Audi's new TT 3.2 Quattro DSG may offer more power to the range, but it's the new transmission that's set to revolutionise the sports car segment. Michael McAleer drives the most potent of the TTs.
Sports car engineers must be waiting, spanners at the ready, for the latest upgrade of the TT range, first launched with its catchy design back in 1998. Why the desire to get to strip the new TT? It's down to superb advances in gearbox technology that makes other tiptronic or multitronic systems seem slow and jerky.
To bring forth the clear advantage of the new system, Audi has mated it to a V6 3.2-litre engine. This is the same engine which appears in the performance VW Golf R32 (not sold here) and has been developed to 250 bhp. These days 3.2 is the magic number when it comes to performance models and a big step up in terms of torque, or pulling power, compared to the current range of 1.8-litre 180-225 bhp units.
But, as much as the engine brings forth a fresh breath of life to the TT range, offering more opportunity to take full advantage of the four-wheel-drive, it's in the new gearbox that the true revolution has occurred.
At €68,000 when it hits our shores later this year, this timely update to the TT range proves yet again Audi's expertise in transmission systems, having originally brought tiptronic gearboxes to the motoring world in the mid-1990s. Tiptronic allows drivers to revert to a semi-automatic format of choosing gears manually. Then there was multitronic, which offered an infinite number of gear ratios.
Now, Audi's superb new direct-shift gearbox (DSG) uses a complex six-speed gearbox with two input shafts and two clutches. In layman's terms it's effectively two gearboxes inside a single casing that allows the system's "brain" to select two gears at once. Then, at the touch of one of the two paddles (up on the left, down on the right), the changeover is almost instantaneous.
Audi claims a changeover time of 0.2 seconds. Even Michael Flatley's feet can't fly around fast enough to clutch and change gear in that time.
But there's more. In Sports mode the gears are held above 3,500 rpm so that, if you drop below this range, it changes down for you, keeping you in the potent revs and keeping the engine singing the high notes. These down changes are so perfectly timed you would be hard-pushed to even try to match it for response.
The sound of the V6 is also dramatically different than the steady motor of the regular TT, thanks in no small part to the work of a team of sound engineers who ensure that this car burbles along like the best of the sports cars on the market. In Sports mode, adjustments made to the rear exhaust housing give a glorious "wap-wap" sound that as an aural sensation is simply addictive, particularly as you meander down narrow built-up streets or along the cliff edges of the windy roads of Nice.
We tested the car on the original hill climb route once run by the Auto Union Typ C, precursor to the Formula One cars. The tight winding route, which featured sheer rock to the left and sheer drops to the right left no doubt about the bravery, or insanity, of the 1930s drivers who took the Ferdinand Porsche-designed Audi up the hill at speeds in excess of 200 mph.
Its 16-cylinder engine offered over 500 bhp with a top speed of over 240 mph. It was rudimentarily basic, comprising 6-litre engine and driver surrounded by a sheet of metal slightly thinner than that used in a tin of beans, all running on glorified bicycle tyres.
Thankfully, the TT has a slightly thicker skin, and four-wheel drive, though we did have to contend with traffic on the way. While the Typ C had the look of a racer, the TT offers an altogether more refined package.
It's a look that might fail to stop traffic in Monaco these days, where we mixed it with the likes of a Lamborghini Murcielago and a first sighting on the road of a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. But it continues to catch the eyes of many in the more realistic environs of the villages of northern Italy. What's more, it's a design that's increasingly being copied by others even down to the interior - particularly the round central air vents - which are now a common feature in models from €12,000 to €70,000.
While it may suffer from the slight understeer of four-wheel drive and front-mounted engines (like all racers even the Typ C was mid-engined), its handling remains firm and direct, if not quite on a par with the likes of the Boxster. The larger front-mounted engine sent engineers back to the drawing board to reduce the extra weight to the front and so the 3.2-litre TTs have the battery in the back.
It's a well-timed upgrade, with the Mazda RX8 and Nissan 350Z on the way - not to mention the updated Boxster range featured on the back page. But, while in terms of power and handling it merely brings the TT to the table rather than stealing the show from the likes of the Porsche, the new transmission system should set a new marker for sports cars.
Finally, the car comes with launch control, a function that allows you to catapult forward from a standing start . . . useful if your surname is Schumacher, but it may have little relevance to day-to-day traffic weaving, bar allowing you to ram into the rear of built-up traffic at the other side of the junction. Nonetheless it's a nice toy, even if the chances of using this more than 10-12 times in your life are slim.
At between €65,000 and €70,000, it's competitively priced for the range, even if, due to a lack of significant distinguishing marks from the lower-powered cars, it lacks the wow factor that attracts many purchasers to the marketplace.