ooooIYKYK, ISSUE #oo19
Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. The show is about to begin. It’s a sequel… possibly a prequel, recast in new formats with an award-winning young director and the backing of a production house banking on a return to the fore. This is the Concept C, Audi’s “TT Moment 2.0” that’s been alluded to for weeks now.
I’m going to skip focusing on the car. It’s been covered all week on the site including the latest episode of the podcast, with links to all that content below. Instead, let’s focus here on what the car means for Audi.
BEHIND THE SCENE
Look past this car or its groundbreaking design and what you’ll find is a brand, like so many other car brands in this era of EV onset, struggling to find misplaced mojo.
How did Audi lose their mojo?
A lot of it comes down to EVs. You won’t find a rant against EVs here as I see value in this segment of the industry and appreciate their intent to cut back on carbon emissions. However, that shift and subsequent all-encompassing focus has caused a division at most of the storied brands where a combination of traditionalists avoiding this new tech and non-car people rushing in to fill the vacuum creates the perfect storm of disconnection.
We see car companies led by non-car people reinventing marques at all levels, moving to transform these companies into device manufacturers akin to Apple or Android. And while that, to some degree, may seem to be the logical progression, the unintended consequence has been an alienating those most engrained in the brand while those seeking to reinvent the figurative steering wheel chase sales numbers via fantasy trend-focused consumers or media impressions from even trendier influencers… neither of which are invested in the long-term wellbeing of the marques. As a result, the trend-fixated be they consumer or company employee typically move along as soon as another latest or greatest alternative flits into view.
Everything becomes very transactional very fast. That’s where mojo comes into the picture. Like insulation, it grounds brands with a base of consumers who care and that, most importantly, will stick with the marque through thick and thin.
It should be obvious that the engaging brands have an engaged following. Thanks to rally, then S models, followed by RS models, and more recently Le Mans and the R8, Audi had been building a tradition of engagement over decades. More recently though, as a rotating turnstile of executives have chased tech trends and acceptance from fickle influencers, the engaged have felt the rejection of a once passionate partner.
If or when the engaged lose interest, the price to brands can be existential. Now mix in the added costs of dieselgate, EV platform development and the pursuit of F1 and you have a brand in need of a fundamental reset.
In that, “TT Moment 2.0” is fitting. TT Moment 1.0 wasn’t just about the TT. It was about a repositioning of a brand that in 1995 was down to two core products – 80/90 and 100. In those years, motorsport was all but shuttered. Things were dire at the four rings, even if there was no internet around for an airing of grievances or a sharing of armchair suggestions.
Audi’s top executive team know this. Audi’s CEO, Gernot Döllner speaks to this in his first mention of TT Moment 2.0. Most every line and every surface of Massimo Frascella’s new language seen on Concept C speak to a rejection of the status quo – from the form to function. It is confirmed quite clearly as a push for “clarity”, distilling down what makes the brand great and focusing on these things first and foremost.
It is meant to be transformative. And, in form, it is. The question is whether the people will follow. Will it fire up the morale of employees? Will it fuel the passion of aficionados and fans?
There’s no doubt everyone has a lot riding on it. On the upside, the amount of media impressions and general positive reaction to the Concept C are optimistic signs. That so many are talking about the car reveals a general love for the brand that remains in the hearts of those watching from the sidelines.
It just hope it is a wakeup call for the powers who remain inside Audi, specifically those who’ve shown a track record for neither understanding the passion nor caring about the passionate behind this brand.
Today, looking at Concept C, we know key players share in this passion. At this time, we need to support them in their move to pick up those rings and dust off that mojo. We need to help the brand survive and thrive. Should they falter, there’s no guarantee we couldn’t end up back where we were … or even worse.
Looking at this open-top EV sportscar built with Porsche DNA, I’m optimistic. Sure, there are details I’d change, but I can also see myself buying one. Now give us a sister coupe with a 5-cylinder turbo for markets where that’s still desired and I’ll be even more optimistic. I can see where the market’s going as well as anyone else, but I’d argue we don’t get there without coming together. Building these cars to stir passion is the right direction, but one needs instinct to understand this. Mojo can’t be found in data sets.
NEXT UP THE LATEST NEWS & FEATURES
CURATED PODCASTS & VIDEO CONTENT
New Audi TT!? Meet The FUTURE Of Audi Design with Rory Reid. | AutoTrader
Audi Concept C – Making Audi Great Again | B Sport
An Emotional Look Into Audi’s Future – They Listened! | Auditography
The New 2025 Audi SQ5 Is King of the Small, Sporty Luxury SUVs | Doug DeMuro
Hail to the quattro – Documentary | Mechanix Illustrated
How Audi’s F1 Team Escaped Its 2025 Nightmare | THE RACE
What’s So Worrying about Under-Fire 2026 F1 Rule Changes | The Race Podcast
This story is the basis of the 19th issue of the ooooIYKYK Newsletter on Substack. If you’ve got too much going on in your life and don’t want to keep coming back to this website just to check in and see what I’m writing about, signing up to the ooooIYKYK Newsletter is an excellent way to get this content coming directly to you in your inbox. Subscribe at Substack via the link below, and consider becoming an optionally paying subscriber if you want to help support the viability of this title.