Audi is defined by the times it blazed its own path. The Quattro of the 1980s transformed the brand from a small, near-luxury marque to a technological innovator; the original, all-aluminum A8 showed that it could compete with BMW and Mercedes-Benz on equal footing; the TT showed the world it was a design leader; the R8 proved it could make the best sports car in the world.
It’s a contrast with other German marques, which are defined by long-running nameplates. Volkswagen with the Golf, BMW with the 3 Series, Porsche with the 911, Mercedes with the S-Class. Audi’s greatness comes from moments—cars that sprang from seemingly nowhere, filling a niche no one knew needed filling.
But, it’s been a long time since Audi’s had a car like that.
You could argue the first A7 of 2011 was one of those cars, but that was just following a trend that Mercedes started with the CLS six years earlier. Really, the original R8 was the last one, and shockingly, it came out nearly 20 years ago.
Audi seems to get this. Speaking to Germany’s Bild magazine earlier this summer, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner said, "I don't want to beat around the bush, we need to get back on track now." He teased a car that people internally had been calling a "TT Moment 2.0," which we now know as the Concept C. It is one hell of a course correction.
The Concept C breaks with Audi’s current design direction—namely that of ever-enlarged grilles, split headlights, and more anonymous styling—while paying homage to the brand’s illustrious past. There are elements of the original TT, especially the 1995 concept with its lack of rear quarter window, a nod to the R8’s side-blade intakes, and the 2000 Rosemeyer concept, which itself was inspired by the Auto Union Type C grand prix car of the 1930s.
Massimo Frascella only took over the design lead role at Audi last year, but already, he’s making his impact. Audi released an interview with the Italian, where he spells out the TT’s influence on the Concept C.
"[T]he TT was more than just a car. It was a message: you don’t need to shout to be heard. You don’t need excess to make a statement. You just need clarity," Frascella said. "And, more importantly, the courage to follow it."
The Concept C makes a bold statement in its understatement. Its front-end treatment, with a black rectangular panel covering adaptive safety systems, is dividing opinion. But people are talking about it. And in a world of homogenization, the Concept C looks like nothing else. Yet, it looks distinctly and immediately Audi.
Don’t let the "Concept" name fool you, either—this is a near-production car. We expect that it will ride on the same underpinnings as the forthcoming electric Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman, with the battery located in the middle up against the rear bulkhead, rather than making up the floorpan. And don’t think the platform-sharing is a bad thing either—the TT was just an Mk4 Golf after all.
The Concept C also shows that Audi is listening to customer and media complaints. (Which is appropriate because the Audi name derives from the Latin “to listen,” a name chosen by founder August Horch because his last name translates roughly to “hark.”)
'[T]he TT was more than just a car. It was a message: you don’t need to shout to be heard. You don’t need excess to make a statement. You just need clarity. And, more importantly, the courage to follow it.'
Audi’s latest crop goes screen-heavy and replaces quality-feeling physical buttons and switches with user-hostile touch pads. The Concept C’s interior restores physical controls, and while it does have a central infotainment touchscreen, it’s small, and it folds away, just like the MMI displays did on older Audi models. The flat plastic four-ring badges also mercifully disappear in favor of real metal emblems. All as it should be.
Audi used to stand for quality and good design, and its latest generation of cars doesn’t have much of either. Thankfully, it hasn’t taken long for Audi to realize the errors of its ways.
But it’s not enough to have one good halo car. Years ago, Doug DeMuro argued in a YouTube video that the original R8 wasn’t just a success because it was a good car, but because it led a strong lineup across the board. In the mid-2000s and into the 2010s, Audi was on a roll with a great A4, A6, and A8, plus SUVs like the 2006 Q7 and 2009 Q5. Plus, gorgeous mainstream models like the original A5 and A7.
The same can be said for Audi’s previous halos. The TT arrived alongside a great lineup of sedans and great compact cars, the A2 and A3; the original A8 arrived just before the excellent first-generation A4, the B5; the Quattro coupe was followed up by the innovative, low-drag C3-generation 5000, which also received the Quattro’s turbocharged five-cylinder and all-wheel drive system.
Racing also helps Audi’s case. To promote the Quattro, Audi developed the legendary Quattro Group B cars, which changed rally in the early 1980s, then went on to dominate hill-climbing and American sports-car racing in the latter half of the decade. In the 1990s, it had great success in touring cars, and in the 2000s, it utterly dominated Le Mans.
Audi used to stand for quality and good design, and its latest generation of cars doesn’t have much of either.
Audi had customer R8 GT3s up until recently, but that pales in comparison with these big factory efforts. Going to Formula 1 will bring some much-needed shine to the brand, in the ways that Quattro S1s and R8 LMP1s did years before.
All of this is to say that Audi can’t just have a great sports car and call it good. It needs to inject some much-needed life into the rest of its lineup, the cars that’ll actually sell in big numbers. Two million per year, if Audi can achieve its ambitious goals.
Facelifts for the likes of the A5, A6, Q4, and Q5 can’t come soon enough. Audi’s current EVs, like the new A6 and Q6, are stronger, but their interiors and exterior designs aren’t quite good enough. The best things Audi has on sale today are carryover models, like the A3, Q7, and Q8.
The Concept C is a sign of good things, but it is not a silver bullet. Audi needs to get its house in order. It needs something like the Quattro, the original A8, the TT, the R8 once again, but the company also needs to back that up with a full lineup of good cars.
Still, it seems Audi knows what it needs to do to be great—now it just has to do it.
