Right? Please talk me out of it.
It depends on the year. The early FWD ones, yeah, unless you want the egg-shaped reincarnation of the Mercury Capri Roadster.
The early AWD ones - meh - how bad do you really want an A4 with 2 seats.
The new ones, yeah, they're pretty cool.
Depends on the generation, I'd think, but I got a chance to AutoX a 2008 VR6 TT a few years ago when it was dominant in D Stock, and it was a FUN car! It wasn't without its issues on the street, mind you.... lots of rattles and whistles from various areas as you went down the highway. But as far as actually driving it, and driving it hard... it's a blast! The power steering was quick and super light, but actually offered good feedback. The DSG would hold the gear you wanted it to just by putting it in S without going to full on "flappy paddle" mode. And the handling was very neutral... not as pushy as I expected an AWD car to be. Rotated easily and willingly.
"Chick car" or not... it's fun to drive, even if it's maybe not as fun to own/maintain.
I just realized I did a horrible job of talking you out of one. Oops :(
drdisque wrote: It depends on the year. The early FWD ones, yeah, unless you want the egg-shaped reincarnation of the Mercury Capri Roadster. The early AWD ones - meh - how bad do you really want an A4 with 2 seats. The new ones, yeah, they're pretty cool.
The early FWD ones are actually the lightest vehicle VAG ever put a 1.8T in at something like 2600lbs. There is actually quite a bit of performance potential there, particularly as a track car. I prefer the FWDs to the AWD, as the AWD is just grafted-on Haldex with extremely little performance value and a crapload of extra weight. No relation to the A4 which has a longitudinal engine with "true" AWD.
They are indeed not built well and parts are expensive though.
In reply to wearymicrobe:
TTs are transverse and most are four cylinder, still not a walk in the park but not really comparable.
A convertible first gen moved into one of the sketchy rental trailers in the neighborhood abut two monts ago. Last week it came home on a flatbed. Now, I'm the last one to throw stones about poor automotive decisions, but I still giggled.
In reply to mazdeuce:
But how much did you offer for it? That sounds like Challenge-fodder right there.
One of my students had an early-gen fwd a while back at an HPDE. It had nice and predictable manners, and was much more fun that I'd expected it to be on track, but it was very very finicky. It suffered from misfires after being pushed hard (turns out plug gap was the culprit- noone knew how it happened) though, but I left thinking it'd be a pretty decent learners track car if it went on a serious diet. They're almost 2900# off the showroom floor or something like that...? The owner was telling me that the rear hatch weighs something like 200#, haha. Not sure if that's accurate, but it definitely was a little bit piggy on track for it's power level.
My take on it was that, if I was a VAG engthusiast and wanted a performance oriented car, you could get more performance for less investment with a golf/GTI... but I'm admittedly not a big VW/Audi guy.
pointofdeparture wrote: In reply to wearymicrobe: TTs are transverse and most are four cylinder, still not a walk in the park but not really comparable.
If its anything like working on a new beetle then its still a serious pain in the tocous.
I hate VWs and Audis more than pretty much anything but they're good looking little cars and if I lived walking distance from my job, grocer, doctor ect and only had a car for garage art I would consider owning one.
No matter how much they suck and haven't dropped to $free yet, I still wanted one with the baseball glove interior.
Does that help?
All I know is that in my wife's native tongue, TT is pronounced like their word for penis.
That means I giggle whenever I see one out driving around and she rolls her eyes at me after I point and laugh.
I just remembered that Clarkson tested the TT (giggle) on Top Gear with Hammond in the RX-8 and May in an Alfa. That seems strangely fitting now.
http://www.myvideo.ge/v/48096
paranoid_android74 wrote: Why does the car in this image have blue balls?wearymicrobe wrote: Audi Service position.
Cuz the missus won't give him a handy?
No kidding- that's a new one on me!
Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: In reply to paranoid_android74: Vacuum bulbs to store vacuum signal for vacuum operated stuff.
In reply to paranoid_android74:
I've seen those blue balls on newish cars. Except they're black. Yup, I wrote that.
Yeah, vacuum reservoirs. Many cars have them, although they're usually smaller, black (so they blend in), and sometimes cast into the intake manifold.
wearymicrobe wrote: Audi Service position.
There is much wrong with this.
On a longitudinal Audi, you do not need to remove the nose for anything. Only if you're the kind of person who strips naked in order to use the toilet. A pair of extended M8 (or M10 on newer models) bolts to allow you to slide the lock carrier forward is all you need.
2, it takes like ten minutes to get to the point shown. The bumper cover is held in by push clips and luck and a couple T25 Torx fasteners, the lock carrier is a small handful of T30 and T40 Torx. It looks impressive in an image but it comes off as an assembly so it's actually minimally invasive.
B, "Service position" is engine and transmission on ground.
C, none of that applies to an TT, since they are transverse, so you do not get the option of getting the lock carrier out of your way to make working on the car easy. It's hard to cut the inner fender off. That said most people spend far more time driving a car than working on it and TTs are awesome to drive.
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