Audi's soft option
|
[08/14/2007] You can cram your TT with a big V6, and all-wheel-drive and coat it in many colours, but Dave Moore will take it instead with the smaller engine, silver paint and the fastest roof in the business.
|
You can cram your TT with a big V6, and all-wheel-drive and coat it in many colours, but Dave Moore will take it instead with the smaller engine, silver paint and the fastest roof in the business.
I always liked the look of Audi's TT, but had never quite felt fulfilled by the way it drove, till now. The new model, launched here earlier this year, finally delivers on its visual promise by driving as well as it looks, which is something the gorgeously styled original never did.
The all-new model takes the uncluttered visual theme of the original, but its face has been given something of a snarl by the flanking of its new, deeper, bearded grille with more sinister wraparound headlights.
There has also been a stretching out of what was once a toyish, albeit engaging bodystyle into something slightly more masculine than the original. It's a larger machine all round and far from being the hairdresser's car that many labelled the original, the new one is irrefutably better than that, an interior decorator's perhaps.
I drove the latest TT this week, in the form of the Roadster, which loses its solid roof and gains a fabric power hood, and after a week of it, I'd rate it as the best TT of all.
It's not quite the quickest. That honour goes to the 3.2-litre V6 Quattro model, which posts acceleration times in the sub-supercar bracket and makes a neck hair-raising noise while doing so.
However, the 2.0-litre TT, which with 147kW is 37kW less powerful than its V6 sibling, still manages to reach 100kmh in 6.5 seconds, while managing an overall fuel economy rating of around 7.8 litres every 100km.
So while it's not an obvious tree- huggers' car, in 2.0-litre TFSi form, like the road test car, which effectively uses the same turbocharged engine as that in the VW Golf GTi, the TT has a 186g/km carbon dioxide rating, so it's pretty clean.
But back to the hood, which by way of a single rocker switch can be erected in just over 10 seconds, quicker, I think, than any other power-operated rag-top.
It's a little dark inside with the hood up, especially during this dull, grey winter we're having, but the subtle glow of the cabin's metallic bits and bobs is all the more appealing in such low light. In fact, sitting cosily in the TT – the dash aglow with red light – is the nearest thing to being in a wheeled cottage there is, albeit one in which the main materials are aluminium, steel, vinyl and leather, rather than timber and slate.
However, thanks to an industrial strength heater and aerodynamics that appear to clear the open cabin of rain when the car is driven at speeds above 70kmh – that's my story officer, and I'm sticking to it! – the TT could be driven in acceptable comfort most of the year round with the hood stowed neatly beneath its built-in tonneau.
Audi furnishes its TT with a flat- bottomed steering wheel, which is obviously fashioned that way to allow people who are thick of thigh – like me – to comfortably sit behind it. I appreciate that idea, but when guiding the car through serious twisties like the approaches to the Rakaia and Waimakariri gorges, it's not easy to thread the wheel's rim through the hands when the bottom is straight and the rest of it is curved. Which is a shame, for even with our front-driven version of the TT Roadster, its new found handling prowess is well worth savouring: this is a talented car.
Audi has ensured that most of the car's heavier parts are close to its centre point. It has done this by using an aluminium spaceframe and a body made up of 69 per cent aluminium and 31 per cent steel, saving around 70kg over the old car. It's this distribution of weight that helps give the TT such a biddable nature and it's no different in the Roadster, which corners with consummate ease, while delivering nary a shake even over rough-hewn road surfaces, which can be a bugbear in less-solid convertibles than this impressively stiff German. That stiffness is in the body, not the suspension and even without the V6 car's standard Magnetic ride set-up, our 2.0-litre version, shod with sporty 18-inch S-line alloys is able to dispatch holes and bumps with little fuss.
Audi's Magnetic ride technology controls damper responses in milliseconds by the energising of magnetic particles in the shock absorber fluid. It translates into a remakable level of handling response with no compromise in ride comfort and is a $3400 option in the 2.0-litre car.
I'm not really sure what marks the star of the TT Roadster's show. The hood is quick and snug. And it's even attractive when it's erected and so simple to deploy and retract, with no clamps to fuss with.
The engine's pretty sharp too, with loads of torque and with a voice of its own that might not match the operatic qualities of the V6, but which hums and lilts with enthusiasm through the gearbox's astonishingly quick shifts.
Perhaps the star IS the gearbox, which is Audi's S-tronic, or VW's DSG sequential transmission by any other name. It actuates the clutch automatically and all the driver has to do is leave it to its own devices, like a conventional automatic, which is more than satisfactory. Or you can use the steering wheel shift paddles, which Audi tells me can swap cogs in about 0.15 seconds and it feels magical.
It also means the S-tronic TT is two-tenths of a second quicker to 100kmh than a perfectly-driven manual version. And that's the point, except for a nano-second of reticence off the line, every shift with S-tronic is perfect, which means the difference is in reality, more than two-tenths, as very few drivers make perfect manual shifts all the time, every time.
In reality, the star of the Roadster's show is the package. The car is better than the sum total of its parts. And the parts are very impressive indeed.
I always liked the look of Audi's TT, but had never quite felt fulfilled by the way it drove, till now. The new model, launched here earlier this year, finally delivers on its visual promise by driving as well as it looks, which is something the gorgeously styled original never did.
The all-new model takes the uncluttered visual theme of the original, but its face has been given something of a snarl by the flanking of its new, deeper, bearded grille with more sinister wraparound headlights.
There has also been a stretching out of what was once a toyish, albeit engaging bodystyle into something slightly more masculine than the original. It's a larger machine all round and far from being the hairdresser's car that many labelled the original, the new one is irrefutably better than that, an interior decorator's perhaps.
I drove the latest TT this week, in the form of the Roadster, which loses its solid roof and gains a fabric power hood, and after a week of it, I'd rate it as the best TT of all.
It's not quite the quickest. That honour goes to the 3.2-litre V6 Quattro model, which posts acceleration times in the sub-supercar bracket and makes a neck hair-raising noise while doing so.
However, the 2.0-litre TT, which with 147kW is 37kW less powerful than its V6 sibling, still manages to reach 100kmh in 6.5 seconds, while managing an overall fuel economy rating of around 7.8 litres every 100km.
So while it's not an obvious tree- huggers' car, in 2.0-litre TFSi form, like the road test car, which effectively uses the same turbocharged engine as that in the VW Golf GTi, the TT has a 186g/km carbon dioxide rating, so it's pretty clean.
But back to the hood, which by way of a single rocker switch can be erected in just over 10 seconds, quicker, I think, than any other power-operated rag-top.
It's a little dark inside with the hood up, especially during this dull, grey winter we're having, but the subtle glow of the cabin's metallic bits and bobs is all the more appealing in such low light. In fact, sitting cosily in the TT – the dash aglow with red light – is the nearest thing to being in a wheeled cottage there is, albeit one in which the main materials are aluminium, steel, vinyl and leather, rather than timber and slate.
However, thanks to an industrial strength heater and aerodynamics that appear to clear the open cabin of rain when the car is driven at speeds above 70kmh – that's my story officer, and I'm sticking to it! – the TT could be driven in acceptable comfort most of the year round with the hood stowed neatly beneath its built-in tonneau.
Audi furnishes its TT with a flat- bottomed steering wheel, which is obviously fashioned that way to allow people who are thick of thigh – like me – to comfortably sit behind it. I appreciate that idea, but when guiding the car through serious twisties like the approaches to the Rakaia and Waimakariri gorges, it's not easy to thread the wheel's rim through the hands when the bottom is straight and the rest of it is curved. Which is a shame, for even with our front-driven version of the TT Roadster, its new found handling prowess is well worth savouring: this is a talented car.
Audi has ensured that most of the car's heavier parts are close to its centre point. It has done this by using an aluminium spaceframe and a body made up of 69 per cent aluminium and 31 per cent steel, saving around 70kg over the old car. It's this distribution of weight that helps give the TT such a biddable nature and it's no different in the Roadster, which corners with consummate ease, while delivering nary a shake even over rough-hewn road surfaces, which can be a bugbear in less-solid convertibles than this impressively stiff German. That stiffness is in the body, not the suspension and even without the V6 car's standard Magnetic ride set-up, our 2.0-litre version, shod with sporty 18-inch S-line alloys is able to dispatch holes and bumps with little fuss.
Audi's Magnetic ride technology controls damper responses in milliseconds by the energising of magnetic particles in the shock absorber fluid. It translates into a remakable level of handling response with no compromise in ride comfort and is a $3400 option in the 2.0-litre car.
I'm not really sure what marks the star of the TT Roadster's show. The hood is quick and snug. And it's even attractive when it's erected and so simple to deploy and retract, with no clamps to fuss with.
The engine's pretty sharp too, with loads of torque and with a voice of its own that might not match the operatic qualities of the V6, but which hums and lilts with enthusiasm through the gearbox's astonishingly quick shifts.
Perhaps the star IS the gearbox, which is Audi's S-tronic, or VW's DSG sequential transmission by any other name. It actuates the clutch automatically and all the driver has to do is leave it to its own devices, like a conventional automatic, which is more than satisfactory. Or you can use the steering wheel shift paddles, which Audi tells me can swap cogs in about 0.15 seconds and it feels magical.
It also means the S-tronic TT is two-tenths of a second quicker to 100kmh than a perfectly-driven manual version. And that's the point, except for a nano-second of reticence off the line, every shift with S-tronic is perfect, which means the difference is in reality, more than two-tenths, as very few drivers make perfect manual shifts all the time, every time.
In reality, the star of the Roadster's show is the package. The car is better than the sum total of its parts. And the parts are very impressive indeed.
[Sourse]
celebrity gallery | travel photo | motorcycle gallery | Dine in the USA
| Share You car picture |
| Website Contents © All Rights Reserved |
Conception by Universal Studio
|