The Audi Guide
German sport luxury brand Audi has played a robust role in helping to shape consumer tastes and influence the complete ECU touring market. For virtually one hundred years, the Audi brand has been associated with producing high quality, reliable, and well engineered vehicles. An odd start almost scuttled the company’s plans, yet today Audi has risen above difficulty and is producing cars that are world renowned in quality and engineering.
August Horch set up Horch Automotive in Cologne, Germany in 1899, and commenced producing vehicles in 1901 which featured a horizontal engine manufacturing upwards of five hp. Requirement for these models propelled Horch to grow production and move to a larger manufacturing facility where a newer, stronger model pumping out a then-amazing ten hp was released.
By 1910, Horch himself was booted out of the company that sported his name so he set up shop elsewhere and started to sell autos under the Audi moniker. Originally, Horch tried to use his family name, but German courts ruled against him so the Audi name was selected instead. In German, Horch means “hark” and the word “audi” is the Latin interpretation of horch/hark. So, although he could legally no longer use his folks name, the Latinized version of the same won out. Guess which name is known today?
In between a pair of devastating world wars, the modern Audi company began to take shape. Indeed, the “four rings” logo of the company represents the union of 4 distinct German automotive manufacturers under the auspices of Audi. Yes, you guessed it: the Horch company that originally booted Mr. Horch was soaked up by Audi and makes up one of the four rings. August Horch lived to see that big day, but he also witnessed the dismantling of the company following the end of the second world war.
Reparations was the rallying cry when World War Two stopped, thus thus the Soviet Union who was occupying the eastern portion of Germany during the postwar era, appropriated the company, took all of its assets, and by August 1948 the company no longer existed. One year later thanks to state loans and Marshall plan assistance, a resurrected Audi was back on the scene producing a delivery truck and a bike. Continuing expansion across the 1950s highlighted by Daimler’s acquisition of the company in 1958 fueled further enlargement. In 1964, the Volkswagen group purchased Audi from Daimler and to this day Audi remains a big part of the Volkswagen establishment.
By the late 1960s, Audi commenced what many think of as its historic run to the New models were developed many of which were also marketed as Volkswagen models for that era. In 1980, Audi shook the automobile world to its foundation when it released its Quattro sports automobile, a vehicle with full time all wheel drive and a turbocharged engine. Instantly, the Quattro propelled the Audi name to the top of the race auto world when the car world when the auto started to win race upon race. Definitely , the Quattro was such a runaway hit that the model was forbidden from some races for having an “unfair” technological advantage.
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, Audi began to produce extra models including its first premium model, the Audi V8 in 1988. Carrying a 3.6L 32-valve V8 engine, the Audi V8 featured full time all wheel drive and a four speed electronically controlled automatic transmission. This particular model was a massive exit from earlier Audis and set the brand on a collision course with Mercedes and BMW, Germany’s two other luxury brands in a bid for car supremacy.
Today, Audi continues to grow and compete against all of the top luxury brands in the world. New technology including its Audi Space Frame all-aluminum body - famous for its rigidity and improved crashworthiness - are among the highlights of a brand that doesn’t settle for second best. From sedans to sport coupes to an all new SUV, Audi has a model that competes against the likes of Lexus, Mercedes, Cadillac, Infiniti, and BMW its chief rivals.
That “hark” sound you hear is both the name of a company and the awareness the brand merits in a sea of able premium models produced by Germany’s esteemed Volkswagen Group. Yes, Audi has weathered several hurricanes and the company appears poised to resume its thrust forward thanks to its many innovations and continued high quality.
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