Slick Audi TT made to music

By Alastair Sloane

Get the feeling that the Audi TT has been around for years? You can be excused because few cars have been as hyped as the coupe since it broke cover at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1995.

Love it or hate it, the word most used to describe the design is Bauhaus, after the German school of thought founded by architect Walter Gropius soon after the First World War.

Gropius believed in simplicity and function and Audi itself admits that some of his philosophy is in the car.

But Audi didn't want to be tied to just form and function, so it asked its designers to sketch to the sounds of music.

Not Brahms or Beethoven but Miles Davis, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix. The Audi TT had to have a soul.

This it has exclusively, even though it shares its platform with a car of more humble origins, Volkswagen's New Beetle.

But form does not always follow function. Getting into the low-slung TT can be a headache if occupants forget to duck.

Once in, the interior is a delight, cramped but cosy and made even better by the use of aluminium, especially the attractive rotary controls around the vents and rest of the minimalist instruments.

But what appear at first glance to be grab handles on the centre console turn out be just decorative, sort of, without form or function.

Visibility from the driver's seat is better than the roofline would indicate, although the view can be restricted on the straight-ahead when the sun visor is down.

Forget talk of the TT being a two-plus-two coupe. A small child or a couple of Christmas turkeys cramp the back. There is almost no legroom unless the driver sits with his chin on the steering wheel.

The TT makes more sense as a up-market two-seater, with the rear seats tumbled forward and made-to-measure leather luggage folded in the back..

The silver appearance of the test TT gives the impression that the interior aluminium is carried over to the outer skin. But only the bonnet is made from alloy - the rest is German steel.

The TT is powered by a turbocharged 20valve four-cylinder 1.8-litre engine, which produces a healthy 132kW of power and an equally healthy 235Nm of torque, most of it available between 1950 and 4700 rpm.

A five-speed manual gearbox helps the engine deliver its power through a slick selection of ratios. The gearshift itself is short and positive.

On the road the TT is highly chuckable, providing communicative steering responses and offering huge grip and flat cornering

It shares the ability with most good front-drive cars to be easily reined in once it begins to run wide. But it likes running wider than most, where it will tweak its tail delightfully under the throttle.

Standard equipment in the TT includes dual front and side airbags, climate-control air-conditioning, a sophisticated anti-theft system, trip computer, full leather upholstery, six-speaker CD sound system, traction control, ABS anti-lock brakes and 16-inch alloy wheels.

But you can't ask for a sunroof. Like some other parts of the car, there's not enough room to fit one. The Audi TT costs about $78,000 It will be joined by the more expensive four-wheel-drive quattro variant next month.