Audi TT completes 25 years of production; remember the history of sports

Launched in 1998, the Audi TT completed 25 years, and since then, three generations have passed.

For those who don’t know, the name “TT” refers to the Touring Prize in the Isle of Man, one of the oldest motorcycle events in the world and where NSU and DKW, the brands that later merged the Audi range, celebrated big. success. The name “TT” is also reminiscent of the NSU TT sports car of the 1960s.

The beginning

The prototype came from the hands of the American designer Freeman Thomas, under the command of the then head of design Peter Schreyer, who created a purist sports car called the Audi TT Coupé.

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Audi presented the project, for the first time, to an enthusiastic public at the Frankfurt Motor Show, in Germany, in September 1995. In the same year, the decision was taken to produce the Audi TT Coupé in series.

In 1998, series production of the TT Coupé began. A year later, Audi released the TT Roadster. From the beginning, the TT was produced by Audi Hungaria Motor Kft. in Hungary.

Visual

One design element that contributed to the TT’s appearance was the so-called “circle” or “picture-perfect shape”, as Torsten Wenzel, Audi’s exterior designer, describes it.

“At Audi Design, we have always followed the philosophy of ‘less is more’. Bringing out the unique character of the Audi TT Coupé, reducing it to the essentials, was a difficult and special task for us designers.

Driving cars

The engine range of the first generation Audi TT was wide. It had four-cylinder turbo engines with power from 150 to 225 hp and a V6 unit with 250 hp.

The highlight of the engine range was the four-cylinder Audi TT quattro Sport, which was increased to 240 hp and 1,168 was produced.

Color

In addition to exclusive colors such as Papaya Orange or Blue Nogaro, the TT can have special equipment installed directly from the factory. For example, the “baseball mitt” design for the leather seats in the Audi TT Roadster, originally an eye-catcher of the car, moved into series production.

Over eight years of production, a total of 178,765 first-generation Audi TT Coupés had left production by mid-2006. A total of 90,733 Audi TT Roadsters were built between 1999 and 2006.

The second generation

Audi explains that for the next two generations, the designers maintained “reduction to the essentials” as the main design principle, which is visible, for example, in the minimal exterior design. This can be noticed in the aluminum fuel tank cover, in the circular air vents, in the gear finish and in the separate gear shift knob.

The second generation TT was launched in 2006 (Coupé) and 2007 (Roadster) and was based on the platform of the second generation Audi A3.

Details for adaptive dampers and magnetic conduction, which Audi used for the first time. Available as an option, this technology constantly adjusts the controls to the road profile and the rider’s individual style.

Already in 2008, the TTS sports model was launched with a 2-liter turbo engine with 272 hp, followed a year later by the TT RS with a 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine with 340 hp and 360 hp on the Audi TT RS. together.

In 2008, the brand with four rings launched the TT 2.0 TDI quattro – the world’s first production sports car with a diesel engine.

The third generation

The third generation of the Audi TT debuted in 2014 – and once again Audi used the new generation to reduce its weight. TT Coupé: with 2.0 TFSI engine and manual transmission, it weighed just 1,230 kg, up to 50 kg lighter than before.

Now, with the new TT and TT RS, designers have reinterpreted the lines of the original 1998 model for the modern era.

In technical terms, the third generation TT added several innovations. For example, the model marked the first Audi cockpit, a digital instrument panel with detailed screens, which replaced the analog instruments and the MMI monitor.

In 2016, Audi used organic LEDs, known as OLED technology, for the first time.

The range of sports engines, in turn, includes a 2-liter turbo engine with 310 hp; followed in 2016 by the TT RS, with a 2.5-liter five-cylinder turbo engine (400 hp).

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