Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A Test Drive of the "TT" (Part 3)

So, we safely reached the place of our destination, namely, the testing track, which I had mentioned earlier. The head of our driving school Arman  Babayan met us at the track; he had just finished the conducting of defensive driving training. The winner of the Annular Motorcycling Championship of Armenia Aghasi Tadevosyan was also there. If not them, then who could give an expert evaluation of the controllability of our car?
After making a couple of fierce laps by turns on TT, they made a brief résumé: 'a typical front-wheel-drive vehicle, which acts in compliance with all the canons of front drive: when easing up on the accelerator, the car goes into a skid and straightens the path when you rev up the engine. Sad is that the revs are slightly delayed: the engine does not react momentarily as you push down on the gas, which is fraught with the risk of turning around. However, the problem can be solved by switching the transmission to manual mode; the gears are changed by means of paddle shifters just behind the steering wheel. It would be a cool idea to equip the car with four-wheel drive.There must be something wrong with brakes: such solid brand cars should not swing under intensive brakes, however, they endured at least 3 laps of torture in the proper manner. The absence of any kind of differential lock is particularly palpable on high-speed  turnings: under the onslaught of the 200 horsepower  the near-side wheel starts to grind the rest of the asphalt. So, for TT to be able to compete on a track, it should have a  differential lock and a stiffer suspension. For now, it's just a nice glamour car."



While our experts were violently driving the car, I picked up a stopwatch and timed.
1:52! As far as I remember, it's been one of the top results shown on a front-wheel car on this track so far. The absolute record was set on a  400-horsepower 4-wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo XI, which, in essence, is a true "fighting" rally car, therefor it is not shameful to lose.
 In short, the AUDI TT is good!
As for me, I did drive the car on the track, but not in racing mode. I made a couple of quick-trial laps and got only positive impressions of those dynamic rides.
Separately, I'd like to note the excellent work of the automatic gearbox.Contrary to popular opinion, during intensive acceleration it changes the gears much quicker than any other experienced driver. In addition to the above, I would like to point out the fact that our TT was not the most powerful of its type. The official dealers offer their potential buyers the model with 3.2 liter engine and four-wheel drive. I think such an equipped car will make a serious competition to such giants, as the PORSCHE 911, or maybe even a FERRARI.
This small test-drive only strengthened my final opinion of a car associated with the legendary gun: it's light to handle , fast as a bullet and ,of course, accurate in the hands of an experienced shooter. Moreover, I've never had so much fun by driving a semi-sport car. Besides, the car is awesomely beautiful.
There is only one caveat: the coupe is for a self-lover, or , in the extreme case, for a self-lover and his girlfriend. But the latter option must be considered only at low speeds, otherwise  there might be an unplanned trip to the dry cleaner's.

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