Audi TT Quattro Sport, Punching Well Above Its Weight

The Audi TT has always been a good performer, but with 240 bhp from the latest 1. 8 litre turbo engine, the Audi TT quattro Sport is a real flyer. Mind, it is not the sort of car you just jump into, because it has deep bucket seats that have hardly any padding, so you sort of drop yourself in.

These seats, which have neither adjustment on the angle of the back rest nor for height, are part of the package aimed at reducing weight to help give the car more urge. Also part of this package is the elimination of the back seats found on other TTs; as there is not much space in the back, the lack of the back seats is not much loss.

True, the Audi TT is no lightweight; in this guise it weighs 3,118 lb (1,416 kg), which is slightly more than the Alfa GT with the V-6 engine. Even so, the new engine has given the car a new lease of life, providing acceleration in real driving situations which is far quicker than the 0-60 mph time of about 5.7 seconds suggests. Top speed is limited to 155 mph.

Once you've sorted yourself out, shut the large door and got comfortable, it all feels pretty good. The instruments are clear and simple, easily visible beneath the rim of the steering wheel, and the gear lever is close to hand.

Pleasant, refined interior

Unusually, the steering wheel rim is trimmed in black suede, and the rest of the rather funky interior of black and polished aluminum grows on you. Quite pleasant and refined, but functional. Visibility is pretty good, but you are immediately aware that the scuttle is too high for a sports car, and that the hood is barely visible. That is one of the penalties of building a two-seater on the under body of a front-wheel drive hatchback.

Audi TT Quattro Could be quieter

Start her up and the engine rumbles quietly away. The steering feels well weighted, the gearshift pretty smooth. Out on the motorway, the Audi TT behaves well, accelerating quickly into the traffic, and cruising quietly along ? that was on one of these new 'quiet' road surfaces. Hit a patch of older tarmac, and the Continental 235/40 R 18 Y tires on 8.5 inch rims make quite a lot of noise which combined with the general transmission hum makes the car quite busy. Nothing serious, though, and pretty good for a sports car in this price range. On the other hand, those fat tires do give plenty of cornering power with that low center of gravity. Incidentally, the Golf GTI has slightly fatter tires 245 section.

Joy to drive on long trips

On long journeys over main roads, the car is great fun. It goes exactly where you steer it, and the overtaking acceleration is little short of phenomenal from the new turbo engine. They've redesigned the turbo system completely, not just to give more power but also to make this power stretch right down to about 2,750 rpm. By 3,000 rpm the engine is starting to churn out real power, thrusting the car forward at quite a pace, and it keeps at it right up to 6,500 rpm or so, giving you a great power band.

Remarkable engine and good gearshift

In fact, this remarkable engine, which has five valves per cylinder, produces maximum torque from 2,300 rpm right up to 5,000 rpm, which is why the engine is such a joy to use.

On top of that, the gearshift is excellent ? better than some others in the VW group ? so it is a breeze to slot into the right cog, use your right foot, and leave the car you?re overtaking for dust. And a few people accelerate when you overtake, too.

With top speeds of 30, 55, 80 and 104 mph in the first four gears, you've plenty of power in any situation. Third takes care of most situations, with a range of real power between 40 and 80 mph, and not found in many over geared compact cars.

Front-wheel drive handling

The suspension set up is basically that of the Golf Mk IV platform, with struts at the front and a multi-link rear end, unlike the torsion beam rear axle on the front-drive TTs. Most suspension components are special to Audi TT quattro, which has stiffer links and much harder springs. There are anti-roll bars front and rear.

With four-wheel drive, you expect pretty neutral handling most of the time, if not all the time, but the TT quattro behaves just like a front-drive car, which is far from ideal. The reason is that the four-wheel drive system sends 95% of the power to the front wheels normally, and just 5% going to the rear wheels not enough to have any effect on the handling. This system was adopted to save space.

This quattro system is a compact unit designed for the smaller models, and it has a multi-plate clutch before the rear differential. Normally, this slips, just sending a little torque to the rear wheels. So it feels like front-wheel drive, because for almost all the time, that is what it is. Only when you get front wheel spin does the rear axle come into play to a significant degree.

Turn in and accelerate round a long corner, and the under steer gradually builds up. Lift off, and if you get it at right, the car straightens up and you can then accelerate hard out of the corner. But if it's a really long corner, the lift off hardly tucks the nose in, although it does reduce the under steer.

Behaved well on our test route

On our test route, however, where some bends are blind, the surfaces range from good to bad, the car acquitted itself very well. The combination of that mid-range power, the top-notch gearshift, precise steering ? if a bit short of feel and good brakes, Audi  TT raced over the switchback section with great aplomb, cornering with verve and steadiness. Corner how you will, the TT quattro goes around very flat with no noticeable roll, and all the time you're held securely in your seat. Even over the sharpest of brows, the car kept in full contact with the road ? no jumping here.

On the really poorly surfaced roads, the hard ride became very joggly, and at times downright jerky, but the car kept its cool very well. Long sweeping bends are taken in great style without a trace of under steer, and tight hairpins are also negotiated quickly. You're helped here by the fact that the car is very compact, so doesn't need much room on the road.

On one of our special test corners, downhill into an almost 180 degree turn, Audi TT was less happy on the wet surface, under steering wide, then being held up by the stability control. With the stability control switched off, the under steer increased slightly, but there wasn't much lift-off tuck in. A bit more lock held the car on line.

Cornering in between can be good, unless you press hard enough for the under steer to build up. If so, it is controllable but is definitely not an entertaining style of handling. With all that weight over the front wheels ? the weight distribution is more like 60% front and 40% rear rather that the 50:50 you want ? that under steer seems inevitable.

You'd expect the rear drive to push you round the corner in a more neutral manner, and in most four-wheel drive cars it does. But with the TT quattro that doesn't happen.

Can be difficult to get off the line quickly

The four-wheel drive also behaves oddly if you try to start off really fast. The front wheels lose grip when you drop the clutch, at which point the quattro brains decide to send some power to the back wheels. The result is that they suddenly start to drive, there's hardly any power going to the front wheels, so the engine revs drop, you almost stop, and then take off again. Which might explain why the 0-60 time is not quite as fast as you might expect.

Superb for cross country driving

That minor criticism apart ? and only do those standing starts to see how the car performs, not in normal driving however much I'm hurrying ? this is a superb little car for driving from A to B fast. In fact, what with the need to use some common sense, and less than sensible speed limits around, you can actually get around as fast in the Audi TT quattro Sport as many much bigger cars, even though you might work the engine harder to do so. But this is an engine which thrives on work, just as the whole car thrives on being driven quickly and asked to corner fast and securely in all weathers. And it uses less fuel than you might expect.

So is this the ideal compact sports cars? It would be apart for that strong and final under steer and the need for a bit more feel in the steering. Well worth putting on your short list. Incidentally, this is the quickest TT for practical purposes; the 3.2 litre version is heavier so acceleration is worse, and the extra 20 bhp are dissipated dragging the extra weight around