Audi has revealed a striking two-seat sports car inspired by the TT, which previews a radical new design language for all of its upcoming cars - and will go on sale largely unaltered in 2027.
The Concept C was revealed at a dedicated event in Milan – a week before making its public debut at Audi’s local motor show in Munich – as the first step in a complete design and strategy rethink for the company, via which it aims to return to growth following a challenging period of declining sales and weakened profit margins.
Its unveiling comes around two years after Audi ended production of the TT, the era-defining, Volkswagen Golf-based sports coupé that enjoyed strong commercial success over three generations.
The retirement of the V10-engined R8 supercar a few months later left the German firm without a dedicated sports car offering for the first time in a quarter of a century.
But this new show car is confirmation that the firm will make a grand return to the segment with a compact, electric two-seater that blends futuristic cues and technology with elements of historic Audi models and a focus on driver engagement.
While the Concept C takes heavy inspiration from Audi's seminal sports coupé, though, CEO Gernot Döllner categorically ruled out applying the TT name to the production version given the inherent differences in positioning.
"The Concept C is not a successor of the TT. It's a different segment to the TT - it's somewhere exactly in the middle between TT and R8," he told Autocar. "We will come up with a name once the car hits the road as a serious product."
Simplicity is key
The Concept C – a name that references both Audi's renewed focus on 'clarity' and the 1936 Auto Union Type C grand prix racer from which it takes inspiration – is a statement of intent from new head of design Massimo Frascella, who aims to make the brand "truly distinctive again" with his radical new styling direction.
Frascella joined Audi last year after a 13-year stint at JLR, where he led the design of the current Discovery, Defender and Range Rover. On his arrival in Ingolstadt, he spoke of his appreciation of "simplicity" and said he was “passionate about creating designs that are free from superfluous ornaments and do not merely follow trends”.
The Concept C stays true to that ambition, with a minimalist, monolithic design treatment that majors on simplicity - a theme which will come to define not just the company's cars but also its strategic approach as it embarks on a "fundamental realignment" underpinned by a focus "on what is essential".
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It looks a bit 'slabby' in these images, it might look better in reality. Who knew FAB1 would be such a car design inspiration in 2025?
I keep imagining the meeting where having agreed a design created to evoke a 1930s German car, they decided to give it that moustache. Maybe they thought that with the way world politics is moving the time was right?