clutches � one to operate the even-numbered gears in a box of six and the other to deal with the odd-numbered ones. It is, to all intents and purposes, a pre-selector box of the type popular in the �thirties before the true automatic box became available. But instead of the driver doing the pre-selecting and thumping a pedal when he wants the change to take place, the computer does it for him and, at the moment of change, one clutch switches out as the other takes up the drive, so that unlike a conventional manual box, it never goes through neutral, so there is no loss of drive. Put your foot to the floor and, as you accelerate through the box, there is constant full-power acceleration right up to maximum speed. Amazing. You can, as I said, leave the computer to do the changes for you, either in normal or sport mode � in the latter case, it assumes that you want to travel very fast, because it always keeps you in the upper reaches of the rev range, right in the power band. For regular day to day driving, the normal setting is what most people will use. However, you can take full control (well, almost full � it won�t let you over-rev the engine, but instead of a rev-limiter, it changes up if you hit the red line with your foot on the gas), either by pushing and pulling the gear lever back and forth in a �parallel gate�, or (much better) by using the two excellent paddle switches behind the steering wheel (right for up, left for down) and pretending that you are Michael Schumacher (or the F1 driver of your choice). In short, it has all the advantages of a manual box and of an automatic, without the disadvantages of either. Perfection? Well, not quite. Every silver lining, as they say, has a cloud. The first � and very minor � issue results from the position of the paddles, which are fixed to the steering-wheel instead of to the column and therefore rotate with it, making gear changes awkward if you are not travelling in a straight line at the time. The second issue is rather more significant. As I said, it is a pre-selector box. And so long as the computer knows what gear you want next, it is brilliant, providing instant full-power changes. But sometimes it gets it wrong. For example, if it thinks your next change will be up, and you decide on a down-change (manual mode), or you do something that requires a down-change (auto mode), then you have to wait while it re-selects the lower gear before making the change. In the meantime, nothing happens (reminiscent of putting your foot down in a car with a turbo � see above). It has to be admitted that it very rarely does get it wrong and when it does it is because you have acted illogically or the road conditions have changed abruptly, but it does happen every now and then and, when it does, although the time-lag is very short because it doesn�t take the computer long to work out what is happening, it is nevertheless annoying. It also cannot cope well with changing down (or up) two gears at a time, because it has to switch from one shaft to the other, select, and switch back again, instead of just going direct from one gear to the other, which takes time (though probably no more than a manual box going in and out of neutral). Having said that, when it is working well � which is 99% of the time � it is so good that I can forgive its Achilles� heel. And there is no doubt that, as a result of this ingenious gearbox, it is very much quicker from A to B than an equivalent car with a conventional manual or automatic gearbox would be. The rest of the car is comparatively unremarkable (in true Audi fashion) but just very, very good at doing what it ought to do. Build quality appears superb (well, it is made by VW, so what do you expect?). The engine is by no means short of power and has plenty of torque from well down the rev range and it is smooth and untemperamental, with a delightful but not obtrusive exhaust note. The brakes are powerful and reassuring, with good feel. The steering is light (but not too so) and precise (although it suffers, like all 4WD and FWD cars from the fact that the front wheels have to steer and drive). The handling is easy and forgiving. The ride is remarkably good for a car of this type. The roadholding is superb, with bags of grip and traction (and, with four-wheel drive, almost as good in the wet). In short, it is everything a high performance car should be. If I am going to nit-pick (and why not?) I would say that it is a little bit short of toys. Sorry, I mean modern drivers aids. But then it is fast approaching the launch of a revised version which will probably bring it up to date in this respect ad it is not an expensive car anyway, so you can�t expect the equipment levels of an S-class Merc. It does, however, have something called �launch control�, which is the electronic equivalent of dumping the clutch at maximum rpm. I still haven�t tried this yet, but it sounds like fun! |