REVIEWS AND ROAD TESTS

Split personality

It’s almost impossible to please everybody. Some do it better than most, however. Like Audi’s new TT.

It’s not a car for the introverted. Besides avant garde, space age; chances are the TT has been called them all. When Audi’s designers put pen to paper, they were obviously inspired by Oscar Wilde’s immortal admonition, "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." Of course, Wilde could never have dreamed of anything like Audi’s TT. But I’m sure he would have approved.

It’s a cute as a bug. In fact, it looks kinda like a Bug — a New Beetle that is. You can see the same ellipsoid shapes at work here, complete with bubble top that serves as the passenger compartment. Only, in the TT’s case, the entire top looks like it’s been squashed down in a compactor.

Because of its way-rad looks, one can be excused for thinking that the TT is a pur sang sports car — a baby Porsche, if you will — something it was mistaken for quite often in the week it spent in front of the Booth homestead.Audi’s round and aluminum motif continues inside with plenty of buffed alloy making its shiny presence felt. My favorite items are the rotary dials that control the venting system and the similarly styled buttons that control the seat heaters. In fact, the whole interior is quite stylish.

However, the interior’s performance is where that ages-old quandary rears its ugly head. The optional CD changer, for instance, is located in an armrest for the rear seats and is difficult to access. That beautiful, low-down aerodynamic roof also causes very poor rearward visibility on the driver’s side. Only the Lamborghini Diablo is worse. And the same roofline compromises any attempt to put anyone other than a toddler in the vestigial rear seat.

Audi also took the aluminum motif a little too far. Two struts (one on each side) join the center transmission tunnel with the dash and I kept banging my right knee into the one on the driver’s side. Admittedly, I like to drive with my seat close to the steering wheel, but I can’t be the first to voice such a complaint as Audi provides little pads to cushion the legs. Nonetheless, it’s another victory for the form side of the argument.

It’s doubtful that worshippers of things functional will complain too loudly, though, for the TT does many things well. And besides, it really is a beauty.Beneath that boy-racer body lies the heart of a gran tourismo — a car designed to go fast, but in a more gentlemanly fashion than those aforementioned hooliganmobiles.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this duality is that beneath the tester’s slate gray exterior beats the heart of one of Volkswagen’s premier sporty cars — the Golf. The platform is similar and while the suspension has been rejigged in the rear for the addition of all-wheel-drive, it’s eerily familiar. Ditto for the engine, which is yet another variant on the 1.8T theme. For those not familiar with VW products, this is the 1.8 litre inline four with 20 valves and an intercooled turbo that powers everything in VW’s lineup from the Golf to the Passat. It does similar duty in Audi’s own A4. In TT guise, however, it’s far more potent. Those more pedestrian four-door sedans get a 150 horsepower version that trades maximum power for a broad spread of power. No such sacrifices here. Thanks to a clever boost management, the top-of-the- line TT’s version of the little four banger maxes out at 225 horsepower, exactly the same number as BMW’s newest variant of its coupe, the six-cylinder 330Ci.

Despite its extreme state of tune, the max-power version of the is quite civilized. The 1.8 turbo starts immediately, idles quietly and initially gives little indication of its abilities other than a slight reduction in power below 3,000 rpm compared with the more the garden variety version.

Past 3,000 rpm, however, it seems to grow an extra pair of cylinders and while outright acceleration is somewhat blunted by the extra weight and drag of the quattro system, the full-bore TT is quite rapid indeed. Audi claims a zero to 60 mph (96 km/h) of 6.3 seconds and 14.2 seconds for the standing start quarter mile. These aren’t supercar numbers, but compared with the 330 BMW and Mercedes CLK320, they’re quite admirable.

The slick-shifting six-speed transmission helps things quite a bit, with allo its gears being closely spaced for maximum acceleration rather than having the top ratio as an overdrive gear. Nonetheless, the TT requires only 7.7 litres for every 100 kilometres of highway travel says Transport Canada.

The same balance applies to the TT’s handling. There’s plenty of grip from the 225/45R17 performance radials and the steering is a delight. But the TT rolls a little more than a S2000 or Boxster when the going gets hot and heavy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the TT has a decent highway ride. And neither of those other sporty numbers offers the security of the TT’s quattro all- wheel-drive system when the road turns slimy.

PROS
Powertrain performance
Steering and handling
Styling

CONS
Backseat room
Entry and exit
Cargo space

CRASH TEST (five stars indicate the best protection)
Driver: no data
Passenger: * * * * *