Tuesday 6th November 2007

TT Or Not TT? That's The Question

Well, it was going to happen sooner or later

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Carving out a Niche

In terms of this year’s supercar success story, the Audi R8 has rewritten the rulebook for practical yet potent packaging.

However, if you can’t stretch to the £90+grand (after you’ve got a little trigger happy with the options list) and you fancy telling the world that you can’t, then maybe you can buy one of these.

If you fancy getting the R8 look for your boggo TT, Yorkshire-based “tuner” Niche will bolt on this look-alike bodykit, lower the suspension and fit some spangly exhaust tips for a mere £7,951(!).

Quattro owners get a bit of a bargain, as the upgrades will only set you back £7,051 on top of your TT’s sticker price.

Fret not, those who are reverse gear-challenged, for your parking sensors will work just fine when peeking out through the rear bumper vents.

Niche seems to know that the TT is perhaps for the driver who demands a little more show than go, as performance upgrades will cost you an extra £1,950 for the 2.0-litre and a round £2,500 for the 3.2.

Oh and those wheels will set you back an extra £950 on the 2.0 (the 3.2 price is POA). So a fully optioned TT 3.2 will set you back a shade over 40k. My word.

 

[JJ 170]

if it wasnt for the R8 i would actually think that looks quite smart!

[L100NYY]

JJ 170 said:

if it wasnt for the R8 i would actually think that looks quite smart!

Dons flame suit



I was thinking the same, if Audi themselves launched that I would think it would be a press success!

[AbarthChris]

agreed, it looks quite good but its still trying to be something its not... so therefore its rubbish!

[BlueMR2]

So it costs £7951 for a bit of stick on plastic on each side and some led lights added to the front .

[Agoogy]

Does look spot on though.... I mean no I wouldn't pay that much.... but I like it.

[Windymiller]

Front bumper look fine to me. Plastic things on the side look comical though! Any pics of the rear?

[Agoogy]

White is working well here again too....

[mat205125]

Windymiller said:

Front bumper look fine to me. Plastic things on the side look comical though! Any pics of the rear?

I could agree with going with the front bumper only

[J111]

mat205125 said:

Windymiller said:

Front bumper look fine to me. Plastic things on the side look comical though! Any pics of the rear?

I could agree with going with the front bumper only

I wouldn't spend my money on it, but, as styling treatments go, it's not bad at all.

[Hooli]

the painted on windows have melted down the side

[ikonic]

who's betting the mid-life facelifted TT will look like this anyway?

[Agoogy]

Be nice if the rumored TT S and RS maybe took this on... the front and probably rear treatment link very well with the Halo Car.

[MogulBoy]

Something very similar was on a display stand at "tuning" end of the Geneva Motor show back in March. If anything, the rear end is even more impressive! Not my cup of tea but the overal effect was pretty impressive!

[mikeg996]

[Aerofoil]

If you lost the carbon effect thingy, then it would look better than a regular one. I was thinking of the exact same thing the other day when looking at the R8, it would be a minor change to get the same front end, I thing I even posted somewhere on here at the time the R8 was released... Back end looks quite good too. Still looks too high and bubble like.

[Tony*T3]

Seen it at Geneva in what, Feb?

[Marki]

L100NYY said:

JJ 170 said:

if it wasnt for the R8 i would actually think that looks quite smart!

Dons flame suit



I was thinking the same, if Audi themselves launched that I would think it would be a press success!

its how the TT should have looked

[Windymiller]

Ah, more pics! Well, other than the aforementioned melted windows, I think this looks VERY nice!

[PhantomPH]

Well, purely from an aesthetic point of view, I actually prefer this to the R8. It regains some of the front/rear visual balance that the R8 does not have IMHO. I have always thought the R8 looked slightly 'wrong' and this TT fixes that.

I know this is Pistonheads and nobody would ever dream of buying a car as a status symbol (yeah right!), but this is the final nail in the R8 desirability coffin for me.

It would fail my 'sister-in-law' test. She (typical tasty blonde) would not know the difference if this went past, then the R8. Unfortunately I think the Audi badge would fail the SIL test anyway. "What do you drive?" - "Porsche". "What about you?" - "Audi". Now before the second guy has had a chance to explain that his Audi is a special one that has a V8 and cost nearly £100k, the SIL would be off sipping drinks with the Porsche guy.

I make this post aimed at the 70% of us who like the idea of a hot girl paying us attention, as well as the 20% who lie and say they only care about the way a car drives. The other 10% can rely on the age-old methods of good looks...or masturbation.



Anyway, I digress - if it were not for the R8, I would be saying, "Well done - Audi should make this".

P~

[Windymiller]

PhantomPH said:

...the SIL would be off sipping drinks with the Porsche guy.

I reckon she'd be sipping more than just drinks...