Another article -- favorite quote so far: "The Hunchback of Haute Couture" (more)
12-10-1999, 06:30 AM
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Another article -- favorite quote so far: "The Hunchback of Haute Couture" (more)
The Canberra Times, December 10, 1999
HEADLINE: PETER BREWER PICKS A REAL WINNER IN THE AUDI TT QUATTRO
IT TURNS HEADS AND IS FANTASTIC TO DRIVE.
BODY:
THE CRITICS can cook up all the criteria they need to justify their car-of-the-year decision but the bottom line, as we see it, is choosing the machine from 1999 that we'd most want to keep; the one we hated to give back.
Sadly, the majority of new cars don't leave a lasting impression. Great driving experiences always will and so can interesting technical features, smart styling ideas and innovations.
But only the best are stored away in the grey matter, ready for that inevitable question: So which was the best car you've driven all year?" And our choice is the Audi TT quattro.
Yes, we know that most of the hardware under that marvelously curvaceous sheet metal is borrowed from the VW Golf (or in the case of the quattro, a derivative not sold here called the VW Golf 4Motion).
But in reality, the German cars are worlds apart.
Where the Golf is utility and function wrapped up in a bank-vault body, the TT is the car as dramatic art, an embodiment of uncompromised design ideas.
The Audi looks like nothing else on the road and drives brilliantly, too, despite the recent safety furor emanating from Germany, in which two owners have been killed in high-speed (200km/h-plus) autobahn accidents, purportedly resulting from rear-end lift-off.
The TT is not as practical as the Golf, but even its cramped rear seats and lack of rear headroom produces more useful part-time seating than another of our motoring year's top contenders, the Honda S2000 sports car. Audi gambled with the TT. The company desperately needed a production showpiece to trumpet its identity; a machine that drew from its remarkable corporate heritage, was a design original in every respect and yet was a serious driver's car with
technical merit. The TT story is well documented, including the contributions by stylist Thomas Freeman an American and interior designer Romulus Rost. Intended only as a design study for the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show, the TT created such an emotional reaction that the enormous weight of public support and approval forced the hand of the Audi Ag board of directors. And thankfully, very little of the design purity was lost in the transition from show car to production coupe. Everything about the TT's design is taut and well defined.
It is a bluntly foiled instrument, but a highly effective one, and untainted by frippery or unnecessary details. The cheese-cutter wheels, racing-style fuel-filler cap, flag-type external mirrors (which would probably look terrible on any other car) and the radial joins between bumper and bodywork give a surgical precision to the appearance. One glance and you'll know its country of origin. A quick look and you know exactly what it is. The TT turns heads everywhere it goes and, almost as importantly, feels fantastic from the driver's seat, looking out through that gun-turret windscreen and using the broad flat torque band to slingshot the chassis out of corners. While the $73,000 front-wheel drive TT is a thoroughly enjoyable car, much more stimulus can be obtained from the all-wheel-drive quattro version ($86,000), with its six-speed
gearbox, xenon-gas discharge headlights, side airbags and increased power. The TT quattro offers the definitive automotive style statement of the 1990s the hunchback of haute couture and its resources of power, torque and all-seasons grip add a further dimension of driving satisfaction.
GRAPHIC: Curved and coveted: the Audi TT quattro is the production showpiece the German company needed.
HEADLINE: PETER BREWER PICKS A REAL WINNER IN THE AUDI TT QUATTRO
IT TURNS HEADS AND IS FANTASTIC TO DRIVE.
BODY:
THE CRITICS can cook up all the criteria they need to justify their car-of-the-year decision but the bottom line, as we see it, is choosing the machine from 1999 that we'd most want to keep; the one we hated to give back.
Sadly, the majority of new cars don't leave a lasting impression. Great driving experiences always will and so can interesting technical features, smart styling ideas and innovations.
But only the best are stored away in the grey matter, ready for that inevitable question: So which was the best car you've driven all year?" And our choice is the Audi TT quattro.
Yes, we know that most of the hardware under that marvelously curvaceous sheet metal is borrowed from the VW Golf (or in the case of the quattro, a derivative not sold here called the VW Golf 4Motion).
But in reality, the German cars are worlds apart.
Where the Golf is utility and function wrapped up in a bank-vault body, the TT is the car as dramatic art, an embodiment of uncompromised design ideas.
The Audi looks like nothing else on the road and drives brilliantly, too, despite the recent safety furor emanating from Germany, in which two owners have been killed in high-speed (200km/h-plus) autobahn accidents, purportedly resulting from rear-end lift-off.
The TT is not as practical as the Golf, but even its cramped rear seats and lack of rear headroom produces more useful part-time seating than another of our motoring year's top contenders, the Honda S2000 sports car. Audi gambled with the TT. The company desperately needed a production showpiece to trumpet its identity; a machine that drew from its remarkable corporate heritage, was a design original in every respect and yet was a serious driver's car with
technical merit. The TT story is well documented, including the contributions by stylist Thomas Freeman an American and interior designer Romulus Rost. Intended only as a design study for the 1995 Frankfurt Motor Show, the TT created such an emotional reaction that the enormous weight of public support and approval forced the hand of the Audi Ag board of directors. And thankfully, very little of the design purity was lost in the transition from show car to production coupe. Everything about the TT's design is taut and well defined.
It is a bluntly foiled instrument, but a highly effective one, and untainted by frippery or unnecessary details. The cheese-cutter wheels, racing-style fuel-filler cap, flag-type external mirrors (which would probably look terrible on any other car) and the radial joins between bumper and bodywork give a surgical precision to the appearance. One glance and you'll know its country of origin. A quick look and you know exactly what it is. The TT turns heads everywhere it goes and, almost as importantly, feels fantastic from the driver's seat, looking out through that gun-turret windscreen and using the broad flat torque band to slingshot the chassis out of corners. While the $73,000 front-wheel drive TT is a thoroughly enjoyable car, much more stimulus can be obtained from the all-wheel-drive quattro version ($86,000), with its six-speed
gearbox, xenon-gas discharge headlights, side airbags and increased power. The TT quattro offers the definitive automotive style statement of the 1990s the hunchback of haute couture and its resources of power, torque and all-seasons grip add a further dimension of driving satisfaction.
GRAPHIC: Curved and coveted: the Audi TT quattro is the production showpiece the German company needed.
) (nt)
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