The fascination of no-compromise design

The Audi TT design study exhibited at the 1995 German Motor Show arouses immense enthusiasm for its purist design and exclusive technical features. Now the series-production model is ready to launch, and proves to have retained all the consequence and visual appeal of this unique sports car. No compromises have been allowed to water down the inspiration of the original design - a rare success in automobile development history. Series-production requirements were incorporated with the greatest possible care.

The TT took shape in the heads - some might say in the hearts - of Audi's designers, who are people that have never lost their enthusiasm for a fine automobile. They were allowed every possible freedom in transforming their conception of ˛how a sports car made by Audi should look˛ into reality.

With its compact shape, clear outlines and bold styling, the TT is an ambassador for the distinctive formal language that Audi has made its own. But it doesn't take an eye schooled in the mysteries of automobile design to identify certain similarities between the Audi TT Coupé and the Audi A6.

Such confidence in design is achieved by reducing the outlines and forms to essentials - just as the artists at the "Bauhaus", the first European design school, did back in the nineteen-twenties. They established the concept of modern product design, and their ideas found adherents all over the world.

Everyone would surely agree that the wheels are among the most important of a car's features. Audi's designers therefore put the wheel at the focal point of their creative work and produced a body with "wheel emphasis". Seen from the side in particular, the Audi TT Coupé clearly reveals how the body is "stretched", so to speak, over the wheels. The strictly geometrical wheel arch cut-outs are boldly accented. The bold curved surfaces at front and rear also derive quite clearly from the wheels, as do the roof and window lines and the crouching silhouette of the occupant area.

The result is a low-slung sports car 4.04 metres long, 1.86 metres wide and only 1.35 metres high, with truly exciting lines and powerful proportions largely governed by the crouched stance when seen from the side, the exceptionally short body overhangs and the reduced glass areas.

Every detail of the Audi TT Coupé confirms its designers' refusal to compromise. The emphatic edges which separate the roof visually where it flows into the tail, for example, were only obtainable by adopting an ingenious production method: laser brazing produces the seamless joint between the side panel and the C-post.

The aluminium fuel filler cap is an eye-catching detail. It recalls the quick-release filler caps used in motor sport, though in this case only as an evocative design tribute. The exposed Allen screws , however, are genuinely used to secure the filler cap to the body ­ this too as evidence that form follows function in every aspect of the TT's design.

The cast aluminium wheels were styled exclusively for the Audi TT. Their spokes are attached at the outer edge of the rim, so that the wheels look even larger and emphasise the TT's sporting character.

Inside the Audi TT Coupé, the same no-compromise approach to forms and materials has resulted in visual appeal of a very special kind. The warm, vital surfaces of the standard leather and Alcantara upholstery creates a deliberate contrast with the cool, shimmering mat finish of the many functional elements made from aluminium: on the gear lever, ventilation outlets, steering wheel, glove box and radio trim panel. The leather-padded support struts linking the dash panel to the centre console and the car's floor are particularly striking. Even the pedals have benefited from the Audi designers' sense of the unusual: brake, clutch and accelerator pedals are of perforated stainless steel, with rubber studs for reliable grip, and with their restrained sense of style enhance the TT's appeal to the active driver.

There is perfection in detail wherever one looks. The smooth sides of the luggage compartment, for instance, are not interrupted by any bulges or recesses. The CD changer has a separate compartment in the side panel behind the driver, the audio system's amplifier is beneath the rear seat and the first-aid box is easily reached when needed in the side panel trim behind the passenger's seat.

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