It looks like the engineers at Audi get to have all the fun. They’ve just built this hot new TT ultra quattro concept to wow the crowds at the upcoming Wörthersee show in Germany; a huge event that celebrates all things motorsporty from the Volkswagen Audi Group. And there will be plenty to celebrate when the show-wraps come off this 306bhp tricked out TT.
This ultra TT is packed with motorsport-style goodness and as such would have cost an absolute packet to build. So, what’s the point? Well, the Wörthersee show is absolutely huge and awash punters that just love a hot Audi, and every year the VAG engineers build them a little treat to say thank you for all the Euros they spent on their products. Also, Audi would have us believe that some of the weight saving top end materials used to chop some 300kg out of this car – just how heavy was it?! – could well make their way into special, low volume VAG products of the future. It’s all about keeping the fans slavering for the good stuff to come. And this TT will need special drool drainage around its show stand judging by its tech spec!
Firstly, the power and performance stats. This TT 2.0 TFSI Coupe has had its fat trimmed to the tune of 300kg – down to 1,111kg – and power upped to 306bhp. This means that 62mph comes and goes in rocket-like 4.2 seconds and it’ll top out at a Top Gun-esque 173mph. The extra power from the no-bigger-in-capacity engine is achieved by a turbo boost increase and internal modifications – to handle that extra boost – to the crankcase, crankshaft, balancer shafts, flywheel, sump, as well as to the engine’s bolts and some ancillary units. The engine’s weight has been shaved by 25kg.
The TT ultra’s body has lost 100kg of surplus metal, odds and sods; replaced by carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) in the rear end, the centre tunnel, the B-pillars and the roof, as well as some magnesium (expensive!) components in the floor and reinforcing the door hinges. Nice. The trick metals don’t stop at magnesium, oh no. The four-wheel drive ultra TT gets a titanium exhaust system with its single central-mount tailpipe, ceramic brake discs with aluminium calipers, and CFRP wheels with aluminium spokes that save 5kg each. Very nice.
Sounds trick? Well check this out – this is the kind of stuff that the Wörthersee crowds love. Fibreglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) is used instead of steel for the suspension coil springs; saving weight and unsprung mass. The core of the new springs consists of long glass fibres twisted together and glued with an epoxy resin. Extra fibres are then wrapped around this core, which is only a few millimetres in diameter, at alternating angles of plus and minus 45 degrees to the longitudinal axis. These layers support each other and act in either compression or tension directions, and save a whopping 40 per cent of heft for the springs alone. Shame you won’t be able to see them!
All of this techno goodness is painted in a special crystal white colour and topped off with various eye-grabbing appendages like the unmissable bare carbon on billet aluminium rear spoiler, bare CFRP parts in the roof, flanks and tailgate, while inside are a pair of fibreglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) bucket seats from the R8 GT. These beautiful buckets trim the TT’s chunk by a further 22kg. All in, the one-off TT’s power-to-weight ratio comes in at a rather racy 275bhp per tonne. Indeed, if this is a hairdresser’s car I bet they do nothing but a carbon fibre crew-cut!
By Dan Anslow
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