Audi Goes Hardcore With Lightweight TT Ultra Quattro Concept - Should Porsche Be Worried?

...considering they are part of the same corporation?

No.

Is this the original s4cabriofoxone circa 2007?

Haha, good one s4cabrio... BTW, isn't the theme "should XXX be worried/scared" getting old?

Another concept from Audi that will never make it to production and never make a difference. Move along nothing to see here, move along.

well considering everything the article said they did to the car to make it lighter would also end up making it cost roughly a gajillion dollars, my guess would be "no". This is more likely just a study in lightweight engineering than anything Audi would actually build, as the market for a $100k TT is probably pretty limited. But they could certainly apply the same principles to other cars.

Nope! As Ultra as it may be, the TT is still based on a FWD platform.

The Audi TT Ultra Quattro’s 1,111 kg is 389kg (858 lb) lighter than the TT RS. Audi indicates the TT Ultra Quattro will be slightly faster than the dual-clutch transmission versions of the TT RS and R8 V8. The TT Ultra Quattro should have better driving dynamics and be faster on the Nurburgring track than the current TT RS.
http://tinyurl.com/cg3wskx

Several German and other European car magazines reported Audi’s hint of a possible limited edition production run of the TT Ultra Quattro. It would be good publicity to send-off for the current edition TT before the next gen TT arrives in 2014. Anything remains possible at this stage. Despite the cost, Audi will have no problems selling a limited edition of 200 TT Ultra Quattro at $110,000 each to buyers around the world. BMW sold all 250 limited edition M3 GTS starting at about $150,000 within a few months.
http://tinyurl.com/c33debn

Audi will likely incorporate lessons learned from the weight savings of the TT Ultra Quattro concept into future generations of Audi’s cars, particularly the high-performance S and RS models. By early 2009, Audi had already begun testing a light weight 2015 S5 (in March 2009, Car and Driver mag interviewed Michael Dick, Audi's global head of product engineering, who revealed that Audi “is currently testing a prototype of the next-generation S5 that weighs 880 pounds less than the current car. He outlined the ongoing increase in the use of aluminum, magnesium, and high-strength steel as a main reason behind the mass reduction.”). Given this, it’s likely that the TT Ultra Quattro is probably a prototype of the next generation 2014 (Mk 3) TTS that has been tested for several years.
http://tinyurl.com/create.php

BMW and MB should be worried, not Porsche. Audi’s next generation products are likely to keep raising the bar and changing the game.

Unlike BMW, Porsche is a dominant performer in most of its sports car niches. No other sports car company has so many products (26, mostly standard models) that have cracked the 8-minute barrier on the Nurburgring track (in comparison, BMW has only one standard model that managed to achieve this benchmark). Given Porsche’s core competence in two-door sports cars, it likely will be able to eventually raise the bar on whatever Audi achieves. For now, the Ultra Quattro – if produced – will be another version of the TT Mk2 that Porsche has been dealing with since 2006.
http://fastestlaps.com/tracks/nordschleife.html

In any case, Porsche – given it is a key part of the Volkswagen group – is unworried by any products made by Audi or any other part of the Volkswagen Group. Porsche has probably seen the TT Ultra Quattro for months, and no doubt has its own similar light weight Porsche protoyypes using similar technologies shares within the VW group. Furthermore, Porsche – if it eventually diversifies further into four door cars beyond the Panamera – will gain more from the big car competencies in VW subsidiaries such

Furthermore, Porsche – if it eventually diversifies further into four door cars beyond the Panamera – will gain more from the big car competencies in VW subsidiaries such as Audi and Bentley.

Audi’s RS7 and S7 might have greater impact on Porsche’s Panamera sales than the limited edition TT Ultra Quattro might have on Porsche’s Boxer, Cayman or 911 sales. I expect the forthcoming RS7 to displace the Porsche Panamera Turbo S as the fastest four-door production car on the Nurburgring. The lighter RS7 should be as or more outstanding than the test drive of the RS6 Avant described in this article (the writer Matt Davis is also the co-founder and co-chairman of the World Car Awards).
http://tinyurl.com/c29o83l

The next gen TT RS and forthcoming RS7 will likely join several standard Audi models (RS4, RS5 and R8 V10) to crack the 8 minute barrier at Nurburgring.

Despite being RWD platform, only one standard BMW model managed to crack the 8 minute mark at Nurburgring -- finally in 2010, a standard M5 usuing a BMW test driver managed to do it after many hundreds of failed attempts by standard BMW cars over the years (but the driver of the M5 was a BMW test driver, it was not an independent run by a car media test driver. No independent driver has managed to drive any standard BMW model in under 8 minutes).

Here’s view of an independent car media driver easily cracking the 8 minute barrier on the Nurburgring with an Audi R8 V10 Plus on a cold Spring day with some snow still on the grass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2C0GNavG4U