Beschreibung
V968 SRP is a Mk1 Audi TT (8N) first registered in Northampton in September 1999. Brilliant black (LY9B) with black interior (JN). Mileage is 54, 000 miles. MOT to June 2024 (MOT pass 30/ 6/ 23 = no advisories)
I bought the car in July 2023 to augment my collection of early Mk 1 Audi TTs. I purchased it due to its low mileage although it had been declared a Category C insurance write off in the UK in 2016 (Cost of repair exceeds value of vehicle). Appreciating the scarcity of spoilerless early TTs, the owner decided to return the car to the road.
Since purchase, I have used the car regularly and added just under 3000 miles. I replaced the alternator and battery in October 2023. Mechanically, the car drives perfectly (testified to by a 250 mile round trip on 30/ 1/ 24). I have now decided to sell the collection hence the reason for sale in this instance.
I should point out that the petrol gauge in the dashboard does not function correctly, a common fault on 8Ns with a £110-140 typical cost to renovate the unit and replace. I get round the issue by resetting the trip odometer to zero and then filling up once it gets to 300 miles. I only use E5 fuel by the way. The well known TT dashboard pixel display problem really isn't too bad on this example with only a couple of lines non-functioning but the above fix will also address this.
V968 SRP has enjoyed an interesting life. Between 2008 and the present day it has put on only 10, 000 miles or so. Before that however, it once lived in Chelsea village. Dealer stamps from Knightsbridge and Norway sit alongside services in South Africa of all places. In case you were thinking it, Carvertical reports no record of the car having been registered stolen! You are very welcome to review the Carvertical report by contacting me (dated 31/ 1/ 24)
Notwithstanding the Cat C designation, V968 SRP is a beautiful example of a scarce, spoilerless, early Audi TT in a colour scheme that Audi itself used in marketing and advertising material in period.
I have written an essay giving more information about the Audi TT. Please contact me for a copy of this if you're interested. In addition, I am selling my collection of 3 Mk1 TTs of which V968 SRP forms a part (adverts all visible on CarandClassic). Please contact me also if you'd be interested in buying the entire collection. Photos of all 3 cars together are illustrated in the main advert. By any yardstick, the Mk 1 TT is a classic. Important for its manufacturer, yes. Groundbreaking for the industry in design terms, yes. Distinctive, yes. Era defining, yes. From appearing in plenty of advertising campaigns and music videos in period (remember Out of Your Mind?) to its roles in About a Boy and Legally Blonde 2 as Hugh Grant and Reese Witherspoon’s wheels respectively, the original TT occupied the cultural space of the late 1990s in a way the Mk 2 and Mk 3 never managed in their respective eras. As the Mini and Jaguar E-Type are to the 1960s, the 8N is a madeleine to the Millenium.
Here's a bit of history about the 2000 recall:
In mid-1999 Audi began to investigate reports in Germany of high speed crashes in TTs, some of them fatal. The common factor was that all appeared to be linked to speed in excess of 175kph (110mph). In popular memory therefore, the crashes indelibly linked the TT to derestricted Autobahns in the same way the Mercedes A-class is indelibly linked to elks.
The most famous of these crashes caused the death of the German ex-rally driver Peter Hommel who had formerly driven for the Wartburg marque’s factory team. 60 year old Hommel wrote off his roadster shod with winter tyres whilst travelling at some 120mph in January 2000 on the equivalent of a B road. Whilst I don’t recall the Mk 1 Jaguar getting grief after Mike Hawthorn’s fatal crash in 1959, the notion that a professional driver could succumb at the wheel proved devastatingly poor publicity for Audi who sought to make amends at the expense of both the 8N’s looks and handling.
On analysis, it emerged that the smooth rump of the TT presented a couple of aerodynamic problems. Firstly, Bernoulli’s principle explains how the uninterrupted flow of high velocity air over the rear of the car was generating an unacceptable static pressure differential between the top and bottom of the vehicle. This therefore created rear end lift – 658N of it. To put it in context, the contemporary VW Golf’s figure was 340N, the Porsche Boxter’s 302N. Secondly, the lateral rounding of the TT’s rear made for unpredictable airflow separation points, particularly in crosswinds, which did nothing for secure handling.
Faced with this evidence and a mounting public furore about whether the TT was fundamentally unsafe, Audi issued a package of alterations which took effect from October 1999. Importantly however, this was a voluntary recall. Owners of the 44, 800 units sold prior to the recall could choose which elements of the package to accept or decline based on their driving preferences, anxiety about safety, aesthetic predilections or fear about residual value come resale. Most obvious of the changes was the rear spoiler which ended up reducing rear end lift by some 60%. Opinions about the visual impact of this move vary. Certainly the Audi design team wasn’t happy. And I sympathise. Although discreet and from side profile at least, a relatively harmonious addition to the car’s appearance, the spoiler nevertheless altered the TT’s personality. It seemed to change the car from being a design driven object with adequate performance into a design which hinted at performance without really backing that up. Perhaps it’s redolent of a curled top lip, the falsely aggressive snarl of a frightened subordinate dog. Certainly, for me, the cool was lost.
The spoiler could be retrofitted free of charge at Audi dealerships and became a mandatory factory item on all subsequent 8Ns built meaning only the 1998-1999 cars can be genuinely spoilerless. Of course, a majority of cars from those model years had the spoiler fitted during the recall making the number of now spoilerless cars an unknown quantity. Also fitted at Audi dealerships were a number of suspension changes which again could be accepted or declined at the customer’s discretion. This means a few permutations exist across the population of recall era vehicles, some cars having all the changes, some having none, and some having anything in between. At the front, the anti-roll bar was enlarged to 20mm from 19mm while the wishbones had their bushes enlarged to 45mm from 30mm. At the rear, the anti-roll bar was reduced slightly in diameter whilst firmer shock absorbers were deployed all round.
Perhaps the most costly aspect to the recall involved retrofitting the cars with a form of traction control: Audi’s ESP (Electronic Stability Programme). To achieve this, Audi established a dedicated facility in Ingolstadt. TTs from dealerships around Europe were queued onto car transporters and carted off to Bavaria where they underwent wholesale rewiring with looms compatible with the enhanced electronics. These cars and those delivered since the recall can be identified by the circular black button marked ESP next to the red hazards button in the centre console. All in all, these modifications set Audi back some 200 million Euros.
