Audi TT: Preview?

Monday, December 25, 2006

Our second favorite "wannabe" car website MSN, besides Forbes of course, has a preview of the Audi TT. Only some months after the official introduction.

Now it's in production, and it has rewritten the TT rule book. The first thing you have to say is that it still starts unequivocally with the look, but the look has translated very elegantly indeed from a car that you might have thought was impossible to follow without becoming corny.

It's every inch a TT, but slightly sharper cut, with a bit more detail in the flanks and tail, and sitting behind the now archetypal big-grille that defines the brand. More than ever, the TT looks compact but muscular, and the minimal overhangs, wide tracks and athletic forward crouch that echo the icon make it look beautifully proportioned and very well-planted.

It's terrific inside, too, with no fuss, clean shapes, clear, functional instrument binnacle and the latest incarnations of the signature rotary air vents and other techy-sporty design cues. But the look doesn't feel at all contrived, or style-for-style's sake, and of course the quality is superb.