Introduction

Audi has come further, perhaps, than any other German car company. From the brink of extinction in this market, Audi has delivered continuous product improvement, continuous product line expansion, vast improvements in quality, and a couple of wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans thrown in for good measure. It's a car company on the way out of the lower luxury segment and into the upper, and a company that deserves watching. There have never been as many distinct Audi models to choose from, from the basic Audi A4 sedan to the $90,000 Audi A8L limousine. One of the products that has brought new buyers into Audi showrooms is the TT, Audi's first true sports car. The TT is a two-seater and comes in both coupe and roadster form. The TT offers Volkswagen's superb quality and attention to detail in a sportier, more upscale design. It features solid VW mechanicals and durability underneath. And for 2004, the TT offers the 3.2-liter narrow-angle V6 to create an entirely new model. The Audi TT has much to offer. Its styling is pure and retro, recalling Audi's sports car heritage that goes back to the 1905 Tourist Trophy race on the Isle of Man. That theme is carried through inside with a stylish interior in top-quality materials and fit and finish. These cars feel very refined and quite stable, like their riding on rails. The brakes are excellent. The 225-horsepower 1.8 T is quick and the new 3.2 is very quick indeed; Audi's quattro all-wheel-drive system comes on these models to put the power down on clean, dry pavement as well as on mud, snow, slush or rain-drenched roads. The standard 180-horsepower 1.8 T lacks the verve of these other two, but is a delightful sports car by nearly anyone's standards.

Walkaround

We were struck by the styling of the Audi TT when it was first introduced as a 2000 model. It was daring for its purity and simplicity of form, and that remains true today, though designers have been allowed far more creativity in the past few year. The designers of the TT were inspired by the original "bathtub" Porsche and the famed Auto Union Grand Prix cars of the 1930s. In short, it looks terrific. The engine is mounted in front and drives the front wheels (or all four wheels), but it almost looks like a mid-engine sports car like the Porsche Boxster. The new V6 model is distinguished by several new front and rear styling licks including lamps, grilles, and exhaust systems in addition to the rear deck badging. Specifically, the 3.2 features an exclusive front apron with side gills and enlarged inlets for engine cooling. A modified and enlarged rear spoiler and a honeycomb diffuser help reduce rear-end lift at high speeds.

Interior Features

The beautifully laid out and red-illuminated instrument panel and dashboard area in the Audi TT are models of modern industrial design, easy to read, easy to use and understand. Ergonomics has always been a strong suit with modern Audi products. The TT interior is about twice as adventurous as a typical Audi sedan interior, though, with a glamorous center stack, more decoration around the instrument bezels and air vents, and a generally livelier presentation of all the usual information. The bucket seats are small, but what there is is a good, solid seat with enough adjustment latitude to fit even tall drivers like me (6 feet, 4 inches). The quality of materials, their fit and their finish are unassailable, and there is an interior option for the seats and trim called Baseball Optic stitching that is very sexy, especially in orange or black. There is room for two average-sized adults in the TT, and that's about all there is. There is a tiny bit of storage available in the door pockets and glovebox, and a tiny stash behind each of the bucket seats, but this is a deliberately cozy interior whether you're driving the coupe or the roadster. The trunk holds only 7.8 cubic feet of luggage or cargo, just about enough for a weekend getaway (unless there's a black tie function Saturday night). The side windows are very short compared to most cars, even most sports cars, so you have to watch your head on the way in and on the way out or you'll knock yourself in the noggin.