What kind of car do you drive?

My everyday companion on the road is a 2.5-year-old Q7, but for business purposes, I sometimes sit behind the wheel of my VW Caddy. Alongside them, I am looking forward to driving a 2004 3.2-liter Glacier Blue Audi TT Coupé, a 2000 1.8-liter turbo Lake Silver TT Roadster and a 2000 black S8.

In the film, you are driving a first-generation blue TT. Why did you choose this model?

I think everyone has that moment in their life when they can realize a long cherished dream. When I was in college, my best friend and I used to dream about what kind of car we were going to buy. This period lasted from 1996 to 2001, coinciding with the time marking the beginning of TT production. Needless to say, we instantly fell in love with it. Then, between 2005 and 2006, I worked as an Audi Product Manager at Porsche Hungaria, preparing the list of specifications for all the cars ordered in Hungary. I was in charge of pricing them with the pricing team, placing orders for them and managing the Hungarian importer stocks. In 2005, as part of my employee onboarding training, I had the opportunity to learn more about the history of the Audi brand, the models and of course, the TT at the Audi factory in Ingolstadt. That day, I got to test drive a 3.2 manual TT Roadster and needless to say, that fantastic experience burned into my memory and I stored it deep inside. My first weekend car was a six-cylinder VW Corrado VR6 in 2008, which I enjoyed driving until 2013, when with the passage of time, I was faced with the dilemma of selling it or taking it apart and having it restored. In the end, I decided to sell it. It did not take long for my college dream to surface: I started consciously searching for my dream car, which for me was a four-wheel drive, 3.2 DSG Coupé. As there were no used Audi TTs for sale in Hungary at the time, I started looking in Germany. After three quarters of a year, I found the perfect one: a 3.2-liter, naturally aspirated, accident-free TT in immaculate condition, with a DSG gearbox and a clean vehicle history report, which the previous owner, a notary, had loved to bits. She kept it in her garage, cleaned only in the hand car wash, and even took it to the dealership for the most recent bulb change.

That is how ‘MOU’ came into our family. As Gréti got older, she grew to love cars and TT meetings, not least for the community behind the cars. Since my partner Emi, Gréti and I cannot fit in the Coupé at the same time, a TT Roadster has joined our fleet, so the three of us can go to TT meetings together. Now, in the two TTs, the 3 of us fit more comfortably, and Gréti does not kick the front seat either, laughs Csaba.

You referred to the car as ‘MOU’. Is that its nickname?

It got this name in the TT club because of its number plate. In the past, when we used to have beauty contests at the TT meetings, ‘MOU’ was always the winner in the most original car category. That is why people started to use this nickname for my car, which, by the way, I call ‘BeasTT’ (named after ‘The Beast’). Of my other two cars, the Lake Silver Roadster is named ‘BeauTTy’ (after ‘The Beauty’) and the S8 ‘DeStroyer’, after the Star Destroyer from Star Wars.

What do you like most about ‘MOU’/‘BeasTT’?

Perhaps the combination of strength and design, in short.

Have the cars become part of your family over time?

All three have their own garages, and I take them to the hand car wash. So yes, I think they are part of the family. I am also known in the club for my obsessive love and care of cars. When I sit in them, I indeed use them as cars. To give you an example: for the film shoot in Győr, my partner drove ahead of us in a separate car, slower than usual, to catch the bugs. On the way back, however, we came at a fast pace, taking advantage of the TT’s capabilities and the road conditions.

Your daughter, Gréti also accompanied you to the shoot. Has she grown into this love of TTs? What does she think about cars?

When I bought my first-generation TT Coupé – although I always wanted to have a child, Gréti was not yet born – I knew I wanted a car that I could give to my child as an oldtimer with an OT number plate when she grew up. Gréti, who turned 6 in the meantime, knows this, and she loves to go fast, to speed up. By the way, my partner is also a genuine brand enthusiast. She works as an Audi trainer at Porsche Hungaria, so she drives a company Audi every day.

Finally, tell us a story about a special experience you had with your car!

I would jump straight back to the purchase of the car, when my neighbor and I went to Germany to buy it with a then company VW Passat. He had an Audi A4 at that time, so he even told me that the Passat was very similar to his, and he would drive it home, so that I could drive my new car back. I suggested instead that we should stop several times on the 1,200 km road trip, swap cars, get new stimuli and pass the time better. After 6-700 km, having changed cars for the second time, Balázs turned to me: “Hey, Csabi, I am sorry, I did not mean to say it, but I did not understand why you bought this car. I did not feel how much power it had. Then after the last change, when I was behind, I noticed the letter ‘S’ on the gearbox, so I just pulled it in. And then came the fireworks. I had to hold on.” Well, that is when he understood why I wanted this car.