Description
Update: Driver’s side window switch now replaced. Normal function resumed.
You may be wondering about the sale price of this 180 BHP 1999 8N3 Audi TT. But this is no straightforward car. I appreciate it’s a hard car to value however and I’m happy to listen to offers.
V995 RCX is not just a spoilerless Mk 1 TT, rare though that would make it; V995 RCX is one of a vanishingly small number of TTs that never went back to Ingolstadt in 2000 as part of the voluntary recall that saw the majority of its sisters spoilered and dulled by suspension changes that served to make them foolproof to drive for a mass audience. Utterly original, it is an example of a car in launch colours which is feted as one of the purest examples of design led automobile projects in motoring history. No spoiler, no ESP, no suspension changes. The TT as designed.
The Audi Heritage Collection searched long and hard several years ago to source a similar original car and could only find an example with visible corrosion and 128, 000 miles on the clock (T180 DWL).
V995 RCX was first registered in the north East of England in December 1999. Finished in classic Silver (LY7W) with grey (JQ) leather interior. An extensive history file shows regular servicing up to 2016 when the car was put into storage due to a ruptured clutch slave cylinder.
I purchased the car in September 2019 and it was stored in a Carcoon prior to reconditioning. In May 2023, it received a new LuK clutch and dual mass flywheel (with slave cylinder built into the bellhousing), Bosch timing belt plus water pump and auxiliary belt. Over the course of July 2023, I overhauled the front subframe by powdercoating it and replacing the front wishbones with powdercoated 30mm bush examples, a replacement dogbone mount and new bushes all round. In each case I have used original OEM parts as they would have been fitted in 1999. This includes Lemforder wishbone bushes and balljoints.
I had listed the car for sale earlier this year at a time when I was selling my collection of 3 Mk1 TTs of which V995 RCX formed a part. The other two cars have sold but having reviewed the cosmetic appearance of V995 RCX when it appeared in JayEmm’s Youtube test drive in February 2024 I felt it could be improved so took it off the market. Cue replacement sill covers and some general detailing. Since that video, the car has also had a brand new starter motor. Last weekend, I drove it the 100 miles from Hertfordshire up to Alfreton and it didn’t miss a beat.
There are a few cosmetic issues which I should point out. The roof rails have a few spots of aluminium oxidation. There are a few stone chips on front and rear and some relatively crude retouching of the driver’s side door. I am not one for engine bay fettling or cleaning so it all looks a little dusty under the bonnet but I leave modification of that to the taste of whoever buys the car.
I have written an essay giving more information about the Audi TT. Please contact me for a copy of this if you're interested. By any yardstick, the Mk 1 TT is a classic. Important for its manufacturer, yes. Groundbreaking for the industry in design terms, yes. Distinctive, yes. Era defining, yes. From appearing in plenty of advertising campaigns and music videos in period (remember Out of Your Mind?) to its roles in About a Boy and Legally Blonde 2 as Hugh Grant and Reese Witherspoon’s wheels respectively, the original TT occupied the cultural space of the late 1990s in a way the Mk 2 and Mk 3 never managed in their respective eras. As the Mini and Jaguar E-Type are to the 1960s, the 8N is a madeleine to the Millenium.
Here's a bit of history about the 2000 recall:
In mid-1999 Audi began to investigate reports in Germany of high speed crashes in TTs, some of them fatal. All appeared to be linked to speed in excess of 175kph (110mph). In popular memory therefore, the crashes indelibly linked the TT to derestricted Autobahns in the same way the Mercedes A-class is indelibly linked to elks.
The most famous of these crashes caused the death of the German ex-rally driver Peter Hommel who had formerly driven for the Wartburg marque’s factory team. 60 year old Hommel wrote off his roadster shod with winter tyres whilst travelling at some 120mph in January 2000 on the equivalent of a B road. Whilst I don’t recall the Mk 1 Jaguar getting grief after Mike Hawthorn’s fatal crash in 1959, the notion that a professional driver could succumb at the wheel proved devastatingly poor publicity for Audi who sought to make amends at the expense of both the 8N’s looks and handling.
On analysis, it emerged that the smooth rump of the TT presented a couple of aerodynamic problems. Firstly, Bernoulli’s principle explains how the uninterrupted flow of high velocity air over the rear of the car was generating an unacceptable static pressure differential between the top and bottom of the vehicle. This therefore created rear end lift – 658N of it. To put it in context, the contemporary VW Golf’s figure was 340N, the Porsche Boxter’s 302N. Secondly, the lateral rounding of the TT’s rear made for unpredictable airflow separation points, particularly in crosswinds, which did nothing for secure handling.
Faced with this evidence and a mounting public furore about whether the TT was fundamentally unsafe, Audi issued a package of alterations which took effect from October 1999. Importantly however, this was a voluntary recall. Owners of the 44, 800 units sold prior to the recall could choose which elements of the package to accept or decline based on their driving preferences, anxiety about safety, aesthetic predilections or fear about residual value come resale. Most obvious of the changes was the rear spoiler which ended up reducing rear end lift by some 60%. Opinions about the visual impact of this move vary. Certainly the Audi design team wasn’t happy. And I sympathise. Although discreet and from side profile at least, a relatively harmonious addition to the car’s appearance, the spoiler nevertheless altered the TT’s personality. It seemed to change the car from being a design driven object with adequate performance into a design which hinted at performance without really backing that up. Perhaps it’s redolent of a curled top lip, the falsely aggressive snarl of a frightened subordinate dog. Certainly, for me, the cool was lost.
The spoiler could be retrofitted free of charge at Audi dealerships and became a mandatory factory item on all subsequent 8Ns built meaning only the 1998-1999 cars can be genuinely spoilerless. Of course, a majority of cars from those model years had the spoiler fitted during the recall making the number of now spoilerless cars an unknown quantity. Also fitted at Audi dealerships were a number of suspension changes which again could be accepted or declined at the customer’s discretion. This means a few permutations exist across the population of recall era vehicles, some cars having all the changes, some having none, and some having anything in between. At the front, the anti-roll bar was enlarged to 20mm from 19mm while the wishbones had their bushes enlarged to 45mm from 30mm. At the rear, the anti-roll bar was reduced slightly in diameter whilst firmer shock absorbers were deployed all round.
Perhaps the most costly aspect to the recall involved retrofitting the cars with a form of traction control: Audi’s ESP (Electronic Stability Programme). To achieve this, Audi established a dedicated facility in Ingolstadt. TTs from dealerships around Europe were queued onto car transporters and carted off to Bavaria where they underwent wholesale rewiring with looms compatible with the enhanced electronics. These cars and those delivered since the recall can be identified by the circular black button marked ESP next to the red hazards button in the centre console. All in all, these modifications set Audi back some 200 million euros.
