There he is, by ‘his’ car. The designer alternates between looking forward and backward, then looks at the wheels and says, “Why does it have such small wheels, it didn’t drive around like that back then!” Peter Schreyer turns 70 this year, but it doesn’t show. When the model we are talking about today was ‘born’, he was chief designer at Audi and had just designed the Golf IV and the New Beetle and then the TT. In 1998, the strikingly round model with Golf IV technology was introduced to the world. With a length of 4.04 meters it is a small car by today’s standards and at 1.35 meters it is no less than 15 centimeters lower than the New Beetle. But wait, has it really been 25 years since the TT was introduced to the world? Yes, time goes that fast sometimes. Today we pay tribute to this icon and celebrate the master and his masterpiece together.
This particular example, in the color Brilliantrot (code LY3J), is one of the last TTs of the first series with the internal model designation 8N, which was produced from 1998 to 2006. This example is owned by Audi Tradition and rolled off the production line in 2005. It has only 1,450 kilometers on the odometer. Other details: a 1.8-liter turbo engine with 180 hp, front-wheel drive and unfortunately only one exhaust and not two, as with the Quattro. And then those wheels: the 16-inch ones now look really minuscule, because most TTs were 17 or 18 inches. And the master would not have chosen this color either: “I like Nimbus Gray myself,” he says. That non-metallic shade was the introduction color of the TT Roadster. “After the presentation, fashion designer Ralph Lauren called me because he liked the color,” says Schreyer with a grin. Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn had something completely different to say about it when he saw the open TT in Tokyo: “Who came up with that color?” He was much less enthusiastic.
Initially only with the 1.8 20V Turbo, with 180 hp (Quattro optional) or 225 hp (standard Quattro).
Audi TT high on wish list: practical sports car
When Peter Schreyer took charge of Audi’s design department in 1994, the TT was high on the brand’s wish list; development chief Hackenberg wanted a sports car that offered a lot of practicality. In late summer, the first sketches and a 1:4 model were made in California, with Peter Schreyer and the American designer Freeman Thomas playing a key role. “Everything about this car had to be impressive,” says Schreyer, looking back. He doesn’t just mean the bodywork, but also the interior. Take the button for the seat heating, for example. You have to press it, then it comes out and you can then set the seat heating to the desired position. “It is comparable to a porcelain light switch, it feels very nice.”
Or look at the metal cover that sits in front of the radio when you’re not using it. At Audi they really wanted to keep the interior clean. This flap therefore had to cover everything, including the sides of the radio. That was of course a pricey story. The same applied to the extra strong carpet; it is carpet like in a valuable classic car and not simply velor like in other cars.
Or take the decorative parts on the ventilation grilles, made of metal and not of plastic that resembles it. “Everyone was 100 percent behind the project. Both Hackenberg and board member Paefgen wanted it all exactly the same.” At Volkswagen, Schreyer had to work harder a few months earlier to convince the board members. He talks about the presentation of the New Beetle prototype in Volkswagen’s design center, the Valhalla in Wolfsburg. The designers presented their 1:1 model and hung posters of Herbie behind it. They only had to remove them again because they would have too much influence on the decision-making process, the story went. In the center, four designers and four board members stood patiently waiting for what was to come. Then Volkswagen’s top boss Piëch walked in, says Schreyer. “’Who is going to buy this car?’ he asked us. The four arms of the designers went up, the four arms of the executives stayed down. Piëch looked around, then raised his arm and said: ‘And me! I would buy this Beetle too!’”
The TT was not such a difficult birth, everyone wanted it. Although: “They are actually both quite geometric cars, the New Beetle and the TT,” says Schreyer. “And actually almost the same people worked on these projects,” says the designer. However, the TT could have paid much more attention to details, such as the two ventilation grilles in the center of the dashboard. Schreyer, pointing through the windshield, shows how the associated ventilation ducts work their way from the center console to the windshield. At the front the air flows to the occupants, at the rear to the windshield, while the ducts consist of one piece.
TT was actually going to be called A3 Coupé
Or see the design theme with the eight points. On the ventilation grilles, on the fuel cap, on the interior door handle, on the control buttons: we see eight notches everywhere. Almost no parts you could see were taken from other models, except perhaps the levers on the steering column. And almost the name too. “Originally the plan was to call the car the A3 Coupé,” says Schreyer. “Imagine!” That really wasn’t an option for the designer. So he came up with the name TT on the way back from Vienna to Ingolstadt during a business trip. Schreyer: “I have always liked double letters in a car name, maybe because I like the Ferrari 512 BB so much.” As he drove his rental car, he mentally went through the alphabet. In retrospect we can say that it was a stroke of luck that he just continued after the letter ‘A’ and only stopped at the ‘T’. “TT sounded good and moreover, that type designation had already been used for an NSU,” he says.
For the designer, the TT was a stroke of luck. Firstly because there was no pastor, secondly because he was given complete freedom and thirdly because he was allowed to do everything he could. Only once, when the TT was already in the showroom, did he wonder whether he had perhaps exaggerated the design a bit. “A friend of mine had borrowed a TT from someone when he called me and asked how he could open the window.” The designer has to smile when he tells this story. The windows are operated on the driver’s side with two small recesses that are incorporated in the metal part of the closing mechanism. Also specifically designed for the TT, so no mass production. Perhaps it is because of these kinds of details that the compact, sporty Audi has become a design icon, for which you will one day have to dig deep into your pockets. His creator has known that for a long time. In his garage there is a TT and a New Beetle. His own masterpieces.
2023-10-08 11:45:25
#Peter #Schreyer #masterpiece #Audi
