Audi TT swerves into the sunset in a Euro-only Final Edition
For more than two decades, Audi has been trying to reinvent its original object of desire: the TT. Now the quest is over. Next month the TT Final Edition — sounds pretty final, no? — goes on sale in Europe.
Three TT versions will be available in Final Edition trim; loaded models with black decorative elements, leather trims, Audi’s MMI Navigation Plus and a three-year subscription to Audi Connect services. Both coupe and roadster varieties will be offered, some with Quattro drive systems.
Included in the high-end TTS cars will be a Bang & Olufsen audio system, parking sensors and a rear camera. Pricing in the U.K., according to Car magazine, starts at about $50,000.
According to a representative from Audi of America, there are no plans to bring the final models to the United States, although series production TTs will continue to be sold here.
“The TT is one of the iconic Audi models that defined a design era,” the representative said. “It is one of the most unique cars of the modern era that combined the simplicity of a holistic Bauhaus design inside and out with an unmistakable stance and silhouette.”
If the TT name is resurrected, most likely the car that would emerge would be electrified. The major concern, the brand’s designers have said, is that any follow-up version must stay true to the TT’s sexy, curvaceous, hunkered-down DNA.
“The first-generation TT was an extreme experiment, to raise the sportiness of the Audi brand,” Dany Garand, an Audi designer in Ingolstadt, Germany, told The New York Times in 2019. In fact, TT stands for the Tourist Trophy, the demanding motorcycle race held each year on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.
“It was very far from the mainstream of what Audi was doing at the time: clean, Bauhaus, with a touch of emotion,” Mr. Garand said.
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