Shed of the Week: Audi TT (Mk1)
With its 20-year anniversary upon us, Shed celebrates the iconic double T
In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s twenty years since Audi revealed its finished TT to the gawping populace. Today they’re commonplace, but in 1998 you really couldn’t overstate the groundbreaking, jaw dropping impact of its design, crafted by J Mays, Freeman Thomas and Peter Schreyer.
Audi board member and TT development supervisor Ulrich Hackenberg originally laid it out as “a sports car concept with high practicality”, with an interior sporting “as much as necessary and as little as possible”. It wrapped existing components inside a radical, ‘tense’ skin to create a standout vehicle at an affordable price. Mercedes’s competing SLK looked sad next to it, being both more conventional and more expensive.
The fact that the Audi TT is still selling well in 2018 after only two light styling refreshes speaks volumes for the public’s ability to accept out-there designs, as long as they work. As a sharp-looking coupé that was also a practical 2+2, the TT certainly did work – at least, it did once Audi had sorted out a fairly serious high-speed handling glitch on early cars by adding suspension tweaks, a boot spoiler and (a bit later on) ESP.
Early examples of that first 8N model are very much still working, as this week’s Shed double-header of 4WD quattros clearly shows. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to decide which of these two would make the best Shedly purchase.
It’s not going to be easy separating them. We’ve got a 2001 153,000-mile 225 in blue with part-leather seating, and a slightly newer, lower-mileage but also lower-powered 2002 132,000-mile 180 in black with full moo. Both have headline prices of £1500, but the seller of the black one has muddied the waters a bit by putting ‘£2000’ in his copy. We’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt and go with the £1500.
What do you get for that? A steel-bodied coupé (the Mk2 incorporated more aluminium) that was powered by the ubiquitous Volkswagen/Audi 1781cc turbo four producing 180hp or 225hp, plus torque of 173lb ft or 207lb ft. The 225 got its extra power via the relatively unsophisticated means of a bigger turbo. All the quattro TTs ran a Haldex 4WD system.
Both our Sheds have decently long MOTs, the black 180 to the end of December and the blue 225 to early May of next year. Advisories on their last tests boiled down to a deteriorated near side front lower suspension arm bush on the 225, and nothing on the 180 after (it would appear) the replacement of all four tyres.
The battleship-style tumblehome design of the TT means that owners often underestimate the width of their cars. Both our Sheds have made the acquaintance of more than one kerb in their lifetimes, the black one most obviously in terms of actual metal damage. On the blue car, the tyre rim protectors have taken most of the punishment. The 225 had new rear brake pipes fitted last March; the 180 had a couple of CV joint gaiters replaced and an ABS fault cleared in December 2016.
Given that 180s have often been messed about a bit to squeeze out more power, which is not necessarily a good idea in the long term, you may take the view that, of these two, the 225 would be a better choice. Or you might ignore both of them and look instead for a TT Sport 240, a limited edition that arrived in the UK in 2005, or a 3.2 V6 250, available from 2003. Good luck finding either in our sub-£1500 price bracket, though: useable V6s generally start at £2500, while just 800 of the pared-down, two-tone 240s came here, as a result of which they rarely pop up below £7000.
Audi’s gradual powering-up programme has successfully chipped away the TT’s early ‘hairdresser car’ association. Now it’s a seriously quick machine that the most macho of drivers would happily be caught dead in (as PH found out with its recent fleet TT). Interestingly, the TT actually does take its name from the Isle of Man TT motorcycle races, where NSU (one of the companies merging to form Audi) took a win in the early 1950s, an event celebrated by the creation of a Prinz 1000 TT car.
Although Audi has dallied with SUV-styled TT concepts, most recently in 2014 with the Allroad Shooting Brake and the TT Offroad, we’re hoping that a good stretch of clear blue water will always remain between the TT and every other Audi. Today’s exterior product designer at Audi, Dany Garand, is in no doubt about the TT’s uniqueness, or about the immutability of its basic design. “There are a few design features on the TT that will never appear on another Audi,” he says. “You don’t see this styling approach anywhere else in the line-up today, and we feel it should stay that way.” Well said that man.
Most of us like to play the game of identifying future classics. You’d think that a first-year TT in primo condition, ideally a ‘dangerous’ one without the boot spoiler, would be a nailed-on cert for aesthetic and financial appreciation. We can’t offer you one of them, but £1500 (or less after haggling) for the ones we do have doesn’t seems like a lot for such a unique, important and capable car.
See the full ad for the TT 180 and for the TT 225.
The mother in law had one a couple of years ago and the corrosion underneath was quite alarming for a car that otherwise look very clean, not sure if that's a common problem or if she had a bad one...
I dare say though I'd rather a Quattro Sport spec with the Recaro Pole Positions but with the 3.2 VR6 - don't care much for the 20vt.
You need to be quick though as the supply of £1000-1500 TTs will not last forever as I know of quite a few people who are buying TTs in 20VT and 3.2 VR6 spec to use as donor cars for mk1 an mk2 Golfs!!!!!
As a serial MGF owner all I can say is I'll take the Audi.
My then girlfriend - now wife - toyed with getting a Quattro when they were new but the small windowed interior put her off.
What I like about these is that they still look so fresh. Like a concept car that actually made it into production. I'm not in love with the looks but for fifteen hundred quid....? I could more than live with one as a fun weekend car.
The best thing about a shed like this is that to a non-car enthusiast it looks like a very expensive sports car.
At shed money they may well be in need of a fair amount of tlc, with many well-documented issues. Best bet is to go along to the TT forum at https://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/.
The design and quality never disappoints, but it's an old car now, so the best examples are cherished ones from fussy, knowledgeable enthusiasts.
I had one recently and its a great package, just dont buy one needing loads of work like I did, despite the PO lavishing two or three grand on it !
They are solid bodily and interior wise, drivetrain is less resilient but to be fair they are very old, lots of hoses, pipes and sensors need replacing, the wiper motor/mech conked out, the door lock, needed a battery, tyres, replaced the crap stereo, coil packs, plugs, coolant sensor, thermostat and god knows what else.
I think they drive better than people give them credit for, it isnt an Elise, but its better than your average hatch.
I did like it, it felt so right to get in, the cockpit is great, the gear change was quite nice, everything still worked in there and the seat heaters were Nuclear based I think. There is a real air of quality to interior, mine had some patina but it suited it, seats were comfy as well.
I like the looks but very colour and wheel sensitive, a 150 cabrio in a lame colour perched on 16 inch wheels doesnt look so great, I loved how mine looked in black on the QS wheels, about as butch as a TT gets, I endure many hairdresser comments, but I didnt care. My M135i is miles faster and works properly but I dont thinkit is leaps and bounds ahead of the TT in driving enjoyment, miss the TT interior, dont miss every weekend fannying about with it though.
Great little car, classic in the making, just do your research and avoid the agro I had, spending loads doesnt avoid it either, plenty of overpriced stuff needing work at dealers, shiny and low miles for the year doesnt guarantee and easy life, buying one that has been looked after and had the key issues attended to doesnt either but it takes the edge off it.
A £1500 car can still need three grand spending on it if you buy wrong !
I was up at Curborough at the weekend and there were a couple of mk1 TTs being hounded around the track setting some very respectable times. They certainly didn't look to be the handling disasters that people make them out to be. If you are prepared to fit modified parts a lot of raw feel of the original early cars can be reintroduced - if i remember right it's a kit called def con bushes or something like that. Those combined with upgraded anti roll bars seem to be the best starting point.
It was running 270BHP with 300lbft torque had uprated arbs and defcon 2 bushes, which reputedly changed it back to the original more direct settings.
Great car and loved it, but they are now of an age where the boost hoses and complicated pipework need changing to eliminate boost leaks. Mine had 5 at one point and needed quite a few changes.
If looking again I would probably go for a V6.
I think there was a paragraph missing from this article where you talk about the pitfalls of buying a cheap TT. As J4CKO mentioned, they are complex, niggly sorts of cars, capable of inflicting death by a thousand cuts. In particular, the dash binnacle is a weak point - if it hasn't already been replaced it will fail. As they're pillarless, windows need to drop before you can open the door, and sometimes they don't. If an ABS sensor goes, the whole car goes into limp home mode. There are various other electrical gremlins which I am sure are well-documented.
Ours in particular was also horrendously uncomfortable and almost undrivable, quickly, on a B-road. Combination of the S-Line springs and the lovely 18" wheels made it spine-shatteringly awful.
Despite all that... I'd have another one. Probably a Quattro Sport.
If you get a TT, get a VAG COM lead and an old laptop, you will need it for engine light bingo, a game TT's play where you have to tick off as many codes as you can, otherwise you will need a garage to do that bit, its pretty simple and narrows it down.
Dont tune it if you can help it, it exacerbates any boost/ignition etc problems, if you do get a compression test and establish basic engine health, learn how to do boost pressure tests, change a multitude of sensors with N and a number after them.
Go armed with a list of questions, they can run ok but need,
A Clutch - A grand or so, or £400 and a horrible job if you DIY
A Turbo - Not easy to get at, £400 for a recon original
Haldex Unit - SH ones cheap, but a fairly hefty job
Suspension - not too bad to do or hugely expensive but adds up in time and money
Brakes, dead cheap, use as a bargaining tool, easy to do
Tyres, £100 plus a corner for decent 18s, they dont like cheap tyres
Wipers - I got a good SH unit for £80, garage would be £300 plus
Coil Packs/Plugs, consumables, good set of Coils is £100 plus, easy to change, but do plugs first, move things about to diagnose misfires.
Gearbox - Watch the Wheeler dealers TT episode
Dash Pods, can be fixed fairly cost effectively now, £200 - £250 on exchange
V6's avoid unless its had a mechatronic unit done and the Cam Chain isnt stretched, 2 and 3 grand respectively, thats if you can find someone to do the chain, quite specialist.
Door lock, if it doesnt shut easily, the microswitch has gone, easiers to swap out the lock mech (£50 new off eBay)
Headlamps, mist up, a bit is normal, can be refurbed, good SH units are £100 each
Loads being broken currently so parts arent in short supply.
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