The new Audi TT

The car industry is full of contradictions. Manufacturers fall over themselves to prove their green credentials, while at the same time pushing out marketing materials eager to prove the power of their latest gas-guzzler. And while great importance is placed on the musings of the motoring press—with its claimed ability to make or break a car—the public are equally capable of ignoring them. Such was the case with the original TT. Widely hailed as a design triumph and quickly afforded the label “iconic”, it was regularly criticised by the hardened hacks for its unpredictable handling. The public opted to believe their eyes rather than the press and Audi has since shifted 50,000 of the things in the UK alone. So it’s a relief to find out that when it came to replacing the TT, Audi paid plenty of attention to its critics.

As we step off the plane at the start of two days of test-driving on the fantastic roads near the Paul Ricard test circuit in the South of France, there’s a bunch of the new TTs lined up on the tarmac—a pleasing sight indeed. The stronger styling of the new exterior—described accurately by the Audi team as “completely reworked but instantly familiar”—is a well considered improvement on the old one, with enough reference to the previous design to keep its fans happy, but an extra bit of sculptural muscle added in the right places. The now familiar Audi front grill jars slightly, but apart from that it’s a job well done. If such a thing existed, it would be a sure fire candidate for the motoring equivalent of the “rear of the year”. 

Better still, thanks to its Audi Space Frame (ASF)—a clever construction hybrid that blends 69 per cent steel and 31 per cent aluminium—despite being bigger all round than the original, this new version is lighter. 

Launched in two petrol models—the 3.2-litre, V6 quattro (with Audi’s trademark four-wheel drive) or a less powerful, but very impressive 2.0 Turbo FSI—the word from inside Audi is that a diesel version is in the pipeline, although exact dates aren’t known. It’s likely that Audi will wait to make the most of the lessons learnt from the phenomenal success of the strangely noiseless R10 diesel that won at Le Mans earlier this year.

But for now, powerful petrol engines are the order of the day and it was time to get out on the road and put the V6 through its considerable paces. For anyone looking to test how much fun a new car is to drive, the roads around Le Castellet (Bernie Ecclestone’s South of France bolt-hole) provide the perfect setting. If a car doesn’t make your heart sing here, with the glorious views, curvy climbs and long straight roads, it’s not going to do much for you on a wet Tuesday on the M25.

Audi has gone to great lengths to improve the handling on the new TT, and it’s worked. At one point a particularly sharp corner took me by surprise, but didn’t faze the TT. It continued to grip the road with grim determination and carried me through. It seems churlish to say it, but if anything the desire to keep a tighter grip on the ride has removed some of the fun from the drive—that’s “the fun” of not knowing whether or not the car is coming out of a corner the way you intended it to until you do. There’s more than a hint of that famed German efficiency about the drive, but as it prevented me from careering over the edge of a cliff, it seems rude to complain about it. 

At the heart of this technological assistance is a clever new system called magnetic ride, which uses some arcane nanotechnology to adapt the car’s damping characteristics to match the road conditions and the driver’s gear shifting style. A special shock absorber fluid is filled with ultra-fine magnetic particles which, when influenced by a magntoc field can be aligned to resist the movement of the shock absorber, varying the damping force, making for a firmer ride. 
There’s also a swish new electronically operated spoiler, which rises automatically when you reach 74 mph or can be switched up manually. This again is intended to help improve the downward force and keep the car hugging the road.  

The TT I was busy throwing around the mountainous country lanes was fitted with the 6-speed, s-tronic transmission, which can make a gear change in 0.2 of a second, meaning there’s none of the lag often associated with sequential transmissions. While the Sport mode, with its earlier downshifts and shorter shifting times makes for a more engaging drive, it’s still an automatic and there is a sense of losing some of the thrill you get with a decent manual gearbox. But with the 3.2 litre, V6 engine in the quattro—described by Audi as a “relaxed powerhouse”—it is certainly capable of providing enough fun. All in all, it was a great drive in a wonderful location. This revised TT looks like being another winner for Audi, and the good news is that this time it’s a car that you can enjoy driving and looking at.

What is it? Audi TT
How much? From £24,625 for the 2.0 FSI and £29,285 for the 3.2 quattro
Where’s it headed? To the country to find some empty road
Who’s driving? Someone in a floral shirt, tight jeans and expensive sunglasses