MOTOR I NG
YAY
THE VERDICT
◗ E xtraordinary acceleration ◗ F abulously fitted B&O sound system ◗ H ighly competitive price – a whole lot of car for £57,240.00. Compared to £80K – Nissan GTR and £127K – Porsche 911 ◗ S harp as cathedral glass brakes ◗ G reat driving position and plenty of legroom
NAY ◗ T he colour ◗ Sensitivity of the handling – just when you think you were settling in, it unnerved you especially on tight bends ◗ The MMI sound system was one of the least intuitive I have ever experienced and I found it hugely and endlessly frustrating ◗ I had to check out on YouTube as to how to work it all out along with 86,822 other people ◗ Huge boot space but a heavy manual door ◗ B ack seat is tiny and not worthy of that name There is a sign on the door saying that anyone over 5ft tall should not enter the space
7.5/10 This is a car is scarily fast, deliciously throaty and best placed for an Audi TT enthusiast, not a mere mortal like me
what happened next, which almost made my eyebrows fall off, leaving most normal mortals transported somewhere into another time warp or into the boot or in my case, Sainsbury’s car park in Royal Tunbridge Wells. It is faster than a Porsche 911 Carerra 4S out of the traps – which is saying something. With Aerosmith playing on the seriously fabulous B&O sound system, the mischievous imp in me thought that it would be a good ruse to drive up the A26, through and around the notable spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, to see if the “disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” Telegraph readers might lose all control of their Conservative faculties as I whizzed by, the vibrations from the roar of the Audi sending slices of lemon and ice cubes akimbo from their gin and tonics. Having driven a bright red Audi TT by accident a few years ago as it was the only hire car available at the time, I am not a stranger to this “colour anxiety “ and it also gave me a chance to live out a basic Audi TT experience. Fun, fast and great for motorway
driving but I also found it very light to drive and whilst I am sure this added to the driving sensibilities, it also left me feeling slightly vulnerable. It did not feel solid. I had a slightly enhanced experience of this with the RS, whilst it handles well on firm, smooth and dry surfaces, I felt a lot less confident on more uneven rural roads. The RS carries more than 60% of its body weight over the front axle and its rear weight distribution is more like a proper hot hatchback than a sports car. It sits 10mm lower than the standard TT as well and I kept on having to look at
It is faster than a Porsche 911 Carerra 4S out of the traps – which is saying something
the tyres as they were so low profile as to be almost non-existent. Returning to car colour, I ended up researching this out of curiosity. Black is the top-selling colour in 2021, followed by grey. New car sales tend to be grey, black and white – all conservative colours, which can apparently help hold a car’s value. Interestingly, the most exciting it got was orange being the seventh most popular colour but it had to be a burnt orange and not a “stand out and shout at you” neon orange. Sober colours have a broader appeal with green and yellow having a much smaller percentage of the market. Insurers will rack up premiums for “hot metallics” as the paint is far more expensive to replace after an accident – so parents (or older hipsters) take note of this. Smaller cars suit big colours better and often appeal to a younger market. And green cars are a lot less likely to have accidents than grey ones. Sorry if this is now sounding like a GCSE Maths conundrum.
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