Audi looking at smaller sports car below TT

The German car maker presented the third generation of the TT at this week’s 2014 Geneva motor show but revealed it is considering a downsized sibling.

While the Audi TT coupe shares its 'MQB' platform with the Volkswagen Golf hatch, the company's head of technical development told Australian media including CarAdvice at the show there was room for a sports car on a smaller platform.

“The TT is the most sporty car on the MQB [architecture]… but will also have MQB Zero – next-gen Polo. Based on this sub matrix system I can imagine a smaller car,” said Audi chief technical officer Dr Ulrich Hackenberg.

“At Audi we have the A1 which is very sporty… we have just launched S1 as a four-wheel drive. I think something more sporty is possible to run in the zero [vehicle size] segment. I can imagine with successor [to A1] we are doing something even more sporty.

“The engine I presented today [in Audi TT Quattro sport concept] is a 420hp (309kW) engine that can also be fitted in this package.”

The 2010 Audi e-Tron Spyder concept (pictured) is one pointer to a future pint-sized sports car. The roadster measured just over four metres long – about 50mm longer than the A1 and about 120mm shorter than the new TT. The show car had a height of just 1.1 metres, weighed 1450kg, and was powered by a combination of 221kW twin-turbo V6 diesel and two electric motors with 64kW for 0-100km/h performance of 4.4 seconds.

Audi also has room to fill a gap between the TT and R8 supercar, though Dr Hackenberg said if it were to build a production version of the Sport quattro concept from the 2013 Frankfurt motor show the successor the famous Ur-Quattro of the 1980s would be pitched as a GT rather than a “super sport” car.