“Would you want this car?” I asked my driving companion at the recent launch of the new Audi TT Roadster.
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.27)”][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”5/6″]He pulled a face as if he had bitten into a mouldy bit of apple. “Not really,” he answered. “But I’m pretty sure my wife would love it. If we had one of these at home, I’d never get to drive it at all.”
[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″]
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.27)”][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/1″]
Later in the day, we were driving the new TTS Coupe‘. “Now this,” he volunteered without being asked, “is a car I’d be happy to keep any time.”
That exchange says pretty much everything anybody might need to know about the TTS Coupe. Here you have a TT not just with a tintop but also with knobs on. Where the TT Roadster is all looks and little substance, the TTS Coupe is has so much substance, its appearance hardly gets a look in.
“In motion, the TTS will leave all but a handful of the most highly-bred performance cars floundering in its wake.”For anybody who wants a little more detail, get this: acceleration from 0-60 mph in little over four seconds – with a lovely, howling crescendo from the two sets of chromed twin tailpipes; 310 bhp from a two-litre TFSI engine and 310 NM of torque or pulling power. We are in Porsche territory here, gentlemen. And, just in case you doubt it, those tailpipes let out a glorious blat on the override between gears when the six-speed S tronic gearbox kicks down at speed through the quattro transmission.
We are also, alas, firmly in Porsche country for price. The shimmering white TTS coupe I drove at the launch costs a basic £39445 – which sounds like the kind of price you might expect for a top-end TT. However, adding a fairly basic range of extras such as electric seats (£995) and a centre arm rest (£175) carried the final price of my car up to £48015 – at which point you could reasonably be considering a Cayman S.
At the launch event, an Audi executive was musing on the “premium” car market and came out with the surprising admission that, in terms of product and engineering, very little difference exists between the three German giants. If you run your eye down the product range for Mercedes, you’ll find it closely matches BMW’s list. Ditto Audi. The main differences, he said, lay in “branding” and “perception”.
In the last 20 years, Audi have become supreme masters of the arts of managing customer perception through brand management. An Audi is what it is principally because we have been persuaded to believe in it. The special refinements of that exercise are at their most seductive and persuasive in the TTS Coupe. Yet the foundations of the car’s appeal are in real, tangible virtues rather than the marketeer’s smoke and mirrors.
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”15px” bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.27)”][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/2″]
[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_bottom=”15px” bg_color=”#ffffff”][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-left” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/1″]No outline in contemporary car architecture is more distinctively identifiable than J. Mays and Freeman Thomas’s design for the original 1990s TT. More than 20 years later, while it remains largely the same, it is as fresh and exhilarating as the day you first set eyes on it. Clever new all-LED headlights that automatically dip may be an improvement on the past but they don’t make much difference to the appearance of the present.
“Inside, the TTS is simply one of the best places on earth to be if you’ve got to be travelling on four wheels.”Inside, the cabin of the TTS is simply one of the best places on earth to be if you’ve got to be travelling on four wheels. Cossetted in fine leathers, indulged by an eight-speaker 155-watt Audi sound system (with the option of a 680-watts Bang & Olufsen system) and pampered with the Multi Media Interface for audio, satnav and Bluetooth, the driver might understandably prefer the interior of the TTS to the living-room at home.The 12.3” high-res LCD display behind the steering wheel is bigger than the first tv in my parends’ living-room at home in the 1950s and you don’t have to smack it with the flat of your hand – as my father was wont to do – to clear interference.
In motion, the TTS will leave all but a handful of the most highly-bred performance cars floundering in its wake. A battery of electronic stability aids, together with all-wheel drive, give the TTS an almost laughable degree of grip and stability (almost as laughable as Audi’s claims of 40+ mpg for this car against the 27.7 mpg we actually achieved). Audi’s quattro system is notorious for numbing driving sensations in high-speed cornering but the driver of the TTS can modify the electronic stabilisation controls to suit him/herself to such an extent that controlled drifts are possible.
Somehow, I can’t see my wife trying that in the TT Roadster – much as she, too, would love its more sedate qualities.
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”15px” bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.27)”][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/2″]
[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row no_margin=”true” padding_top=”25px” padding_bottom=”20px” bg_color=”#ffffff”][vc_column fade=”true” fade_animation=”in-from-left” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/2″]
Audi TTS Coupe 2.0 TFSI quattro 310 PS S tronic
On the road prices: £39,445. Price as tested £48,015
Engine: 1984cc DOHC four-cylinder turbocharged, direct injection
Power: 310PS/5,800 – 6200rpm
Torque: 380Nm/1800-5700rpm
Drive type: quattro permanent all-wheel drive
Transmission: S tronic 6-speed manual dual clutch
0-60mph: 4.6 seconds
Top speed: 155 mph
Fuel economy: combined 40.9 mpg
CO2 emissions: 159 g/km
[/vc_column][vc_column fade=”true” fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/2″]
About the Author
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”15px” bg_color=”#2f434b” bg_image=”75209″][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/4″]
[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]
[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]
[/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″]
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_bottom=”15px” bg_color=”#2f434b” bg_image=”75209″][vc_column fade_animation=”in-from-right” fade_animation_offset=”350px” width=”1/1″]
[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”30px” padding_bottom=”32px” bg_color=”#fdb819″][vc_column fade=”true” fade_animation=”in-from-top” fade_animation_offset=”50px” width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row inner_container=”true” no_margin=”true” padding_top=”30px” padding_bottom=”40px” bg_image=”75209″][vc_column fade=”true” fade_animation=”in-from-top” fade_animation_offset=”50px” width=”1/1″]
[/vc_column][/vc_row]