| Models Racing Special | 
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| Models Racing Special |
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There is possibly no other car company in Germany whose history is as tricky as Audi's.
But it is not really that difficult:
Audi soon gained a reputation with its "Alpensieger" (meaning Winner in the Alps). These sportive cars were not only called this way. They truly lived up to their name. Even if Horch started out with little cars, today Horch is best-known for its huge straight eight-cylinders, giving ample power to elegant luxury cars. 1932, the fusion was a deep cut. Within three years, the program was completely restructured, resulting in a better use of resources (yes, even back then!), but still leaving the character of the different companys exist. That way, Horch established its role in the luxury market, while DKW became famous for its motorcycles. The most widely known "product", however, are for sure the "Silberpfeile" (meaning Silver Arrows). Powered by supercharged V16s they fought hard battles with the Mercedes Silberpfeilen.
In 1964/65 VW already owned 50,3 % of Auto Union. Under the management of VW, a four-stroke engine, developped at Mercedes during the short period Auto Union belonged to Mercedes was built into the DKW F 102. Its name: Audi, with no other extensions yet. The reason for this step was that the old two-stroke engines just didn't sell any longer. In the transition time until the Audi was introduced to the market, the VW Käfer (aka the Beetle) saved Audi, as it was partially built in Ingolstadt. Since 1966 Audi is a 100% daughter of VW. In 1969 NSU came to Auto Union. NSU is most widely known for its motorcycles, the Prinz (meaning Prince) and the misfortuned rotary engines, called Wankelmotor.
NSU had also developped a four door sedan without the rotary engine. As K70 it came to the VW line of products. Its fast end was caused by
VW said the reason was the high fuel consumption, well, you could have used another engine, but VW was at that time too fixed on air-cooled rear engines. Later, that should nearly break VW's neck. But this and much more you'll be able to read on this homepage: |
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