V6 Height and Opinions
USA Audi Tech Day

TTigg for TTf posted the following information which was well presented and very useful so I have recreated it here.

 
Hello there !

Well on Saturday I attended the 1st "tech fest" of the year hosted in part by ACNA and Pacific Audi. It was a nice day, great cars, great people and free food. I took the opportunity to pick the brains of the techs and to also take a closer look at a 3.2 they had on the ramps. The outcome was not what I had hoped for and goes a little something like this..

LC Launch Control
I have yet to get this bad news confirmed but the senior / master tech told me that when they made the decision to remove it (from the lawyers) it was really "removed" The TCM (transmission control modules) were swapped out for US specific ones which means you can't go in with VAG.COM and re-enable the LC. This was very upsetting to hear because I think it's just wrong. Audi promotes you to take your car to their Audi Driving Schools (where ESP would be turned off) so it's easy to do yes? turn it on or off. So they've removed a very cool and useful feature of this car because they were worried about people not turning if back on again.

Belly Pan area and the Suspension questions
When people were saying things about the height of the car and the risk to the oil pan I really didn't get it because I thought the belly pan (plastic) had both protection for this (slightly) and also moved some air around under there. Well I saw for myself and took a couple of pics. The oil pan on the 3.2 is as low as the belly pan and even has a whole cut out (to assist with cooling it) so they mean what they say - it's RIGHT there which is why lowering would be hard (for coilovers) although I'm sure 1" should be ok (who knows for sure)

Here is the whole in the pan exposing the sump


Exhaust
As we figured there is MAJOR restrictions in place for this item including the large middle box you see in this pic and also restrictions front and rear. The cats are also heavily restricted and I believe Milltek are making new ones for both the TT and the R32



Brakes
Large and work well they do <yoda voice> but man are they lumps of metal. Here is a pic from the inside of the TT Wheel showing the large lump of metal (Caliper) so although they work great I am sure they must weight a ton (well ok not a ton but probably 60lbs+) I'm sure a nice set of Brembo / AP / Stoptech would be much lighter than stock - perhaps even a 20-30lbs saving or more.



Here is a close up of the rivets under the car. There are extra pieces of metal all over the place, they really don't want you doing ANYTHING to this car (nose removal for lights or other things)

Bottom line for me is that I still love the TT but am very disappointed with AoA on how they've been handling these things (suspension, LC etc) The .:R32 which sits in the stable next door (by means of VW and Audi) has the same engine, same type of suspension set up and HUGE tuning potential (SC, HPA etc) The parts will be cheaper (Milltek is only like $800 or something) I think I'm going to see what happens with Sheryl's job thing and if it all goes ok she can have the "locked up" TT and I'll go play with an R32 (Stage 1 HPA = 425hp for $10k)