The Audi TT Is Dead After This Year. Here’s What Made It Special

It's 2023, which means we're now very used to cool and fun little sports cars kicking the bucket because there's simply no business case for them. We've weathered the demise of the Ford Focus , Mitsubishi Evolution , Mazda RX-8 , and Mazdaspeed3 , to name a few. By the end of this year, the Audi TT will join them, marking the end of its 25-year run.

Say what you will about the TT , but it has always represented a departure from all the sedans, SUVs, and hatchbacks Audi was making. It—and the R8 —bookend the Audi lineup; one is a mid-engined V-10 supercar embodying fury incarnate and the other is a petite roadster or coupe that, over the years, has tried on many different engine configurations.

As a way to bid the TT farewell, let us look back at its history for the past quarter of a century.

'90s Beginnings

By the mid-'90s, Audi had successfully secured itself as a luxury brand and wanted something to show off its new status with. Under the then-head of design Peter Schreyer, an American car designer named Freeman Thomas helped pen a conceptual design study and presented it in 1995. It was called the "TT"—a nod to the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man.

The First-Gen Audi TT

The first-generation TT—the Type 8N—officially launched in 1998 as a 2+2 coupe, and it wasn't a terribly huge departure from the study. Against its Mercedes-Benz and BMW contemporaries of the day, the Audi's rounded lines and stocky proportions—often referred to as "Bauhaus-inspired"—stood out.

We Were Impressed

MotorTrendwas in attendance at the car's European launch in Gubbio, Italy. We were very impressed with its exterior design.

"The production TT is a beautifully designed vehicle that becomes more impressive the deeper you look," Rik Paul wrote. "As if cueing off Audi's quad-circle logo, much of the styling revolves around a circular theme, imaginatively blending exterior and interior, and integrating lots of clever touches throughout."

Sparse, Futuristic Interior

The cabin of the first TT was a delightfully sparse but also futuristic place. You can see the circle theme extend into here, and the low cowl made it easy to see out of. Notice the flip-up cover? That's embossed aluminum that hides the audio controls.

"Inside, the TT is perhaps the most artfully designed car in its class. Innovative touches abound," Paul wrote. "The functional look of the car's racing-style fuel-filler lid is picked up in such interior elements as the shifter, steering wheel, dash vents, and door trim. Even the wave-like defroster vents are aesthetically blended into the overall dash design."

Fun to Drive

At first, the TT was offered with a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, good for a claimed 180 hp. A five-speed manual was the only transmission option, and you could spec your TT in either front- or all-wheel drive. Later on, Audi launched a more powerful version of that same engine that produced 225 hp.

It was very fun to drive, too: "It has a light, nimble feel that made threading through the twisty roads of central Italy an out-and-out thrill," Paul wrote in our first drive review .

"The fully independent suspension (with components adapted from the A3 platform) provided a comfortable level of compliance that didn't beat us up with race-car firmness. While the rack-and-pinion steering was pleasantly linear and accurate, it lacked the kind of solid on-center firmness we prefer. The quick-revving engine made even uphill passing a brief event, although a hint of torque steer was evident on the FWD model during hard acceleration. Overall, for at-the-limit handling, the Quattro version clearly held an edge, feeling more pinned down and confidence-inspiring."

Enter the TT Roadster

Just a year later, in 1999, Audi chopped the TT's roof off and presented it to us as the TT Roadster, which lost the rear seats. But it retained the Coupe's great design, so much so that it's easy to think the TT Roadster predates the Coupe.

Dual-Clutch Innovator

Notably, the TT was also the second mass-produced road car to ever use a dual-clutch transmission. That change came about in 2003 when Audi gave the car the option of a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, complete with paddle shifters.

Ultimately, the TT arrived on our shores in 1999 as a 2000 model, a year after it went on sale in Europe. It was sold until 2006. Over its production run, Audi reports it built precisely 178,765 TT Coupes and 90,733 TT Roadsters.

The Second-Gen TT

Though its lighting elements were noticeably sharpened up, the second-generation (Type 8J) 2008  TT's silhouette thankfully didn't depart much from the believed MkI's. Built on the A3's platform, it was the first Audi to use adaptive dampers and the automaker's magnetic ride technology.

Here, though, is where you can see the big-grille trend that has persisted to this day.

Audi Space Frame

The second-gen TT relied heavily on aluminum in its construction as well. In our first drive review of the 2008 Audi TT Coupe , Ron Kiino wrote, "Unwanted weight, the nemesis of performance, has been left wanting thanks to an all-new steel-and-aluminum Audi Space Frame that, utilizing 69 percent aluminum, weighs 48 percent less than an all-steel body, according to Audi. Curb weight, lowered as well by an aluminum-intensive suspension, has dropped by around 200 pounds. Moreover, the new TT is sleeker, slipping through the atmosphere with a 0.30 Cd versus 0.34 for the old model."

The Second-Gen's Engines

This TT came with one of two engine options. The first was a 200-hp, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder and the second was a 250-hp, naturally aspirated, 3.2-liter VR6 narrow-angle V-6. Both could be paired with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed DCT.

Still Simple

The great thing about the second-gen TT's interior is you can see it's a direct descendant of the original. The circular motif is still here, as its the straightforward layout. This was also just before automakers started tacking infotainment screens on top of dashboards like an afterthought, so the cowl line remains free of clutter.

Enter the TTS

It wasn't long before Audi gave the TT a performance upgrade in the form of the 2009 Audi TTS. Producing 265 hp from its turbocharged four-cylinder, we thought it might have been Audi's best sports car at the time—even coming within spitting distance of the midship Porsches . (Spoiler alert: We didn't think it was better than those.)

Still, there was plenty of praise. "By some margin, the TTS is the most agile, fastest, and most entertaining TT of all," Gavin Green wrote in our first drive review , "and you can thread together corners with real fluency and verve. Here, at last, is a TT that delivers big smiles with fast miles ... the TTS is a car of great appeal. It's fast, easy to drive, handles well, and has prodigious road-holding. Plus it possesses, in spades, those qualities that have always made the TT so desirable."

Then There Was the TT RS

Come on, did you think Audi  wouldn't RS-ify the TT? Of course, it did.

Powering the TT RS was a 340-hp, turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder. We drove it . We liked it: "The result is a car that provides immense cornering security," Paul Horrell wrote, "Pour it into a tight curve and there's understeer, so back off, feel it neutralize, then mash the throttle and it pushes more drive to the rear tires and catapults itself out. There's not much, if anything, you can do to upset it, so it'll really hustle."

The Third and Final Generation

In 2014, the Type 8S third-gen TT debuted. And still, it looked just like a TT because Audi knew not to mess up a good thing.

More of the Good Stuff

The TT Coupe and Roadster made 228 hp from a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and the TTS Coupe made 288 from a similar powertrain setup. The TT RS, which was discontinued in 2022, made 394 hp from a turbocharged five-cylinder.

TT RS Heritage Edition

Audi built the 2022 TT RS Heritage Edition as a sendoff. You are welcome to be as obsessed with this green paint as we are.

Innovations

The Mk3 TT housed a number of Audi-first innovations. For example, the TT RS was the first to use OLED taillights in 2016.

Audi's "virtual cockpit" also debuted on the TT, which included an all-digital driver information cluster in place of analog gauges.

Refreshing Today

Audi was generous enough to loan us a 2023 TT Roadster recently, and one of the more noteworthy things about it  is its interior. But not just because of the virtual cockpit.

See, when the Mk3 TT leaped onto the scene nearly 10 years ago, most cars still hadn't adopted that infotainment-screen-tacked-on-top-of-the-dashboard look. So, a clean dash wasn't terribly novel. On this side of 2023, though, where every car and its mother has that afterthought screen, the TT is refreshing.

Sure, the UI shows its age, but when you consider the TT within the context of Everything Else, it suddenly feels quaint. Like it never got around to getting a top-dash screen and it never will.

Time's Up

After the TT runs its course through the end of this model year, it will be no more. Twenty-five years of compact and stylish driving will be gone for good, but we can count ourselves lucky to have been able to enjoy it at all.

Like the VW Bug, the TT was one of those cars that was instantly recognizable, even if you didn't know squat about cars. That's what made it special. And you've probably never seen someone look unhappy while driving a TT have you?

Here's to hoping Audi has something fun to replace it with in the pipeline.