I took delivery of my Brilliant Black/Ebony Quattro on Friday, November 3, 1999.  My business partner had picked up his new Corvette the night before and he drove me to get my TTQ.  We decided on the way to get my car that it was going to be a night of driving!

We got my car and we drove up and down I91.  The dealer told me that the car did not have a break-in period, and I took him at his word!  I drove the car for all it was worth.  We had a great night playing follow-the-leader.  I was able to slowly drift back from the Vette as he pulled away.  I wanted his kind of acceleration, and I knew that upgrades were in my future.

I have always taken a car to its limits, so I would know how far I could push it.  The TTQ was no exception.  One rainy night in a parking lot, I decided to see how well the car handled.  I basically autocrossed around the parking lot, trying to get the back end to kick-out and spin the car.  I kept going deeper and deeper into each corner and turning more sharply each time.  I even hit the brakes a few times and was not able to get the car to spin.  I was sold on the handling and even thought . . .’when does the auto-x season begin?’  I wanted to get this car out on the track.

I discovered a few different websites on the Internet for the TT, and began doing some research to see what was available for the car.  I knew that I wanted more power and even better handling.  The car was too high off the ground, and felt a little underpowered in acceleration from a dead stop.  I was happy with the top-end speed as I had the car up to 128mph on one fast speed run.  I was driving 120 mph on a consistent basis, and was extremely pleased with the stability of the car at these speeds.  I was even beginning to do some high-speed stability tests after I started to read about the problems that German TT owners were having.  I was able to panic stop from 120 mph to 60 mph in a controlled manner, without the rear end breaking loose or the ABS kicking in.  I know this sounds crazy, but I wanted to know for myself whether this car was safe or not.

I knew my original upgrades were going to be a chip, springs and an exhaust.  The chip and exhaust, I feel, should go hand-in-hand.  I had never driven a "chipped" car before, nor had I owned a turbo before.  I had a lot to learn in a short period of time, and the Internet is a great place to do it.