Stunning New Audi TT Revealed
After eight years of being on the market, Audi’s TT sports car is still fresh; it’s a timeless and ever-fashionable vehicle, achieving a longevity that few other car designs can hold claim to. But, like all good things, change is eventually necessary. Many of the first generation TT’s siblings have been moved over from Volkswagen Group’s ‘A4′ chassis (Golf, New Beetle, the previous Jetta) to the new and highly advanced PQ35 (A5) chassis that underpins the likes of the Mk.V 2007 Golf and company, and now its time for the new TT to get the A5 treatment. Or is it?
Yes and no, but we’ll delve into that in a minute. Stylistically the new TT is heavily based off of the Shooting Brake Concept that debuted at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show. Major similarities can be seen on the front half, in particular the headlamps, grille and chiseled shape of the front fenders, all of which give the new car a highly aggressive, less feminine look. Instead of being a traditional three-door hatchback, like the Shooting Brake, Audi stuck to the slinky coupe shape with big, plumped wheel arches, a style that it has ever so carefully preserved for the second generation. Compared to the old car, the new TT is greater in length by some 137 mm (5.4 in) and wider by 78 mm (3.0 in); its wheels are further pushed to the chassis’s corners for a more squat and stable stance.
No longer is the TT just a Golf clad in appealing clothes; it’s been transformed into a very unique vehicle, which is significantly different from any of its direct siblings. Its structure was designed in a similar way to Audi’s Aluminum Space Frame (ASF) cars, the A2 and A8, but is fundamentally different in that the TT’s frame is part steel and part aluminum! Sixty-nine percent of this “superstructure” is made of the lighter metal, in order to reduce the overall weight as well as the load over the front wheels. The remaining 31 percent - the components made from steel - are centered over the rear wheels in order to improve the car’s weight distribution.
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