Audi TT Ultra Quattro concept (2013) first official pictures
This is Audi’s idea of a TT in the GT3 RS or Superleggera
mould: the TT Ultra Quattro concept. Thanks to a ruthless diet and an
uprated 2.0-litre TFSI turbo petrol engine, the all-wheel drive TT Ultra
will launch to 62mph in 4.2sec, (1.3sec faster than a regular Audi TTS)
and hit 173mph flat out.
Just how light is the Audi TT Ultra?
Exactly 300kg lighter than a standard TTS,
at 1111kg. A large part of that saving comes from a modified body
structure: a carbon rear end, transmission tunnel and B-pillars all shed
kilos, as do magnesium floor and door hinge components.
Carbonfibre is everywhere on the TT Ultra. The bonnet is made from
the black weave, as are the side skirts, interior trim panels, and the
bracing strut across the rear seats. Brakes are of course carbon
ceramic, and even the wheel hubs use carbonfibre, mated to aluminium
spokes.
Is the TT Ultra just an overload of carbonfibre?
Nope. There’s attention to detail too: Audi’s engineers have also
fitted a titanium exhaust system, and saved 22kg by swapping out the
TTS’s standard seats for fibreglass buckets pinched from the R8 GT
supercar. The car’s unsprung weight is reduced by 6kg using
fibreglass-reinforced plastic for the suspension springs, while a new
lithium-ion battery (instead of a weighty lead cell) now lives under the
driver’s seat to move mass between the axles.
I bet the TT Ultra has a cool stripped-out cabin…
Wrong! Weirdly, Audi has kept all the toys from the standard TTS
spec – you still get air-con, electric windows, and an electric parking
brake. Kudos are restored thanks to the car’s six-speed open-gated
manual transmission, and the addition of drag-reducing rear-view cameras
in place of bulky wingmirrors.
How heavily (ahem) has Audi tweaked the engine for the TT Ultra?
Instead of using the TTRS’s turbocharged five-cylinder motor, the TT
Ultra keeps the 2.0-litre four-pot from the TTS. Modifications to the
crankcase, the crankshaft, the balancer shafts, the flywheel, the oil
sump, the bolts and ancillary units shave 25kg from the engine’s weight,
and unleash an extra 38bhp, taking the total to 308bhp.
Can I buy an Audi TT Ultra Quattro?
As amusing as it would be to see Audi create a model above the TTRS Plus
(TTRS Plus Plus/ Plus Squared/Multiplied?) the Ultra Quattro is merely a
design study that will take pride of place on the brand’s Wörthersee
show stand. Wörthersee is the VW Group’s annual festival, which began as
a Golf GTI enthusiast event in 1981, and has morphed into an event for
all mainstream Volkswagen Group members, like Audi, Skoda, and Seat.
It’ll be shown alongside hot Audis you can buy, like the 552bhp RS6 Avant and RS7 Sportback, S3 hot hatch, RS Q3 crossover, and R8 flagship.
However, Audi has hinted that the Ultra Quattro shows off the
company’s know-how in stripping weight out of a regular production
series car, and that we’ll see lessons learned from the exercise applied
to future Audi models. As CAR revealed earlier in 2013, one of the models to benefit will be the next-gen Q7 SUV, which will shed a massive 300kg thanks to carbonfibre and aluminium bits on-board.
>> Should Audi put the TT Ultra Quattro into full-scale production? Add your opinion in the article comments below
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