Should this beautiful Audi Concept C be the next-gen TT?

The Audi Concept C dropkicks the four rings into a completely different direction. Neat, unfussy design. A shrunken ‘grille’. Inside, tactile switchgear instead of ever-bigger screens. Heck, it’s a proper sports car. Audi hasn’t had one of those since… well, ever.

What we’re looking at here is really two cars, and we don’t mean the fact it’s a pretty two-door coupe that’s also a folding roof cabrio. 

We mean it’s both a collection of clues to how all new Audis will look – from the minds of new design boss Massimo Frascella’s team – and it’s a direct preview of a new Audi sports car going on sale in 2027. It’s ‘rumoured’ to share a platform with the much-delayed electric Porsche Boxster and Cayman. But you didn’t hear that from us.

You can tell this is a close-to-production car by the real-world details. It’s got standard road tyres. Door mirrors (not even cameras – good). Proper windscreen wipers. And even a cut-out to house a numberplate on the back. Those are boring conveniences you don’t apply to a concept car unless it’s going into production in a couple of years.

Audi doesn’t make any claims about range, performance, weight or price, but will spill lots of tea on the looks. The vertical ‘grille’ motif up front is inspired by the 1936 Auto Union Type C racer and the 2006 Audi A6. In fact, it’s a window the front-facing radar can hide behind. 

Combine the vertical ‘grille’ with the quad-element headlights and there’s hints of Bugatti Chiron in the front, no? Audi’s design team blushes and insists it chose quattro LEDs because Audi is synonymous with the number four. Four rings. Four wheel-drive. 4mm off your back bumper.

Speaking of, it’s minimalist at the rear. No fake mesh or cosplay exhausts like all those recent RS3s and Q5s. Phew. Quad-element LEDs mirror the face, and the lack of back window is apparently to ‘save weight’. Are slats lighter than glass? Ah well, it’s a concept car. There are nods to the R8 LMS endurance racecar and Will Smith’s Audi RSQ from 2004’s I Robot in there. Said sci-fi was set in the year 2035, so Audi’s only got a decade to suss out spherical wheels. 

Still, that movie was terribly far-fetched. It depicted a future where tech giants promised fleets of autonomous robots and AI got dangerously out of control. Yeah, right!

Back in the not-quite real world, the Concept C turns up the nostalgia with revamped Nineties ‘Avus’ six-spoke wheels with aero faces and 3D machined spokes. Spotting some old R8 ‘sideblade’ in the shape of those rear haunch charging flaps. Yep, us too. 

The whole shape screams ‘mid-engined’ but if you look closely, you still won’t see any ‘e-tron’ badges. The Concept C lacks cooling vents and ducts and is clearly hinting at an EV future… but who knows? Porsche is busily re-engineering its Macan for petrol power. Imagine this Audi with a 400bhp turbo in-line five in the back…

More likely, it’ll have a ‘mid-battery’ layout like the next Boxster and Cayman, which have been delayed until the back end of 2027 while Porsche asks around trying to find someone who wants to buy one. That gives Audi some time to fiddle with the underpinnings. But we hope it barely changes anything about the interior. 

The Concept C manages to feel futuristic and classically Audi inside, because it’s clean and unfussy – like the outside – but shuns massive screens, touch-sensitive buttons and even Audi’s latest oblong steering wheel. Look at that circular wheel, with a circular centre, hosting a milled Audi logo. Doesn’t that just look timeless? 

Steering wheel switchgear is anodised aluminium with a solid ‘click’ when pressed. The scrolling knobs are more knurled than Horacio Pagani’s bathroom taps. Sure, there are a couple of concept car fantasy flourishes: the central motorised cubbyhole lid. The climate controls which shine through a translucent shelf which we hope Audi replaces with more buttons. 

But the instrument screen is clearly rendered. There’s also a central infotainment touchscreen which motors out of a hidden cave when summoned (by a switch). Even the driving position is quintessentially Audi (pedals slightly offset to the right).

Spotted the slats for the air-vents? Notice anything? Yes, there’s four. And four physical buttons on the centre console. Only two seats, but they also mix minimalism with a spritz of innovation – Audi’s chosen wool not for its kinder-to-cows properties, but because a bum-cooling ventilation system could breathe through the fabric. That’s why there are no speaker grilles in the doors. Your songs simply seep through the weave. 

No grilles on the inside or the outside? This really is a whole new type of Audi. But it could be a very clever one. 

While making an EV sports car causes a philosophical crisis for Porsche, it makes more sense for Audi, which let’s face it, has always sold cars more because of their design than how they drive. 

And because Audi now has a standalone subbrand in China called um, ‘AUDI’, it can make a sports car for Europe without worrying it’s going to be irrelevant in its biggest global market. 

The Concept C has the potential to be a massive trendsetter. To make a whole new generation take Audi seriously again as a design leader and sports car maker, like the TT and R8 did. 

What’s it going to weigh, and cost? We’ll find out another day. Keep your fingers crossed for low numbers. Will Audi bestow upon it the ‘TT’ badge? We think they’d be mad not to.