The journey to buy this car started in earnest, back during Thanksgiving and I’ve posted about model build figures, picking between an M2, M3 or TT RS, my initial purchase of the car in January and a photo of it sitting in the dealership waiting for me back in February.
After a week in Birmingham Alabama for BMW Motorcycle Club Board Business, followed by a week in Miami for Ultra Music Festival with Ben along with a stop over in Central Alabama for time with my dad on his farm, I flew home, saw my mom for a few days who was visiting us up in New Hampshire then I hopped on a one-way flight out of Manchester NH and few to Asheville, North Carolina.
Audi of Asheville had been keeping my car since I purchased it in January. On April 4th, I arrived at AVL and they picked me up at the airport and took me to pick up the car. Four months of waiting but the time was not squandered. I was already making payments on it and had it insured since January. Audi of Asheville facilitated:
- A Stage 1 93-Octane APR Tune
- Full wash & detail including interior
- XPEL Ultimate Paint Protection Film on the front half of the car
- Ceramic window Tint on all windows
One small detail is that APR recommends running their spark plugs for tuned vehicles. I had Audi quote the work and I’d be supplying the plugs. They said that would be a $350 job plus $125 for the plugs I’d have to buy from APR directly. So I flew into Asheville with all of the tools I needed to pull 5 spark plugs and replace them with the ones I brought with me. I picked up the car, drove to Biscuit Head and in their parking lot, it took 40 minutes to replace the spark plug. Look at this, already covered my one-way flight :)
I had a delicious breakfast, grabbed some Asheville beer (Fonta Flora + Burial if you must ask) and topped off the gas tank with 93 octane fuel at Shell then headed right to Deals Gap & Tail of the Dragon:
Of course, that meant some really fantastic photos of the car as clean as it’ll ever be carving up the dragon. I’ve driven (in two separate Golf R vehicles and 4 different motorcycles) around the dragon and surrounding roads many times but the opportunity to get photos of your brand new car 90 minutes after taking delivery by professional photographers cannot be understated. I didn’t pick Audi of Asheville for their location but boy was I thrilled that the car I wanted was at a dealership in Asheville. They did all of the hard work though because they took the car on trade, did all of the service, were amazing at the pre-sales support, met my offer and agreed to not only store the car for 4 months but have it wrapped and tuned. Perk…Asheville and being able to get some Biscuit Head + Beer then get THESE photos:
I then drove home 1,050 miles back to New Hampshire averaging 26 miles per gallon (one tank I got 29) which isn’t bad for a nearly 500 horsepower car.
Fun fact, I was nervous I wouldn’t fit in it since I never got a chance to sit in an Audi TT before I bought it but luckily, I got in and fit!
Oh and a photo of my breakfast at Biscuit Head:
I saw a rainbow on the way home, got a matching green Tail of the Dragon Sticker, and thankfully Matilda fits!! That was my other worry that I got this car for day care drop off days since, if I didn’t have Matilda, I’d just be riding my motorcycles but her car seat fits perfectly!
The day after I got home, it snowed but luckily, the drive home was on roads clear of road salt and the state did not salt the roads for this small snow storm and it melted a few days later. We did get one more snow on April 20th but that also melted by the next morning so this car will never see road salt and that means it’s a late-April through mid-October only vehicle:
Driving impressions:
- Rocket-ship fast. I’m sure 0-60 is 3 seconds but I need to get APR’s TCU (transmission tune) because red-line shift-fails, launch fails, power cut off with wheel slip and some very big jolts are felt through the car when I drive it aggressively at the limit with just the ECU tune. I’ll be adding the TCU tune as soon as I find my APR UltraLink (after unpacking my house).
- Understeer is real. It’s FWD biased until the Haldex system detect slip. I only felt this on Tail of the Dragon but coming from an MK7 Haldex Gen 5 Golf R, I’m used to that feeling. What I’m not used to is Audi’s DAZA engine which has an insane amount of torque at low in the RPMs so you get pretty intense unexpected understeer even at minimal boost and you just have to push through it to get the rear axle to engage. It took some scary moments before I started to trust it then I just drove it like the Golf R.
- Brake fade is real. These brakes are insanely powerful and they stop on a dime BUT the OEM brake fluid is old and I started cooking things pretty good on my 3rd dragon run. Going to upgrade to a higher boiling point fluid this summer and probably different pads, ideally not ones that chew up the OEM rotors too fast.
- Green wasn’t my first choice. It was my 3rd but I wanted a 2021/2022 low-mile example that wasn’t black, white or grey. Well that left Blue, Red, Orange, Green or an Audi Exclusive color and after 3 full months, I decided to just go for green. I LOVE the color. It’s grown on me and it really pops. It’s identical to Porsche’s Viper Green or Lamborghini’s Verde Mantis (all 3 companies are owned by Volkswagen Auto Group) but the amount of attention I get is a little tiring. Every single man at gas stations, parking lots and sometimes sidewalks will give me thumbs up, yell “BROOOO!” or ask me about it. I’ve never had complete strangers talk to me and you really have to drive in days you’re having a good day because you will get attention with a bright green 2-door sports car. I underestimated it but it’s real.
- Space is at a premium. You have one true cup-holder, there is no space for Matilda once she’s out of a booster seat (age 5-7 she’ll be too big for the back seat at this rate) so it’s a car I can keep until she’s maybe in 4th grade unless it’s just the 2 of us then I just plan to get a 2-seater entirely.
- This car is a hatchback so there’s a ton of space. You can drop the two back seats and it’s genuinely impressive how much space there is. Very practical for a car the size of a matchbox.
- Fuel economy is decent. 29 MPG best, 22 MPG zipping it around town on boost and in lower gears in dynamic (sport) mode.
I’m sure there’s more I can add but that’s probably good for now.
Speaking of attention, a bright green Porsche Macan GTS in Python Green (which is not the same as Viper Green as you can see from the photos), got next to me. The driver gave me an enthusiastic wave and went on her way. There really are so few of these out and about. I took this side by side showing Python Green & Kyalami Green side-by-side:
That’s it for this but I hope to talk more about the car as I do modifications. I have a sneaking suspicion the passenger front axle is in need of a replacement. I’m getting a CV Boot click when turning the wheel left to right at a standstill. it’s a pretty typical CV Joint Click but it hasn’t gotten too bad so I can probably do that over the winter.
Here’s the 2026 Garage Update for those following along at home:
You must be logged in to post a comment.