2008 Audi TT

There's been a bit of buzz among journalists lately that the second-generation Audi TT might finally be a true sports car. So when Audi offered to let us drive the TT on some of Northern California's mind-blowing twisty roads, we went along to see if the rumors were true.

They're not. There, I said it. The second-generation TT is not a sports car.

But that's not a bad thing. The TT is a fantastic car. It's just not a sports car. Let me explain by defining the term:

The Driver's Car - It's hard to explain unless you've driven one, but there are cars in this world that are just as fun to drive at 15 mph through a school zone as they are to blast down back roads. They are cars like the first-generation Mazda Miata, the original VW GTI, and the BMW E30 M3. They are cars that read the road surface to your fingertips with all the subtlety of a megaphone, that demand all of your attention all of the time. They don't necessarily need to be that capable (and by modern standards, those that I've mentioned aren't); they just need to be communicative and involving.

The Sports Car - A sports car (in the World According to Me) is that rare car that combines the communication of a Driver's Car with the capability of an Atari Car. The quintessential sports car that comes to mind is the Porsche 911. It, like other sports cars (the Ferrari F430 and Lotus Elise come to mind), is among the world's most capable machines, and yet remains so communicative and interactive that its owners take the long way to the grocery store.

So where does the TT fit in? It's an Atari Car. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since the TT's main rivals don't share that category. The BMW Z4 is a driver's car, and the Porsche Boxster/Cayman achieves magical sports car status.

The faster you drive, the better the TT gets. Push to ten-tenths, and terms like "snap oversteer" seem more and more like they came from a bad horror flick. Mild understeer is the only handling mode, and come hell, high water, or Freddie Krueger, the TT won't stray from that. (Okay, a lift from the accelerator mid-corner at max-lat will occasionally help rotate the rear on Quattro cars - but in a slow, controlled manner.)

The bigger debate is: which drivetrain is best? I spent most of my time (more than 1400 miles) in a 3.2 Quattro with the DSG transmission. The 3.2-liter is torquey throughout its rev range, but lacks the acoustic magic of previous VR6 engines - the exhaust sounds blatty and coarse, especially with the top down. The 3.2-liter is also a thirsty engine - I never saw over 21 mpg on the highway, and back-road blasts returned only 13 mpg.

Without question, the 2.0T is the better engine in the TT. It may make 50 less horsepower on paper, but without the added complexity and weight of all-wheel drive, it feels every bit as quick as the 3.2-liter. It uses far less fuel, sounds great, and suffers from only minor turbo lag.

When pushed hard, the front-wheel drive TT spins lots of tire - but that didn't seem to slow it down much. It blasted up and down NorCal's mountain roads at a pace that would have embarrassed most sports cars. Its brakes (which are smaller than the 3.2's) started to smoke a little on hard downhill runs but never faded. And the 2.0T is almost $8000 cheaper to boot.

If Audi made a 6-speed manual version of the 2.0 T with all-wheel drive, it would unquestionably be my favorite. In the absence of that choice, the TT 2.0T with front-wheel drive and DSG offers the most value and fun - and is the TT I'd buy.

Audi claims its resale values are now among the highest in the industry (higher even than Lexus) and that their warranty claims are down a shocking sixty-four percent in the last four model years. In addition, it sold more four-ringed cars in 2006 than in any previous year. So it's quite obvious that the boys and girls in Ingolstadt have been doing their homework. A is for Atari, and the TT definitely earns an A.