Here’s How I’d Make That Audi Concept C Into Something That Would Actually Sell

It’s not a great feeling to realize that you’re currently living out the plot of some eighties or nineties movie. The fact that I live in the land where many John Hughes films were made helps to reinforce that feeling for me, but today it’s a typical teen rom-com style movie from that era which I sense that I’m in.

You see, Audi just released a concept car with a design that’s the equivalent of one of those lovely characters clad in big glasses and no makeup who’s the subject of ridicule from everyone because she (it’s usually a she) doesn’t fit people’s expectations of what “beauty” should be. Then, somebody in the crowd is smart enough to see that with a few changes (and while Thomson Twins or New Order plays) this person could easily be transformed into someone that even the coolest kids on campus would be proud to be seen with (if only James Spader’s character doesn’t ruin things first!).

Let’s take this not-universally-liked new Audi concept and do a makeover so that everyone can witness just how nice this thing really is, and how it will hopefully point a direction to a pleasing new aesthetic for Audi. Come on! It’ll be like She’s All That, but with cars!

That’s Nitpicking, Isn’t It?

A little while back, The Autopian posted images of a new Audi show car with design direction from their new leader, former Jaguar Land Rover designer Massimo Frascella. Dubbed the Concept C, it featured a look that some equated with the very polarizing Jaguar 00 concept from a few months ago that Frascella was instrumental in creating. It’s really quite different from that pink Jag, but I can understand how anyone could make such a connection.

I figured this thing would be a controversial piece, but I wasn’t prepared for the vitriol that our usually polite contributors had for it. The many comments were predominantly (and harshly) negative from everyone, including current Audi and TT owners.

Lord, it’s just a car; please stay calm, everyone! No, apparently, they couldn’t. There were so many that I can’t even post them all here:

Yikes, say what you really think, would you? Anyway, after the pictures were published our own Uncle Adrian wrote his own very insightful piece about the Concept C, explaining each of the design details and the possible motives behind them (I won’t be able to do it any justice by quoting snippets of it and if you don’t click here to read the thing yourself in its entirety, you’re a lost cause). A few commenters seemed to warm a bit to the design slightly after reading Adrian’s take, but for the most part, others were still not having it.

Truth be told, I’m not surprised. I feel like I’ve talked until I’m blue in the face defending designs that I’ve done for my own industrial design work and with cars that I love (the Citroen DS comes to mind), and if the people you’re speaking to don’t like it, that’s pretty much it: they aren’t going to buy it.

Honestly, I wouldn’t buy this Audi thing either in its current state, but at the same time, it wouldn’t take that many changes for me to seriously consider an off-lease Audi sometime in the future. Or, at the very least, something in the Audi family that took on this look.

Make no mistake; the modifications I’d do are not to “make it right” or “fix it,” something I’m not necessarily qualified to do anyway (but that never stopped me before). Also, there were some commenters and even our hard-working new guy Brian, who seemed to actually like this thing, and I am certain that the designers who created it were not intentionally trying to make it unappealing. This is all my personal opinion; if you like the changes that I’d make, great. If not, well, that’s even better, since I highly doubt Audi will be making them.

Enough talk, let’s dig in.

RIP TT, LTR R8

First of all, the media was quick to dub this Audi concept as being “the new TT” or, in some cases, a reborn version R8. The car is neither; it’s about the size of the R8, but I’m told that it’s supposed to be a car positioned somewhere in between. If that’s true, it would put the Concept C into a netherland that makes no sense. Actually, as anything other than a TT reboot, this coupe wouldn’t make a lot of sense, and I have around 600,000 reasons for that.

You see, the R8 was lauded by many but purchased by nearly nobody. It sold a total of 45,949 cars over a 18 year period, which amounts to around 2,500 units annually: not even enough to fill half of a mid-sized mall parking lot.

The TT, on the other hand, moved 662,762 examples during its lifetime from 1998 to 2023: a figure that is even more impressive when you realize that’s a timeframe when coupes were a dying breed. With both the TT and the R8, we had an Audi design language that was rather unique and appealing, something that the Concept C is obviously trying to bring back.

Generally speaking, the Concept C is a design free of much if any ornamentation and something that I find to be a welcome change from current Audis. Every one of their models seems to get a bigger and clunkier grille:

With this E-Tron GT (above) and their numerous SUVs, I’d rather just spend the same money on an older model year of the equivalent Porsche that shares whatever platform that particular Audi is built in; they’re just so much cleaner looking. Somehow, when “base” models of cars look better than the higher-level ones, you realize that maybe it’s time to simplify your look.

Despite the generally positive read on the overall Concept C’s design by many professionals, a few things are understandably setting everyone off. It’s these objectionable items that I’d like to alter just as an experiment to see if it would eliminate some of the hate. Or, at the very least, reduce the anger a tad.

WTF (Why The Face)?

The biggest point of contention from the comments appears to be the front end of the thing, the tall, skinny grille in particular. This type of design for a radiator opening is accepted on essentially two cars, and even Alfa Romeo and Bugatti kind of barely pull it off anyway. Just ask Ford (the Edsel) or Subaru (the Tribeca) how that grille shape worked out for them. Audi will point out that this grille is supposed to evoke the Auto Union race cars of the thirties. Of course, the front ends of those radical fuselage-shaped designs were not rectangular and, more importantly, buyers today couldn’t care less if you tell them that what they consider to be a visually offensive part of their car harkens back to a historic competition machine.

A concerning number of commenters equated the shape to the mustache on a certain World War II-era leader that was in command when this Auto Union actually raced; absolutely nobody wants that connection. I’m all for referencing Audis of years past, but let’s make it the cars of twenty or thirty years ago we remember from our youth and couldn’t afford then.

The other issues with nose are that it gives the illusion of being anteater-long and sniffing the earth as it continues seemingly straight down the ground with no break. This has a tendency to make the whole front end of the car look unnecessarily heavy, despite the scallops on either side of the grille that are supposed to lighten the look (really not sure how this is going to pass US bumper laws, but that’s fine). I also wonder if the designers were trying to again emulate that Auto Union racer’s void spaces between wheels and grille; if so it doesn’t really work.

Worse than that, there’s a dichotomy with the nose and the rest of the car. Cover up the nose with your hand on the screen, and the back of the car doesn’t seem that bad; do the opposite, and that blunt nose on its own seems like it might fit reasonably well on a big SUV or something besides a sports car. They just don’t seem like they belong together.

One of the other issues that viewers seem to have with the Concept C is shared with the Jaguar 00 concept that Massimo was responsible for before this Audi. There’s no backlight or even rear side windows, which makes the whole thing seem quite heavy; it’s an impression that isn’t helped by the body below the beltline being so beefy compared to what’s above it. Again, it’s a new aesthetic that maybe we’ll all get used to, but I fear that by the time enough buyers do it might be too late.

Lastly- and this is purely for the fans- it doesn’t look anything like the much-loved TT! Not that it needs to, but for the over 600,000 people that bought one new, I’m sure there are many that would like to see a comeback.

Why don’t we go ahead and modify this Concept C into a tribute to the early generations of this late, lamented sports coupe?

More Of A Tom Selleck Mustache Now?

Two of the simplest changes I’ll make the biggest difference in my morphing of the Concept C into a new TT (or any Audi to be based on this new design).

First, I’ve increased the width of the narrow grille to be something more in line with Audis of around the turn of this century. Next, the way the rocker panels curve in at the bottom on the sides of the car? We’ll do the same thing at the front to break up the visual height of the front end, even though the baseline established by that horizontal “spoiler” hasn’t changed. Note that the rolled-in front end also tapers down to the base of the front wheel arch; that big unbroken vertical slab ahead of the wheels on the Concept C isn’t doing it any favors.

What’s a TT without a rounded, rather tall roof? I’ll add that first, and even push the rear axle back a bit. Also, a true-to-the-early-generation tribute needs the front and back to arc smoothly backwards instead of being nearly vertical and blunt. The curved profile is especially welcome at the leading edge of the front fenders. Here’s the animation:

Look! Windows! Glass windows! That picks up on the TT look but also allows in light, and the rear window makes a huge difference in reducing the visual weight of the car. I had to make the black bumper-area trim at the back of the car taller since those that were designing the short, wide license plate space seem to have ignored the plate size needed for us here in the land of Buc-ees; was the American tag just supposed to hang over the rear splitter?

I’ve also tried to incorporate side market lights into the clusters in a way that Tesla does to avoid the need to add extra lights on the fenders.

Here’s the animation of the changes:

Side view and side animation of the changes also show how the extra glass reduces some of the heaviness:

One last animation:

We’ve got something rather TT-like now, but what if you don’t want a small coupe? Indeed, I’d rather have something a bit larger, so let’s push and pull this thing into something more like a replacement for the current E-Tron sedan.

Quattro Doors And Cinco Seats

To make some more family-oriented versions of the Concept C, the length is increased for the back seat, and once again, that extra side glass dramatically lightens up the top. For this E-Tron, I tried something else to modify the shape and also pick up on those recessed areas the Concept C’s designers put adjacent to the grille. To echo these, I’ve scall0ped the sides of the car from the leading edge of the front door cut line. This further reduces the visual weight of the car, ties it into the nose detailing, and even seems to emulate a detail on the current E-Tron GT.

Would I purchase one of these now? Well, almost, but the need to carry prototypes for work and the person with whom I share a toothbrush holder will likely demand a “two-box” shaped vehicle. For that reason, I’ll make an “Avant” model that I’ll refer to as a “station wagon” since using words like “sports tourer” will do me no favors in convincing Certain People at home that this will make a great sub-five-second-to-sixty “family car”. I speak from experience. I’ve tried to disguise the fact that the backlight is relatively vertical since Costco paper towel multi-packs are tall.

One last one: you know how I said that a slow-selling R8-style product wouldn’t sell enough to justify the cost to build it? Well, it would certainly be nice to have, but I think we’d be better off making an upscale successor to the A5 since a two-seater anything will never be anything more than a low-volume and even money-losing “halo car.” I’d want to have an open version, so how about a two-door version of this E-Tron GT series with a retractable top? With four seats, Audi could gain a far bigger market share than the R8 ever could.

I kind of wonder if a black painted roof might be a good option:

We could go on with translating this look to lower-level A4s and A6s, but you get the idea. I think the overall aesthetic would be a welcome change from the current design language but still say “Audi” to buyers past and present.

As The Kids Say, We’re Audi 5000

The rather minor changes that I’ve made seem to drastically change the Concept C to something more conventionally acceptable, but that raises a far greater question. With those John Hughes-style movies from decades past, did the girl really need to change to match the public’s idea of beauty? In the same way, does Audi really need to adjust their vision to something that will appeal to more traditional buyers? From a marketing standpoint, I would say absolutely, but as a designer, I would have to admit that without guts, there is no glory.

Regardless of what you think, more than likely the Concept C is a pretty close representation of Audi’s new styling direction, so love it or loathe it, you’ll have to get used to it. My guess is that you probably will, and you’ll even learn to accept and appreciate it. Hey, I never thought I’d end up purchasing a Chris Bangle design and owning it for twelve years, but I did. Maybe anything is possible?