Design statements that adapt

CAR GUYS tend to heavily applaud those that take big chances. So do those that appreciate true design brilliance.

These two, surprisingly, don’t come together that often, because what car guys want doesn’t always work that well with what the purity of design may dictate. When everything works, you end up with a vehicle that manages not just to bring disparate passions together but also transcend both potential difference areas as well as time.

In the car world, this can actually cause problems because the initial offering is so strong and becomes so iconic that the subsequent will be perpetually compared against the initial one, and is often considered derivative, if not sacrilegious.

When the Audi TT came first came out, it was hailed as a design statement. A nod to pure design influence, in this case the Bauhaus aesthetic, that very few companies would even dare to try. It was beautiful and immediately identifiable and completely different from anything else.

It was so highly thought-out that even when Audi introduced a rear spoiler for their units’ owners, because quite frankly the owners were driving their design icons far faster around corners than most design icons would go. Thus the question was left to the owners themselves: Do you put them on and mess with the lines of the car or just drive a little more calm? Audi thankfully solved that problem in a way that is now seen in many modern sports cars: They put in a small retractable rear spoiler.

The Audi TT is now on its third generation, and it is indeed still a car that will make you want to buy the new one while still keeping the old one if you were fortunate enough to hang on to it. Clean geometric lines clearly link the two models, though the new one is more sleek, more edgy, and less rounded. Broad wheel arches still draw your attention, but the wheels are further out to the corners than before, which allows improved handling. The front wheel arch breaches the line of the hood, the line of which continues all the way to the rear. It isn’t the details themselves necessarily that connect this car with the first one the most, but rather how they all work together—the lines, curves, angles, the sizes and shapes of the glass surfaces—to bring the vision forward into the new world.

Speaking of forward vision and a new world, the company has always been known for the level of attention and quality they put into their interior. That isn’t easy to do when you also want to combine modern technologies—quite simply many big screens seem force-fit into or onto car dashboards in a somewhat inelegant solution.

In the TT, Audi premieres what they call a “virtual cockpit” which they say utilizes the highest-resolution, quickest-processing-speed display ever put into a car in order to give you all the information you need in the manner you want but still with the premium levels that the company demands. You are given the ability to shape your cockpit vision, to choose a more classic dial layout or a more modern full-screen view for example. You can now add different types of information within your field of view, with much though given to how intuitive everything either is or becomes.

Design is not sacrificed here, no shoehorning of a big screen to the detriment of overall aesthetic beauty. Instead the different schools of thought seemed to work together from Day One. Efficiency and intelligent design can actually make everything look good and work even better. One of the best examples is one of the simplest and most overlooked; the air-conditioning vents are simple, take less space and are both refreshingly clean and easy to use. We often forget how satisfying it is to use things that feel good. Everything is laid out intelligently, falls to hand or eye easily, and looks cool. From the right angles, the instrument panel resembles an aircraft wing.

As we have mentioned, the TT drivers tend to drive their cars rather passionately, and the new model is built to support that. Audi’s strength in lightweight construction is put to good use, using particular materials for specific uses. High-strength and ultrahigh-strength steel alloys are utilized for areas that provide structure and protection while aluminum is used for much of the bodywork. Side sills and roof frame are extruded aluminum, which allows strength with less weight, lowering the center of gravity which in turn has positive effects on handling. Now the whole car weighs only 1335 kilograms.

The 2-liter TFSI engine puts out 230 horsepower to move that lightened weight, using neat little tweaks like indirect fuel injection to supplement the direct injection of the FSI, the Audi valvelift system to adjust valve stroke on the exhaust side and thermal management using a rotary valve module and an exhaust manifold integrated into the cylinder head itself. Three hundred seventy Newton-meters of torque comes in from 1,600 to 4,300 revolutions per minute, so there is a wide area in which to play. A six-speed, dual-clutch automatic gives you wonderfully slick and quick transmission of power to the front wheels. The coupe hits 100 kilometers per hour in 5.9 seconds, which is just a wink before the rear spoiler pops up to improve both air resistance and downforce.

You simply cannot make cars the way you used to, which is sad because you miss the wonderfully simple or breathtakingly beautiful designs of old. The tradeoff is huge jumps in safety, efficiency, handling and speed. The TT is an excellent example of this; it has the relative practicality of Audi small cars and sedans but still brings in the sports car love both in driving feel and design touches (the four rings are on the sleek hood, just like in the high-performance R8). The car takes influences from origin like the circular gas lid and improves them; now you tap the lid and go straight in.

Audi has always been about technology and technological innovation, and in the case of the first TT, that included design daring. Modern automotive advancement allows improvement and forces change, examples of which being the brilliant new headlights that change the way car faces look, and on how you now interact differently with the instruments, toggle switches and flat-panel touch display interfaces, or on how you could even ignore them entirely and just talk to your car.

All the peripheral details are great; they can make your life better or easier if you let them. But past all that are the systems that allow everything to work more efficiently, to react more quickly, to weigh less yet still be stronger, to generally manage to make things both more fun and more safe at the same time. It is kind of interesting that a car that was heralded for being “merely” a design icon is now an excellent leading example of how modern cars can make so many different types of people happy.