James Taylor | Photography Steffen Jahn
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8 TT 1998- WHY IT’S HERE The TT’s always been pretty. In Mk3 guise, it’s pretty serious THE DAY WE BEAT VETTEL It may be the bottom rung of the Audi Sport ladder but the TT Cup is slick and seriously quick, with some big names on the entry list – and us Words James Taylor | Photography Steffen Jahn In a cabin stripped of almost everything, the stock TTS engine sounds much more butch July 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 69 AUDI RS5 DTM > Engine 4000cc 32v V8, 500bhp and 370lb ft (est) > Transmission 6-speed semi-auto, rear-wheel drive > Weight 1125kg including driver > Materials carbonfibre monocoque with CFRP crash structure, composite bodywork > Suspension independent pushrod double-wishbones front and rear > Brakes carbonfibre > Tyres Hankook slicks AUDI TT CUP > Engine 1984cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 306bhp (337bhp with push-to-pass activated), 295lb ft CAR’s James Just as well his > Transmission 6-speed DCT, front- Taylor, looking a lot parents decided wheel drive like Audi Sport’s against Boutros > Weight 1125kg James Taylor Boutros after all > Materials production shell in steel and aluminium, composite bodywork > Suspension MacPherson strut front, four-link rear > Brakes steel, with racing ABS > Tyres Hankook slicks E’RE off to a bad start. ‘Three of you I went to The cost for each driver is €120,000 for the season, plus Hockenheim and were late for this briefing. The first rule all I got was some a €10,000 deposit for damage. Despite the steep asking of being a professional racing driver is squiggle on my price, Audi had no fewer than 165 applicants for this sea- to be punctual. And some of you, your T-shirt from a son, whittled down to 16 drivers from all over the world, skinny Englishman W teamwear does not fit perfectly. Before each aged between 16 and 24. Think of it as a sort of the next round, you must visit a tailor.’ X Factor for racing drivers. ‘It was like applying for a job,’ explains Welcome to the first day of a new British driver Philip Ellis. ‘You had to show Audi why you would term at Audi’s racing driver finishing be the right person for the TT Cup.’ He’s one of two returning school, where attention to detail is everything. It’s the opening competitors from the previous season; the other is Poland’s round of the 2017 Audi Sport TT Cup at Hockenheim, and in a Gosia Rdest, one of three female drivers on the grid. compact briefing room inside Audi’s hospitality mothership, ‘We were taken on a six-day fitness training course, where championship manager Philipp Mondelaers is addressing Audi’s team doctor gave us nutrition lessons, and even took the class: four rows of youthful drivers in identical Audi Sport blood tests,’ Jack Manchester, another Brit, tells me. ‘Then a clothing, and an apprehensive one in civvies. That would be me. pre-season practice day here at Hockenheim, to get familiar Now in its third season, the Audi Sport TT Cup is Audi’s with the cars and practise the start procedure, which gave us all proving ground for young driving talent: an ultra-competitive a chance to get to know each other.’ They’ve all bonded well, it championship played out in identical cars over 14 races at seven seems; there’s plenty of good-natured joshing and comparing of circuits in three countries, on the same bill as the hugely popular mine is Benoît Tréluyer, three-time Le Mans winner in Audi’s His pit neighbour notes. Young they might be (six of the drivers were born in 2000) has won Le Mans DTM German touring car championship. all-conquering World Endurance Championship programme – three times, but but they’re used to racing at a high level. Ellis bypassed karts There are no individual teams; the cars are all prepared and brought to a close last year as the wider VW Group tightened its everyone is treated and went straight to cars, climbing run by Audi from its own pop-up pitlane within the DTM purse strings. equally, even to Formula 3 before switching to one-weekend-only paddock. Think of it as the ultimate in arrive-and-drive racing. ‘The TT Cup exists not to make money, but to find the next guest drivers Six of these drivers tin-tops, while Drew Ridge was Testing is strictly limited, and other than tyre pressures and generation of drivers,’ says Chris Reinke, head of Audi Sport cus- Australian karting champion and anti-roll bar swaps, no set-up changes are allowed – it’s all about tomer racing. ‘We are growing our next generation of customers were born in 2000, raced in Formula BMW Malaysia the driver. within the brand.’ At the end of the season Audi will award a before moving to Munich to make At each round Audi invites two guest drivers to take six-figure prize fund to the championship winner, intended to be but they’re used to a serious go of becoming a career part, usually one journalist (which is how I’ve wound up here, spent progressing into the upper echelons of its customer racing racing at a high level driver. Milan Dontje was second intermittently pinching myself to make sure I really am) and one programme. in the Dutch GT championship pro. So, in a surreal tableau, the name above the next garage to But that doesn’t mean entry into the TT Cup is cheap. and has raced LMP3 sports4 70 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | August 2017 August 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 71 Ferrari’s turbo-free icons New design Data analyst Rolf: of Audi Sport ‘Imagine the brake umbrella needs a is a kitten. Hit it! bit more work Hit! Hit! Hit!’ Wing at back, carbon splitter at the front, but TT shape is otherwise showroom spec cars; 17-year-old Scot Finlay Hutchison is combining his TT Cup season with a GT campaign in a McLaren 570 GT4; and 18-year- old German Fabian Vettel is relatively new to cars, but his older brother has done quite a bit of racing. (You might have heard of him; his name’s Sebastian.) I’ve been fortunate to race and win in Ginettas and Radicals in my adventures for CAR at home, but this is a whole different, international, ball game. For one weekend, I’m racing with the big boys, even though not all of them are big, or boys. By rights, I should finish last. But it would be nice not to. Clapping eyes on ‘my’ TT Cup car for the first time is quite a thrill. It might have started life as a regular TTS plucked from the production line, but this looks more mouth-wateringly purposeful than any TT I’ve seen before. The cambered wheels are pushed so far from the body they’re like outriggers. A jutting carbon splitter and giant rear wing karate-chop the air, and the road car’s kitsch fuel filler cap now covers a socket for the in- A weekend in the life of a TT Cup driver qualifying and I’m still trying to get my head around the car and built air jacks. Under the bonnet the production 2.0-litre TFSI the circuit, and as predicted I’ve qualified at the back, but by an four-cylinder engine remains virtually unchanged, with around ‘They even check your socks’ – life at Audi’s academy encouragingly small margin. Benoît Tréluyer wanders over to 306bhp heading to the front wheels only – no quattro drive here. compare notes in parc fermé (and I plant another pinch on my Gears are taken care of by the road car’s six-speed twin-clutch rather than enhances it, and it takes skill to work the system to Vents, gearstick FRIDAY – 5.00pm Qualifying – 4.25pm Race 1. increasingly bruised arm). ‘I got to the Stadium in the practice gaiter and door – 8.30am Morning briefing briefing, followed by a S-tronic gearbox, and there’s an electronically controlled limit- your advantage, knowing when to ease off. Compared to other handles survive in strict team clothing: TV shoot for the regular – 6.30pm Debrief and Q&A, session and thought it was a different corner – whoah! – sideways ed-slip diff with three modes, toggled from one of many buttons racing cars, it feels odd, the TT shimmying on its toes as the the transition to Adidas shoes, black Uvex drivers. going through footage across the gravel,’ he laughs. You’d like Benoît. I ask him if he’s on the steering wheel. ‘Start off on the most aggressive setting,’ system does its thing. race spec. But trousers, red polo shirt, from the race in detail. driven the TT Cup car before. ‘No, no, the only time I’ve driven there’s no Planet soft-shell jacket. – 6.30pm Dinner. Plenty the car’s mechanic Christian Aut advises, ‘then turn it down as As I feel my way around, I try to remember Marco’s advice Rock for James of carbs and veg, – 7.00pm Press interviews. a front-wheel-drive car was a Renault R5, in a field, when I was the tyres wear, or if it’s raining.’ from the briefing; how you must wait until the tyres have come today, horns or no – 8.45am Track walk with impeccably prepared. 12. I’ve never been to Hockenheim before. [He still qualified Marco Werner, literally – 8.00pm to late More data The road car’s leather-gaitered gear lever looks incongruous fully up to pressure before hitting the substantial ‘banana’ kerbs giving us the inside line SATURDAY analysis, seeking vital seventh.] The main reason I came here was to see the World in the otherwise stripped-bare interior.