FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY
For many years Audi relied on the reputation of the rally-bred Ur quattro for its sporting image, and had never been short of high-performance V6 and V8 machinery, but heading into the mid Nineties and looking to expand into new niches there was clearly a need for a small sports car. Enter the TT.
While much of the mechanical specification could come from the Volkswagen Group, based on the PQ34 platform used for the Mk 4 Golf, Bora and Beetle, as well as the sister A3, its styling would be ground-breaking and a far cry from Audi’s conventional image.
A product of the Volkswagen Group Design Center in California in 1994, the exterior styling is credited to American designers J. Mays and Freeman Thomas. The curved outline and rounded bodywork were inspired by Bauhaus design principles, not only attractive but also aerodynamically effective with a drag coefficient of just 0.35. The award-winning interior was developed by a team comprising Romulus Rost, Martin Smith, Hartmut Warkuss and Peter Schreyer.
The concept car made its debut to a rapturous reception at the Frankfurt Show in 1995. Although it was three years before full production, the design was hardly changed in the process, with only minor cosmetic alterations such as the addition of rear quarter-light windows behind the doors. We feel this played a large part in the car’s success, that so little did change from
