Classic Cars
From Germany
AUDI AG
The chronology of mergers, name changes, ownership and takeovers
is difficult to follow but working backwards, it becomes clearer -
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References
1985 - Audi NSU Auto Union AG name changed to Audi AG
(*3)
1969 - Auto Union GmbH and NSU merged to become Audi NSU Auto Union AG
December 1964 to date - owned by the Volkswagen Group (*1)
1958 to 1964 - owned by Daimler Benz
(*2)
1932 - Audi, Horch, Wanderer and DKW merged to became Auto Union GmbH
(*3)
NSU began life making knitting machines; DKW began with steam engine cars:
Horch lost the trademark to his own name and formed Audi; Horch (the company)
was taken over by Dr Moritz Strauss, who signed Paul Daimler (son of Gottleib2)
as a designer, and set about making their eight-cylinder engines synonymous with
reliability and luxury (*4).
From the NSU stable, the Type 56 or Spider deserves to be ranked as a classic if at least for the
fact that it was the first car to use the revolutionary Wankel rotary engine
which at the time, developed 96hp at an amazing 12,000 rpm from the equivalent
of a 500cc engine. It also had incredible successes in hill climb and rally
championships during its 3 years from 1964 to 1967. There were only 2,375
produced and very few exist today.
The Audi 100 was produced between 1968 and 1976 with 827,474 sedan and coupe and
with only a 1.8L and 1.9L. Referred to as the C1, the range continued as the C2,
C3, C4 all the way through to 1994. In total, the four classes sold over
2 million cars. In shortest supply and arguably most classic lines was the
Audi 100 Coupe S with the larger engine.
1,103,766 units of the Audi 80 (B1) were produced between 1972 and 1978, and
1,680,146 of the B2 between 1978 and 1986. This 1978 model of the 80 L
might show why the car was so popular. It was not an expensive car but provided
comfort and interior decor matching competitors' more expensive models, a trend
which in my opinion, continues today.
Audi was a late comer to the car market beginning in all seriousness, only after
the Volkswagen takeover in 1964. Combine that with the facts that the 100 and 80
series sold so many cars, and Volkswagen had to protect its own emerging
non-Beetle market, we may have an explanation why there may not be many genuine
classics with the Audi name.
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*1 - Wikipedia
*2 -
The Atlantic Times
*3 -
Serious Wheels
*4 -
Forum Audi World
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