[Music] when I think of robust engines that have stood the test of time in the tuning world I think of the 2JZ I think of Ls V8 from Chevy I think of the Honda K series and of course I think of the VR6 the first gen Audi T is yeah one of the original VR6 powered Volkswagen Audi products on the market but I can't be the only one who doesn't think of this car when I think of VR6 I think of the markv R32 the mark 5 R32 now that I've driven an HPA markv R32 I figured I'd give the first gen Audi TT a little bit of love uh this one in front of me has a ton of power it's got a great story so let's go for a drive sooner I get this thing started the sooner we have air conditioning out of all those engines I mentioned up top the VR6 is probably the least swappable of all those the ls the K series uh the K series you know you could put on a transmission a a longitudinally mounted transmission you can put it in different applications not many cars that I've seen even highly modified VR6 swwa cars go with a longitudinally mounted set setup of course all VR6 engines are transversed in the factory so it just inherently suits a either a uh front-wheel drive platform or a hdex all-wheel drive platform a little bit better whoa whoa whoa VR6 faton Marcus How Could You Forget amateur so good 24 valve 3.2 L VR6 of course the T and the markv R32 came with about 236 horsepower Factory I want to say and about 240 lb feet I might be off a couple horsepower a couple pound feet uh and here we have a ton more so this is an HPA FTX 500 turbo kit on this VR6 what does that mean it's got a big Bor Warner 8374 ball bearing turbo efr Turbo really good response is the goal here area under the curve especially when I look down at the TAC and VR Sixers don't necessarily rev too high although if you look at the Bor and Stroke of the of the engine I believe they's still an unders Square engine this one I'm driving also unfortunately you guys already figured it out it is not a manual it's the DSG so there is that this was actually one of the first mass-produced production vehicles with a dual clutch transmission pretty incredible the TT came to America in the year 2000 lasted about 25 years obviously they no longer make the car which is kind of disappointing if you're into that sort of thing coming off the line you give it a little bit of gas nothing happens and then you kind of feel the clutches engag or you feel the clutch engage and then it kind of lurch not lurches forward that's that's a bit mean uh but it it's not the smoothest experience it is absolutely showing its age here of course with 512 horsepower and 483 pound feet of torque which is what this made on hpa's Dyno uh the transmission has been quote unquote built so it's got a hardened gear set steering feels very similar to the markv I would say a little bit sharper brake pedals firm good confidence in the brakes big old HPA big brake kit now the VR6 there's a bag back there uh the VR6 models did have upgraded dampers and upgraded brakes and sway bars from the factory but of course HPA takes it one step further really smooth power not too loud in the cabin here it does drone if you're below 2500 rpm if you're cruising at 2,000 RPM it's it's not great I've got to be honest it's got a full 3 and 1/2 in exhaust that probably doesn't help but when you're making 500 horsepower you need all the flow you can get now this is not the first first gen TT I've driven I did drive hpa's uh Zilla Moto but again that's mid 200000 build that thing was insane just incredible original HPA by turn build this one the car feels like it just wants to jump out of its skin it is so ready to go and that comes through not only in the noise when I begin to hear the turbo spool up I mean 2500 rpm I can feel the faint whistle of the turbo just like hey come on let's get into it also the throttle response is it's very eager to jump up and get into boost which I like it feels like it has a ton of torque and has a ton more to give it's rolling just below 3,000 wow by four I'm just going to leave it in Auto to be honest the transmission seems to like it better than when I shift and that is not surprising considering the age of this car why don't we just go from a dig we'll go from a dig here see how it spools up wow those gears are close as soon as I got out of second gear it was fine the onew shift was not a quick shift but then it was really quick and as soon as you hit Red Line it just bounces right back to like 6,000 RPM and just go go go like clockwork I mean this thing has a ton of power it's got kws on it all the way around I will say you know the first gen TT is an interesting car they've come around design-wise to me I used to hate these cars when I was a kid I just didn't understand how people viewed them as kind of like a design a revolution in design when they first came out I never got that as time has gone on though uh and I look at this one more and more today the more I think I actually kind of like the way this car looks and I never thought I would say that but it's true especially in red with the BBS lm's great great look here the KW soaking up a ton of bumps the car feels planted not only because of the kws but also because it weighs a lot now second gen TT Incorporated a steel and aluminum space frame what Audi calls the space frame at the time and that included a ton more aluminum suspension components so that car lost a few hundred lb but this is still around 3,400 lb here you can get a mark1 TT for very cheap now will it necessarily be a VR6 Quattro probably not this is a very polar car I still can't help but think anytime I look at this car is it going forwards or is it going backwards I can't tell what's the front what's the back but yes the TT at the time was hugely in influential on Audi's brand image I guess you could say here in North America they had already established themselves as a luxury European brand and the TT kind of threw them you know they took a chance on the TT and it kind of threw them into the mainstream a little bit with the sports car enthusiasts this was going up against the R2 the Z4 uh the MX5 and some other smaller cars these were offered with both the 1.8 turbo engine and the VR6 the VR6 Quattro was never sold in North America with a manual transmission uh some of the early cars didn't have wings this is where it changes a little bit from the markv R32 uh which this is based on that same platform this has a shorter wheelbase about 3.5 in Ines shorter wheelbase and on top of that not only is it smaller it's a bit of a smaller car uh it also uses a little bit more aluminum construction both heavy cars this 3.2 with the Quattro uh it's still an iron block of course so it is not a light car and one of the details that does stand out one of the first things I noticed was when I pop the hood it is Aluminum so they're trying to offset the VR6 the iron block VR6 and the Quattro all-wheel drive system as much as humanly possible point is there are a ton of options in the first gen TT lineup uh so if you wanted like a track toy maybe the 1.8 front-wheel drive might be better for you strip it out you could actually have a somewhat lightweight car as opposed to the Zilla moto car I mentioned that had a bunch of old school kind of tech on it HPA of course has since developed their liquid cooled intake manifold and air to water intercooler just increasing throttle response as much as humanly possible uh and the longevity of the engines is very important of course if you want to road trip this car if you want to daily this car hot weather cold weather it needs to stand the test of time much like a brand new car would right and that's one of the goals at HPA so if you haven't figured it out already that's exactly what this car is built for daily driving and cruising in stealth as stealthy as a red car can get I guess this is easily the cleanest first gen TT I've ever seen and the goal was just to fly under the radar ironing out any potential weird noises along the way skipping the Fast and Furious gauges and being able to cruise quietly but also have that sweet VR6 sound on tap whenever you want it also has a hdex controller that HPA installed so there's no waiting for the rear wheels it's full-time all-wheel drive and a 50/50 split depending on how aggressive a setting you go with just hook and go hook and go all day long now with 500 horsepower Big Turbo you might think hey do you need to build the bottom end of this VR6 and no for hpa's FTX 500 this is a factory bottom end with exception to uh the connecting rod bearings those have been upgraded uh and then on the top end it's got a fully built valve train so valves retainers titanium retainers all that stuff and we're running 16 lbs of boost to get that 512 horsepower fairly conservative here and the best part is we're running pump gas 93 octane now the interior of the TT has held up incredibly well this example has really low mileage 40,000 miles on this uh it is I believe an original owner car uh it was owned by a or is owned by a family down in Michigan and what ended up happening was the owner of this car ended up passing away and his dream effectively the whole time he had the TT was to have an HPA built Audi TT that was his goal that was his kind of vision one day hey I'm going to have this TT that I've kept really nice and clean in the family for years I mean this car is immaculate when you shut the doors you still hear that like what you would expect from a brand new German car even here 25 years later it holds up but uh he ended up passing away and his his kids and the rest of his family kind of took it upon themselves to send the car to HPA and kind of fulfill that dream and the fact that 30 plus years years later after hpa's Inception they're able to kind of capture that enthusiasm still within the VW and Audi crowd is incredible and this car is a perfect example of that the one thing I will say seating position I'm sitting way too high uh I'm 59 is uh and the mirror or sorry the visor here uh on certain roads I almost can't see like I want to be ducking I have an inclination to duck especially the windows here it's it feels cool it feels like I'm in something low until I begin pushing it then I realize how high I'm sitting in comparison to the other car now part of this might be because I've driven the Zilla Moto TT and that had an aftermarket seat and rails and I was like I was just slammed on the floor that felt really good so there is a solution you just have to get rid of your factory seats which are pretty good they've got decent Bol ERS uh the cabin's nice it's well laid out it's well thought of I think it's aged brilliantly uh it looks a bit kind of tuner is just from the factory it's it's very mid [Music] 2000s it wanted to spin there 3500 RPM wow every time it shifts you just get another kick of torque you can shift at 4500 RPM and just have that light tol light torque and kind of feel the turbo spool up and have that engagement that kind of fun shoving your spine into your seat or you can just bang off rev limiter and never dip below 5500 and you have a ton of peak power there is a solution for the gearbox problem if you don't want a DSG or if the owners of this car wanted to in the future go with a third pedal that's what I would do personally uh what HPA did that Zilla moto car and what they have done in the past is take the six-speed manual from a later Audi ttrs uh and then make that work with a VR6 but it's a tight car it it likes to play I just that's one of my favorite things about the VR6 compared to like an Audi S4 or something like that with a big V8 or V6 up front like you just don't get the same under steer at all ridiculous speeds I mean this will easily get you into trouble yeah if you get the timing of the turbo spool kind of a bit off and you're not really paying attention uh then yeah you'll feel it push a little bit but that's just because you're like getting smacked with torque in the middle of a corner just hold on hold on and you should be okay thank you guys so much for watching thank you Marcel Johnny aen and Z for hooking me up with the car for a couple hours so much fun this is about to be driven off to Michigan from here in Vancouver so long drive ahead I have no doubt it's going to make it it's been running smooth all day it's really hot out today too so if you haven't subscribe already and we'll be back very soon oh [Music]