The TT Chronicles – Dan’s Mk1 Audi TT

Design icon, future classic or simply a moment in Audi design history. Whatever your thoughts on the curvy classic, the Mk1 TT is starting to appreciate; partly because people like resident PVW proofreader Dan Shepherd are cottening on to the fun and performance that this little car can offer.

By Dan Shepherd

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Having cut my teeth in the ‘project car‘ world with a donated Mk3 Golf cabrio not so long ago, I decided to move on to something completely different in appearance and yet only one Mk away from the Mk3 Golf. The Mk1 TT as we know is built upon the same platform as the Mk4 Golf and so there were a few advantages to be found in choosing the TT : parts, forums, history all there in the world of the interwebs to help me on my way to bringing this 225 APX from the year 2000 up to scratch in terms of the many, many maintenance jobs required to get to a decent jumping off point for performance mods.

I found the TT advertised online at a price that was within my budget (give or take) and we’re not talking silly money either. That’s the best bit about the Mk1 TT at the moment, the prices are plateuing quite nicely at the bottom end… but don’t wait too long, the TT’s time is coming.

It drove reasonably well, quite the lag whilst the turbo woke up and there was some sort of agricultural sounding rasp coming from the engine at around two-and-a-half to three thousand revs. That didn’t put me off though (perhaps because of my lack of technical knowledge).

Above: YouTube is my knowledge base (alongside the Bentley manual and all the forums)

I was quite literally making this up as I went along. However, the bodywork was sound. The suspension and sub frames were crusty to say the least but it was an honest example. The interior was above average with little-to-no bolster wear on the driver’s seat, so even if it did dump me at the side of the road on the way home, at least I’d be comfy whilst I wait for the AA van.

Over the next three years I dealt with the maintenance jobs, added some performance parts and started to make it look the way i’d imagined it could – it’s still a work in progress for sure. I’m hoping to take it to see Mr. Brockbank at Badger5 in 2027 and then perhaps a pilgrimage to the Nürburgring. Anyway, in this little part of the PVW site i’ll be going through all these jobs that i’ve undertaken and describe the pointers, pitfalls, hints and tips that i’ve gleaned by making many, many mistakes. Hopefully, it’ll be of use to someone to who also wants to adopt a TT from the turn of the century and give it some love and who knows, maybe preserve a piece of Audi history.