To the city of boiled beans in the TT

Long security clearance queues, the wait at the airport, after, and not to mention the distinct possibility of your flight being delayed to top it all, makes a road trip in your own car seem so much more sensible instead of taking short haul flights.

If the ‘in-air time’ is less than an hour, it is probably a better idea to drive down to your destination. Of course, there are other variables when you choose the road. But, if the highway to the destination is even half as good as some of the expressways that we have now, you will probably reach Point B only about a couple of hours later than the flight and taxi rides would have otherwise taken. You would also have your own car with you and be able to enjoy the pleasure of a road trip.

In our case, a weekend trip to Bengaluru was due and the choice of transport was either a premium segment hatch in metallic blue or a luxury sports car coupé in blazing red. Of course, we chose the red one. The fuel bill shock struck only much later into the drive.

The 2015 Audi TT isn’t your average weekend car for the family, though it can potentially seat four passengers. The roof slopes down dramatically at the rear giving it a killer sports car look, but inside the cabin, the rear seats can get fairly claustrophobic and can at best accommodate two kids. But, for the two of us who planned the road trip, the TT’s small boot and the rear seat combined provided enough storage room to load our overnighters and a couple of snack bags.

This new 2015 TT had been launched a few months ago. Its design is strikingly similar to the outgoing model’s unique profile, yet the new TT is not cherubic anymore. It has lost a lot of its puppy fat and now features taut surfaces and sharper lines in keeping with Audi’s new design language. The rounded edges and semi-circular wheel arches remain, as does the clam-shell bonnet, but individual elements have acquired sharper, hexagonal edges.

The TT’s cabin has the pleasant aroma of expensive leather; reminding us of the time we met the company’s leather specialist, whose job it is to make sure that all Audis have a distinctive smell. The three-spoke steering wheel with a cutaway bottom reminds us that we are getting into a serious sports car. We were driving the TT SLine variant with special additions like the Bang & Olufsen music system and some additional metallic trim.

Pull a leather loop at the top of the front seats and they flip over offering access to the rear seat. We dump our bags at the rear, thumb the elegant, backlit aluminium engine start button and head out. Despite starting off after peak-hour traffic was supposed to have eased up, we find ourselves crawling in slow moving traffic for the first 40 kms. To make matters worse, way too many fellow road users were attempting impromptu selfies with the TT, while on the move.

Finally, we cross the Sriperumbudur toll plaza and the 3-lane highway starts to look promisingly open and with sparse traffic. The remaining 320-odd kms of highway to Bengaluru via Vellore, Krishnagiri and Hosur is close to being the best tarmac in India. It is showing signs of wear closer to both the big cities and so the surface can seem a bit patched up. But, most of the highway is still well maintained, fenced off in populated areas and clean. This route is also quite scenic with sections of the Yelagiri hills and verdant fields coming up on either side of the highway.

We make good time on the highway and the TT logs 3-digit average speeds for long stretches of the road. The 2-litre (TFSI) direct fuel injection petrol engine is barely strained and combined with the 6-speed S-Tronic dual-clutch transmission there is no dearth of potential to extract the most from the car under all driving conditions. Just don’t pop that standard question – “Kitna deti hai?”

Thanks to Audi’s proprietary Quattro all-wheel drive tech, the TT also feels stuck to tarmac like the suction cups on Quattro’s mascot lizard. We could sit in comfort in the sports seats with the rear spoiler flipped up, taking the wide corners on the highway at what would be considered insane speeds in any other car.

Coming back to Chennai from Bengaluru was as much fun and just as fast. Thankfully, we didn’t have to head too deep into the garden city and stay stuck in its notoriously slow moving traffic. Exiting before peak hour traffic and catching breakfast on a highway ‘dhaba’ was a sensible call we made.

But, just when we thought that we can left the paparazzi behind at our stopover, a stranger walked up with his hands stuck ominously into his pocket.

“Can you step out?”, he asked rudely, “I want to take a selfie”.