Miscellaneous Features
Detroit Preview: TTS and Performance Concept Car Planned
By by: Fourtitude Staff, photos by the Audi Design Team (R8) and Hans Zwijnenburg (TTS)
Nov 26, 2007, 21:14

Little more than a month away, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit looms on the calendar. Detroit may not be Audi’s largest market, not even by a longshot, but the NAIAS is the biggest auto show in the biggest automotive market in the world. That in mind, sources say that Audi has big plans with a performance theme at the Audi stand.

R8-Based Concept Car
Piecing together bits and pieces we’ve heard from often-in-the-know mouths at Audi, we hear they plan a concept car and believe it will be based on the R8. Rumors of V10s and convertible or targa roofs have circled around the R8 since it was first shown, and we suspect the concept will probably be a convertible, a V10 or maybe even both.

Attached is a drawing by Audi’s design studios released weeks ago to select press outlets. We now know one of the drawings was a harbinger of the metroproject quattro. One is of the A7, and the last, obviously a wilder take on an open-top R8, we believe is a preview of the Detroit concept.



TTS
Preproduction test mules of the upcoming TTS have been seen rounding the Nurburgring weeks ago, while just this week, two more undisguised red examples were photographed behind a chain link fence at an Audi facility in Germany. We know the TTS is coming, and now we know when.

Word is, the TTS drops in Motown as a full production model. Even better, we are happy to confirm that the car will be sold in North America.

From the preproduction versions spotted, we can make a pretty good guess at what the TTS will look like. The attached mockup by Hans Zwijnenburg shows what we believe the car might look like - the body kit lifted directly from the preproduction prototype spy photos.

Under the hood will be the same more powerful drivetrain as the European S3. It may be a slightly different tune, but we’re told the setup is basically the same. Going on that, the S3’s 265-hp 2.0T should be quite potent in the lighter and nimbler alloy TT chassis.

Expect full coverage of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on these pages during NAIAS press days from January 13-15.

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