The third-generation Audi TT is the perfect example of the fact that fun needn’t cost a crore plus, and the fact that modern cars have to combine beauty, performance and brains. Kushan Mitra spent a weekend with the TT and fell in love again
The Audi TT has always been a special little car, a great sportscar albeit not all the way high up in the pantheon of sportscars. But consider it in a class with the Porsche Boxster, and technically, that is its only competition in India and it does not fare too badly. But the latest generation of the Audi TT is a class apart, and although there are other very nice, even sporty cars in its price bracket, as a package this car is almost impossible to beat.
Audi makes good cars, and their permanent four-wheel drive system ‘Quattro’ has always made Audi’s incredibly easy to drive. And frankly, despite the car’s acceleration being frightening to the unprepared, the TT does not misbehave even when pushed hard. Maybe that is not coming out quite right.
What I mean to say is that the latest generation Audi TT can push the limits even of grip, if you know what you are doing. Think of it like this, the car is willing to be a bit naughty if you want it to be naughty, but it does not want to actively harm you, let alone kill you. And while the acceleration is frightening, if you decide to use the incredibly responsive flappy-paddle gearbox and have the back straight of the Budhh Circuit at your disposal, the car can manage 0-100 kilometres per hour in 5.3 seconds, all the way until a top speed of 250 kmph. And as we have indicated, if turned into a corner hard with a quick movement of the hands, the Quattro system reacts brilliantly.
This is all very surprising when you consider that the Audi TT is neither very expensive nor has an incredibly stupid amount of horsepower at its disposal. Audi does sell cars such as the manic RS7 Sportback with over 550 horsepower, but the light, agile TT is like a welterweight boxer, it doesn’t need the power of a heavyweight. The 230 horsepower from its blown 2-litre petrol engine is more than adequate.
Even better though is the fact that because the Audi TT does not have a silly amount of power, it is actually quite easy to live with on the city streets. Sure, at night with the sharp lED headlights and tail light on you will attract a fair bit of attention, but keep the gear-lever in ‘normal’ mode and the car does pretty well. It is also fairly unfazed by most of what city roads throw at it, so the bad roads and potholes are dealt with fairly well. Not as smoothly as say a sedan such as the Audi A6 would handle it, but believe me a sedan could not turn into corners the way this car does.
The Audi TT is a very good car and a real pleasure to drive, as long as you drive with a single passenger and no one at the back. The rear bench in the TT is designed for really short people, and storage space, well a couple of small overnight air-bags, or a large carry-on size strolley, but not much more than that. But when you buy a coupe, you really shouldn’t expect things like storage space and rear legroom. Fact is, the front passenger nd driver are extremely comfortable, and in a car like this that is what matters.
Now that the easy bit has been dealt with, that is the mechanical handling part. let me come to the part of the Audi TT that really impressed us, the ‘Virtual Cockpit’. Other cars have had digital displays before, most of them are coupled with some physical element. But the TT takes this a step further. The entire instrument cluster has been replaced by a 12-inch screen. And to couple this review with a review say of a mobile phone, this screen is powered by its own Nvidia Tegra processor. What is utterly brilliant, and we must admit if this is the direction that future cars are headed, we like it, is that the screen changes depending on what you want.
So say you want to see your speed and rev counter full size, great that is the default setting, but what if you want directions and want to see a full-size maps. One press of a button on the steering wheel and voila, the screen changes. Every thing is on the display, and while it is so addictive, at least at the start of a drive that you eyes are pointed lower than they should be, it is a utter blast to use. With music, with maps, with even changing aspects of the ar, your eyes are still pointed straight ahead, you don’t turn to the central console.
The same thing applies to the air-conditioning vents, the controls, temperature, fan speed and so on are on the turbine-engine shaped vents. Brilliant and you do not need to look down, the traditional central command post has been replaced. And brilliantly well, and coupled with Apple CarPlay, the iPhone syncs brilliantly well to the system.
The TT maybe a fine car mechanically but digitally it is a different league. And for Rs60.34 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi, it is a bit pricey, but it is the world’s first iPad-generation car, and it is incredibly great fun. We only wish we had it for longer.