Find of the Day: Baseball-Stitched Seats Make This Audi TT a Home Run

There are plenty of reasons to love the original Audi TT. The Bauhaus-inspired styling still looks terrific more than 25 years later, the turbocharged engine offers plenty of punch, and quattro makes it a sports car you don’t necessarily have to park when the weather turns ugly. But this particular 2001 TT Roadster currently being auctioned on Cars & Bids has another reason to get excited, those glorious baseball-stitched seats.

Officially called Baseball Optic stitching, the interior treatment features thick contrasting stitching that looks like it came straight off a vintage baseball glove. Here it’s combined with Amber Red leather, which provides a spectacular contrast against the Silver Metallic exterior and black convertible top. It’s one of those wonderfully distinctive details that immediately transports you back to an era when Audi wasn’t afraid to get a little weird with interior design.

It’s More Than Just a Pretty Interior

Fortunately, the rest of the car is nearly as interesting. Under the hood is Audi’s familiar 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder producing 225 horsepower and 207 lb-ft of torque. Better still, it’s paired with a six-speed manual transmission and quattro all-wheel drive. The odometer currently shows about 81,300 miles, and the seller reports no notable modifications. Factory equipment also includes heated sport seats, a power-operated soft top, automatic climate control, and a Bose audio system.

There’s also evidence that this TT hasn’t simply spent the last quarter-century being ignored. The Carfax listed with the auction documents regular recent maintenance, while the seller says the timing belt, water pump, front tires, and front wheel bearings were replaced in 2025.

Of course, we’re talking about a 25-year-old Audi, so there are some issues. The listing notes various exterior blemishes and interior wear, an inoperative spoiler function, a missing mirror-adjustment knob, CD-player problems, and an engine tick under acceleration. Anyone seriously considering the car should investigate those items carefully.

Still, this is a wonderfully period-correct example of what made the original TT so special. It has the turbo engine, manual gearbox, quattro, open-air driving, and one of Audi’s coolest interiors. And since this is a no-reserve auction, somebody is taking it home. With those baseball seats, we’d say this TT is already a hit. Bidding ends on Friday, September 25.

View the Cars & Bids listing here.