CARS OF THE WORLD

Audi TT RS 2022.

Farewell Audi TT RS 2022 for the U.S.: without antifender, but in bright colors.

Audi has announced that the next year will be the last for Audi TT RS in the USA, less powerful versions will hardly last much longer.

Most likely, there will be no direct successor to the TT model.

Audi TT model first debuted in 1998, and the current third generation sports car has been produced since 2014, the top version of TT RS with a 2.5-liter gasoline «turbocharger» was introduced in 2016 and in 2019, experienced a planned restyling.

In the U.S., according to the resource CarSalesBase, the peak sales of the Audi TT in the history of the model came in 2001, when 12,523 units were sold, and the best year for the third generation was 2016 — 3,044 units were sold.

In pre-crisis 2019 demand dropped to 1,324 units, in corona-crisis 2020 830 units were sold, in the first three quarters of 2021 — 825 units.

In general, Americans do not like Audi TT, though in due time (in 2011) the «Er-xca» appeared in the USA exactly due to «requests of working people», namely petition on Facebook which collected 12 000 signatures — Audi marketers after that gave kind to import of this top version to this country.

To complete the picture, we should add that the Japanese Mazda MX-5 — close in class to Audi TT — from January to September this year sold out in the U.S. circulation 9608 units, Toyota Supra — 5825 units, Porsche 718 — 3165 pcs, Hyundai Veloster — 1740 pcs., BMW Z4 — 1724 pcs., Toyota GR86 — 1044 pcs. and even Fiat 124 Spider, which left USA last year (this year dealers were selling out the remains), appeared more successful than Audi — 932 pcs.

Yesterday, the press service of Audi of America announced that the 2022 model year will be the last year for the Audi TT RS, so a limited edition Heritage Edition will be released, while the «regular» TT RS will also be available during the year.

Less powerful versions of the TT «will stay on the market for a while longer» — the American media believes that it is unlikely for more than a year, that is, for 2023, and even then, probably not for the whole year.

Special series Heritage Edition will consist of 50 cars in five colors (10 copies each) — Alpine White, Helios Blue, Stone Gray, Tizian Red and Malachite Green, while each color will have its own contrasting leather upholstery interior, suede upholstered steering wheel and knob selector belt and mats with embroidered RS logos on them.

The Heritage Edition also features a retractable aft spoiler instead of a fixed wing, 20-inch two-color five-spoke wheels, silver exterior mirror caps, sports exhaust with black oval nozzles, special edition markers on the rear side windows and a shifted maximum speed threshold from 250 to 280 km/h.

There are no changes in terms of technology: 2.5 TFSI engine produces a maximum 400 hp and 480 Nm, it is docked with a 7-speed «automatic» S tronic (with two clutches).

The drive is all-wheel drive, with a multi-disc power take-off clutch to the rear axle. The Audi TT RS will accelerate to 60 mph (96.56 km/h) in 3.6 seconds, to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds.

In the U.S., the Er-esque is only available with coupe bodywork (Europe has a convertible version), with prices for the Heritage Edition cars starting at $81,450 (plus $1,045 for shipping), while the «regular» TT RS coupe costs from $73,200.

The future of the Audi TT is murky: previously there were rumors that the model would transform into a sporty coupe-like crossover, but there are plenty of those in the Audi range right now, and a fully electric sports car with the same name is unlikely to be more successful than a gasoline car.

It is not excluded that the name TT will be archived till better times as quattro coupe was archived in due time.

By the way, an independent German startup Elegend AG took up the reincarnation of the latter.