Road Test
Audi TT 3.2 V6 Quattro 2dr Coupe
Test date 18 September 2006
Price as tested £30,040
For Much-improved chassis, quality, comfort
AgainstStill no sports car, V6 motor not special
Stung by criticism of the original car’s dynamics, the message from Ingolstadt was one of greatly improved Nürburgring times compared with the Mk1 TT and using out-and-out sports cars such as the Porsche Cayman as benchmarks.
We’ve taken these comments seriously: Audi has been on a bit of a roll recently, with cars like the ballistic yet finely judged RS4 and the dramatically improved new S8. Clearly, the challenge for Audi is to create a car that justifies the tag ‘sports car’ while satisfying its core TT buyers, who have been attracted mainly by its unique design and its feel-good factor, undeterred by the leaden dynamics that lurked beneath those Bauhaus curves.
It would be virtually impossible to match the impact the original design created. It’s the difficult second album, and it’s time to see if Audi has created another masterpiece.
As you approach it, the high shoulders, curved roof, clamshell bonnet and geometric wheelarches tell you this could only be an Audi TT, but the more you look at it, the more you realise that every panel is quite different from its predecessor. It’s longer, wider and taller, and a hefty portion of the old design simplicity has been traded for a more aggressive but arguably less beautiful form.
Although the solid red of our test car lends the shape a sporting flair, it does hide the subtle shaping of the metalwork, such as the crisp shoulder line, the hollowed-out sides and the way the rear bumper subtly ‘grows’ out of the bodywork. A metallic finish would display the sculpting better and disguise the rather tubby profile view of this car.
The rear aspect is particularly smooth, especially as the spoiler is now hidden in the bodywork and only raises at speeds over 75mph to prevent lift over the rear axle. Together with a mainly flat underbody, this work has achieved a dramatic improvement in the TT’s drag coefficient, which is down from 0.34 to 0.30.
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