1998 Name Audi TT

By naming this model "TT", Audi pays its respects to a motor sport event that has become a legend. "TT" stands for the spectacular car and motorcycle race held for the first time in 1905 on the Isle of Man ­ the "Tourist Trophy".
The history of the Tourist Trophy began at the very start of this century. At that time Gordon Bennett, the heir to a New York newspaper empire, donated a trophy as a means of comparing the performance of the American and European automobile industries’ products. The first Gordon Bennett race was held in 1900, on a 352-mile course from Paris to Lyon in France; in 1902 the race was run from Paris to Innsbruck in Austria, and in 1903 moved to Ireland.
It was planned to hold the 1904 event in England, but the ban on road races had not yet been lifted, and so the Automobile Club of Great Britain decided to switch the venue to the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea. The Gordon Bennett race took place there for the first time on May 10th, 1904.
A year later, in 1905, the first two Tourist Trophy races were held, one in May for motorcycles and one in September for cars. The only cars permitted to take part at first were tourers, with no limit on engine size or power output.
The Tourist Trophy remained on the Isle of Man until 1922, after which events were held in Ards, Donington, Dundrod, Silverstone and on other circuits. However, it was the sheer difficulty of the Isle of Man road circuit and the notable personalities from automobile history who took part ­ the race was won in 1906 by C. S. Rolls driving his own Rolls Royce ­ that soon made the Tourist Trophy the motor-sport legend that it is today.
There are earlier links between Audi and the Tourist Trophy. Ever since 1911, NSU riders contested the motorcycle events, with frequent success. To commemorate this, a sports version of the popular NSU Prinz compact car was named the TT in 1967. The TT was built at the Neckarsulm plant, which today manufactures the Audi A6 and Audi A8.
Developed from the standard TT model for competition use, the NSU TTS had a 1000 cc engine with a power output of up to 85 bhp, and played a leading part in its class on the motor-sport scene. In 1967 it won the Tour d’Europe, at the time the world’s longest rally.