TT-West Experience from Tod and Betty Philips – 2013 TTS

As a member of ACNA and also ACLS, I enjoy the opportunity to share the love of driving — and especially driving Audis — with others who are of the same mindset. Beyond just the Audi brand, there are clubs around the country that focus on individual models within the brand, the TT-West and TT-East groups being a couple examples. And recently my wife and I experienced the fun of joining up and doing a rally of sorts with the TT-West group this fall with 15 other TT owners.

Based in Las Vegas, NV, the TT-West group has been doing an annual fall GTG and 5-day driving rally for the past 15 years at various locations in the western part of the U.S. This was our first year to join the group, and our trip with the group started in Laramie, WY, and took us over Snowy Ridge (which lived up to its name!), through Casper, WY, into Deadwood, SD, and ended up in Custer, SD. Along the way we enjoyed wide open highway travel (without posted limits) as well as challenging twisties and tight, high RPM road courses. Non-driving experiences included visits to Devil’s Tower, Wind Caves Caverns, Crazy Horse Monument, and Mt. Rushmore. Driving experiences included various awesome roads — the best of which included Spearfish Canyon and Route 16A, better known as “Iron Mountain Road.” See http://www.ironmountainroad.com/ and put it on your bucket list! And the opportunity to meet people who become new friends with a shared love of the brand is the icing on the cake!


Overall including the trip up and back, we spent 11 days in our TTS and put 3700 miles on the car without a glitch. And we’d do it again tomorrow if we got the chance. My suggestion is that if you haven’t experienced just how your car performs in extreme real world conditions, you are missing out on the dimensions for which your car was designed. The photos are for your vicarious enjoyment.