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TT gets long-awaited V6
Additional power transforms Audi's curvy corner carver
By Dan Proudfoot
Thursday, December 4, 2003
AUSTIN, Texas - The initial concept for the Audi TT sports car specified a V6 motor and now, 10 years later, a 250 horsepower V6 finally takes its place under the hood. Better late than never.
Now acceleration is immediate, even from low revs in the boring stop-and-go of Austin's city limits. The TT bellows rather than buzzes while turning onto Paleface Ranch Road, following the two-lane blacktop snaking its way through the rolling Texas hills. Now wherever you drive the Audi TT, it comes closer than ever to living up to its appearance.
TT fanatics, who have adored the car since its 1999 introduction despite its somewhat workaday, 1.8-litre, 4-cylinder turbo motor, might wonder why the original vision was so long in unfolding.
A hint or two could be found at Audi's TT 3.2 introduction. Product management leader, Norbert Seitner, provided one telling graphic in his presentation. According to Seitner, the TT 3.2's mission was to "Enrich the TT portfolio in the late life-cycle. Show 6-cylinder competence. Introduce a new transmission technology." In short, before this Audi thought the time wasn't right, and in all likelihood neither was the V6 powerplant. Five years into any given model's lifespan, new technology is typically introduced in the hope of seducing new buyers and convincing existing customers it's time to trade up. What's different in this case is that the extra cylinders were intended to be in the cards from the beginning. Another of Seitner's graphics showed an early design sketch from 1994 that called for three variants, starting with a 125 hp four, climbing to a 150 hp turbo-four and topped by a V6 with 200 horsepower.
But fitting the 200 horsepower, 2.8-litre V6 became of dubious market value when the original raspy-but-ready four pumped out 225 horsepower. Only the recent development of the Volkswagen/Audi narrow-angle 6-cylinder motor to 3.2-litre capacity - generating in this application 250 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque - promised sufficient anticipated marketing benefits to justify the heart transplant.
The new power and lustier sound do transform the car. That said, it's the new transmission to which Seitner referred - the sequentially-shifting Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG) - that lifts the TT 3.2 to the point that discerning sports car shoppers owe it to themselves to compare this version to the likes of BMW's Z4 or the Porsche Boxster.
Significantly, the DSG at this time appears only with the 3.2, with the price of admission at $60,450 for the TT Coupe or $64,950 for the Roadster. Elsewhere in Canada's limited TT model range, a 6-speed manual exclusively partners the all-wheel drive, 225 hp turbo four ($55,475 for the Coupe/$59,575 in Roadster form).
A Tiptronic manumatic shifts the 180 horsepower, front-drive version of the turbo four ($49,975/$52,775).
The twin paddles under the steering wheel are the stuff of Formula One or video games. The right one is for upshifts, the left for downshifts. No clutch pedal is necessary or provided.
As enticing as paddling among six gears to stir up 250 hp may be, I did my duty in beginning the day's drive by selecting 'Drive' using the same sort of gearshift lever as in any garden variety automatic. My verdict after 30 ho-hum miles? The automatic shifts are accomplished just as smoothly as an automatic employing a torque converter, yet seemingly quicker. No penalty here, just gain.
You paddle at will. Pull a paddle toward the wheel and the gear-indicator display switches from P-R-N-D-S to 1-2-3-4-5-6. Now the gears are yours to command, with shifts up or down made as fast as you can paddle. The flow of power is practically seamless. Instead of a torque converter, the DSG transmission uses dual clutches that operate in concert with a computer to pre-engage the anticipated next gear for almost instantaneous shifts.
The computer cannot anticipate multi-shifts, of course, but in such cases the delay is barely noticeable. Overall, the DSG manual impresses as being efficient and easy in operation.
In my opinion, Audi engineers have created a better way to shift for everyone, save those of us utterly addicted to coordinating clutch and gearshift operations.
Finally, take note of that 'S' mode just beyond the 'D' position. Press a detent button in the shifter to gain entry and it's like entering another range of possibility; this must be Texas 'cause we've just passed Johnson City, but it feels a whole lot more like the Nurburgring! Shifts are automatically aggressive, taking the V6 to 7,000 rpm if you're at all weighty on the gas pedal, downshifting whenever your foot lightens.
As Seitner put it, "I don't think you'd choose 'S' if you were having a conversation." It does, however, produce a lively discourse with the road.
In many ways the TT 3.2 differs little from the 225 hp version that costs $4,975 less. Larger air intakes and exhaust pipes, honeycomb trim inset in the panel between those pipes and blue colouring within the headlamps help set apart the more expensive model. Also, the battery has been transferred to the trunk, a move attributed to improving front-rear weight balance but also made necessary by lack of room in the engine bay.
Performance claims as reported by Audi are modest. The 225 hp TT can accelerate to 100 km/h in a hair over six seconds and the new model, despite its advantage in power, is heavier and takes almost 6.5 seconds.
The 3.2-litre V6 sounds better (unless you live for turbo whoosh), generally goes better and yet, despite the modest achievement of the V6 motor, it's the DSG gearbox that elevates the Audi TT to a new level of experience.
Immediate competition:
Chrysler Crossfire,
Mazda RX-8,
M-Benz SLK-Class,
Nissan 350Z
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