A DESIGN FOR LIFE

As a star of the very first issue of evo, Audi's design icon is a car entwined with this magazine's history. But now it's no more. We drive an early Mk1 quattro alongside a late Mk3 RS to find out if it enters retirement with grace

- STEPHEN DOBIE

SHOULD WE CONSIDER THE AUDI TT MORE OF AN ICON? Revisit some of our 'greatest ever...' lists and there's not an example to be found, not even amongst evo 135's exhaustive '100 Greatest Driver's Cars'. Flick forward a dozen pages in that 2009 issue and you'll find the freshly launched Mk2 TT RS declared 'a good Audi, but not a great driver's car', hammering the point home somewhat.

Yet the curvaceous Mk1 TT played a significant part in this magazine's history. No, I'm not talking about the occasionally baffling Project Veyrog, but rather the early example that was one of the stars of issue 001 in 1998. It was a key road test of what would prove to be a pivotal car in the regeneration of Audi's brand image; so key that we deemed it vital to pop an H-plate Audi Quattro 20V on expenses to drive down to its newer relation's Umbrian press launch.

Their modest age gap now seems implausible in photographs-how on earth did one company produce both cars within the same decade? 'The TT was inspired by Bauhaus,' says former head of Audi Design Marc Lichte. 'Its universal design philosophy of "less is more" - the omission of everything unnecessary and insignificant - was so radical and so courageous that the TT quickly achieved the highest attribute of good design: to be timeless."

Dickie Meaden was a little more succinct back in issue one, declaring the TT's curves 'bold and breathtaking'. As I climb inside the example we'll be driving today and shut the door with a satisfying, late-'90s Teutonic THWUNK, I feel just as effusive. A quarter of a century on, this pure and simple genesis of TT- sans the infamous spoiler - really does feel timeless.