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There’s something immensely satisfying about the way it goes about its business. Supple and soothing enough to dissolve otherwise gruelling distances, yet composed and enthusiastic enough to make a decent fist of more demanding roads, it has every base covered. – evo

In this piece on the new TT (worth a read in its own right) one of my favorite new journalists explains the differences between three kinds of cars. So next time someone says one car is ‘better’ than another, ask them to clarify which kind of car they gravitate towards…

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 Atari Car – Cars to which I refer as “Atari Cars” are a modern phenomenon. They are cars that feel like a video game. Atari Cars are immensely capable – they can often out-perform supercars without even breaking a sweat. And that lack of sweat defines them – they shrug off insane speeds and laugh at corners. Nothing unsettles their suspension. They’re so good that the driver has no idea how fast he’s actually driving. These are cars like Audi’s very own RS4, a Mercedes E63 AMG, Bentley Continental GT, and, to a lesser extent, cars like the Subaru WRX STi.

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.

I’ve been watching the Audi A5 closely, largely because it is a harbinger than Audi knows where its fundamental flaws lie: for example a revised drivetrain sets the engine further back, and as regular readers will know thats something that’s always kept Audi from matching the eagerness to change direction its competitors offer.

But as with the new TT early impressions suggest the car is almost there as a driver’s car but lacking that edge that makes a drive an experience. This impression from 4car is worth a read… it suggests that the A5, like many Audis before it – will sell because of its image more than its actual drive feel.

But don’t think this isn’t intentional – this excerpt explains why:

Why the dull dynamics? And why waste all that effort in developing the new platform? Audi’s chief chassis engineer agrees with our assessment and would like things to be different, but Audi’s marketing department insisted that the A5 must feel familiar to existing Audi owners. Which suggests that a) those owners would be unable to appreciate an improvement, which is an odd stance to take, and b) that Audi isn’t interested in attracting buyers from BMW. The marketeers have shot themselves in the foot, then.

the R8 has a delicious, tip-toe poise and a stubborn reluctance to be thrown off line. While it feels different to a 911, it shares the Porsche’s sense of a malleable, elastic limit, which you can lean on when required. That’s always been something only the boys from Stuttgart seemed to understand. Until now… half a dozen increasingly spirited laps reveal the full extent of the R8’s forgiving nature and exploitable balance… More to the point, its also tidier and more controllable than a 911 C4S is on track. – evo

I’ve been carping for some time now about how Audis are fundementally flawed because their longitudinal drivelines set the engine in front of the front wheels (and the transverse engines send too little power to the rear and have unequal length halfshafts up front).

Audi knew as well as anyone what a handicap this is: the A6 front axle was pulled forward as far as possible while the 2.0T in the A4 is connected to a shofter transmission and sits further back than the 1.8 did. But the next A4 will go a step further: the transmission will be mounted alongside the engine, allowing the motor itself to be pushed further back.

Products like the new TT, the RS4 and the S6 have shown Audi can in fact make silk purses from sow’s ears, but platforms engineered from a clean sheet now that they’ve admitted to their problem should allow them to ‘progress through technology’ at last.

Now is a great time to be an automotive enthusiast – just when you think the engineers have thought of everything or automobiles are becoming soulless something comes along and surprises you in a way you felt when you were a kid.

For me, it was learning that Audi’s R8 will have the option of LED front lighting. We’ve seen LEDs in the rear of Cadillacs etc. for years but this could mean that a generation from now few will know the feeling of a scraped knuckle in the AutoZone parking lot.

Can be found here in a MySpace forum of all places.

Why does this car excite me? It’s not the show-car styling but rather that it gives the RS4 engine a proper home and shows what the Gallardo would be with lighter weight and better visibility. Oh yeah, and it punctuates that Audi is really truly serious about building drivers cars after years of empty promises.

We spoke to development chief Dr Ulrich Hackenberg and his insistence on talking about the new TT’s sporting abilities bordered on the comical – as in ‘Can we talk about the interior packaging?’ ‘No, let’s talk about the precision of the steering…’ Hackenberg makes the point that the new TT’s structure is much stiffer than the old, and that the car also has a lower centre of gravity… These moves are all an attempt to redress the perception that BMW does ‘sporting’ better than anyone else, and Audi in particular. So while the original TT launch was about avant-garde, concept car styling, this latest one could end up being much more about the driving experience. We just can’t wait to see if the promise is borne out. – 4Car

Click here for more info.

(By the way the nav system in the new TT is said to include character recognition – you just use your finger to write in the address… Makes the other German NAV systems seem even more outdated.)

...can be viewed here.

(It should drive far better than the last one given how much better this Golf platform is than the last – they’d have to try hard to screw up what is essentially the new GTI with a lower driving position and center of gravity…)