Audi TT Mk3 tech and design preview

The next TT isn't far off, so PH takes a peek behind the scenes at Audi for all the details

By Richardaucock / Monday, 24 March 2014 / Loading comments

You sense Audi TT designer Dany Garand doesn't like the Mk2 Audi TT. He's happy to sing the praises of the groundbreaking original model, a car that even luminaries such as Jaguar's Ian Callum list as the modern car they wish they'd designed. The original TT is a strong and positive design, he says, as he sketches in front of us (doing that wonderful car designer magic trick of making the car appear from just two or three precisely drawn lines). The way the cabin sits on top of the body, the sills sitting parallel to the ground, the deep and geometric body sides, the add-on wheelarches. "It's a very geometric design that's all about the circle." He gently sketches on a few more details. He stands back and admires it; he's enjoying himself. "It's a very strong base."

Mk2 TT described as "a different way"

And the Mk2 TT? There's almost a grunt from Garand. "It was... a different way," he says. "The lines are more of a wave, with a lot of curvature from negative to positive - there's a lot of transition." He tails off. His mother brought him up well: if you can't say anything nice...

It's correcting the ills of the Mk2 that seems to have driven him with the new one. Let's not get too hung up on the familiarity: the TT is now a design icon alongside the VW Beetle and Porsche 911, reckons Audi, so it's never going to look like anything but a TT. This one, though, is much more like a TT should look, rather than the more mainstream Audi look of the Mk2. The crease is back in the C-pillar, for example (as it's a one-piece aluminium panel, creating this alone is involved - the panel goes through no fewer than six pressing stages...). The sills are also back to being parallel, instead of the upward-sweep ones on the Mk2. "That was fashionable at the time," says Grand dismissively as he walks around the second-gen car. Before turning his back on it and enthusiastically embracing the new one.

Four rings now on the bonnet, a la R8

Turning up the R gene

At the front, there is a change. The four rings logo sits on the bonnet instead of in the grille. Like it does on an R8. And that's a purposeful visual ID, says Garand - "it's the R gene... (showing) the TT is now the entry card for Audi sports cars". This is also why some of the symmetry of the original TT has been traded too. "You need direction to create a legitimate sports car" (the original silhouette was a bit bidirectional). As he sketches the new car, his pencil darts about much faster, creating more tension and speed in the lines. "At the front and rear, the lines 'shoot away' from the car instead of rounding out like on the original. It's now more masculine."

The manning up of the TT doesn't stop there. The TT has an all-new platform too, derived from MQB but with plenty of bespoke features - far more than the simple Mk4 VW Golf platform installation of the original. As with the Mk2 TT, it's made from an aluminium-steel hybrid; basically, the floorpan and bulkhead are regular steel, and everything on top is either high-strength steel or aluminium. Every body panel is aluminium. The roof frame is extruded, bent and shaped under 2,000-bar pressure, then attached to cast aluminium nodes. It's perhaps the most exotically-constructed junior sports car on the market.

Aluminium makes TT 150kg lighter than original

It gives a platform that's about 150kg lighter than the original TT, 25 per cent stiffer than the outgoing TT and infused with "more localized stiffness that you can really feel on the road," says TT body man Marko Weigel. He assures us you can particularly sense this through the steering column, which those familiar with the floppy feel of the original's helm will undoubtedly appreciate.

Exploiting this is a revised quattro system with redesigned hardware and all-new software. The power transfer unit has a new electric hydraulic clutch and the pump has a flywheel controller so doesn't need a separate pressure accumulator: chassis man Michael Bär promises "near-seamless torque transfer to the rear". The software intelligence underpinning it has been completely rewritten, he adds: it's a "clean sheet solution" that's now fully integrated into the Audi drive select system.

The TT can drift
Rather amusingly, Audi is particularly proud of the fact you can now drift a TT. Yes, really: turn off the ESC (it will be fully off, too) and the TT "permits controlled drifts": engaging sport mode prioritises more drive to the rear wheels "making it much easier to steer and control the car when drifting". Both are quotes. It's official: the new TT can drift. The TTS also stops better courtesy of a new set of aluminium fixed caliper anchors that not only save 5kg but also give "much, much better brake pedal feel" according to Bär. Aluminium suspension components add an exotic touch and Audi's even developed a special set of 19-inch lightweight forged alloy wheels for it (you can also have 20s if you must). Audi magnetic ride is an option, again, and now fully integrated with Audi Drive Select. Proper R8 mimicry, then.

Drive Select tweaks a lot!

Just one with fewer cylinders: but engines are all-new VW Group 2.0-litre four-pots, and all with more power than before. The TTS sounds most appealing: 310hp, 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds (in S Tronic guise, now with launch control to help things along) and with a grunty 280lb ft remarkably spread between 1,800-5,700rpm. There's no five-pot though, and no 'current' plans for one. You showed a 420hp 2.0-litre four-pot concept

at Geneva

though, Audi? We did indeed, say the engineers, who then shuffle and say plenty by saying nothing at all...

Cutting-edge dash
But for all this engineering, it's the TT's interior that's likely to prove the biggest showroom draw. Instead of separate dash and infotainment displays, Audi has integrated it all into one 12.3-inch TFT display. This displays virtual instruments and sat nav in one - apparently, it's easier said than done, creating a display that ticks safety-critical instrument legislation while also seamlessly displaying infotainment and navigation (remember, in-dash navigation is usually a mirror of that ran by a separate centre console system).

Interior will surely prove a big draw

Highly configurable, it's brilliant - the full-screen sat nav map is particularly outstanding. A new Audi MMI system (evolving the so-called four-button "quattro layout" of the past decade) makes it more logical to control as well. The menu system is flatter and a new 'right click' function, similar to that of a PC mouse, makes it more logical to decipher. On the TTS, Audi has even created a screen with a central rev counter, "like the Porsche 911".

The overall interior design doesn't quite have the jewel-like detailing of the original, but it's much nicer than the generic current car, and the cleaner architecture created by moving the central infotainment screen makes it feel much more modern. And those air vents, modeled on aircraft engines, with HVAC controls brilliantly integrated within, are fantastic. It's viewed from seats mounted lower than before, with optional 'cornering support' pump-up bolstering, and even the view ahead is better because this is the second Audi available with the firm's standard-setting Matrix LED headlights.

Magnetic dampers another R8 influence

The new TT may look the same as before in the images, but there's a bit more to it than that: it's more like the 'proper' TT, not the sanitised outgoing car, and is thus a more satisfying prospect for purists who loved the Bauhaus-style original. Even more encouragingly, the claim of infusing it with more R-ness means it may actually, finally, drive like the sports car it's always wanted to be: throughout the tech briefing day, the clear message was of Audi's intention to turn it into a genuine junior sports car.

A junior R8? We shall see. But we now wait with newfound anticipation...

AUDI TT MK3 2014
Engine: 1,984cc four-cylinder turbo petrol (TT, TTS), 1,968cc four-cylinder turbodiesel (TT TDI)
Transmission: 6-speed manual, four-wheel drive (TT TDI: front-wheel drive)
Power (hp): TT/TTS/TT TDI: 230/310/184
Torque (lb ft): TT/TTS/TT TDI: 272@1,500-4,500rpm/ 280@1,800-5,700rpm/280@1,750-3,250rpm
0-62mph: TT/TTS/TT TDI: 6.0 sec/4.7 sec (S Tronic)/7.2 sec
Top speed: TT/TTS/TT TDI: 155mph/155mph/146mph
Weight: TT/TTS/TT TDI: TBC
MPG: TT/TTS/TT TDI: 41.5mpg/39.7mpg/67.2mpg (NEDC combined)
CO2: TT/TTS/TT TDI: 158/164/110g/km
Price: £TBC (est: from £30,000)