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Ken Gratton14 Sept 2014
NEWS

Audi's sundered heritage

Ingolstadt museum 'ring-fences' very earliest examples of Audi and Auto Union models
Audi has a great and glorious history behind it. But it's not an unbroken history, as motoring.com.au learned from a visit to the company's museum at the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt, Germany. 
Our guide for the tour was a personable bloke named Chris, a font of knowledge dispensing views with fearless candour. It was Chris who explained that the story of Audi is punctuated with some dramatic twists and turns. 
It's well known that company founder August Horch was pushed out of his eponymous company, Horch AG, before founding Audi in the very early years of the 20th Century, and it's also well known that Audi was one of the four 'rings' of the Auto Union group. What's often overlooked is that the original Audi effectively ceased to be at the end of the Second World War, and that the Audi of the modern era owes more to DKW than to either Horch the man, or the company he built from scratch before the First World War.
While it's simply not as grandiose as the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, and there are fewer exhibits, Audi's museum shares this much with the Stuttgart facility: each floor represents a different era of history. 
Starting at the top and working our way down, we arrived at an early car developed and built by August Horch – a twin-cylinder 10hp model with an engine based around an aluminium crankcase. This vehicle was one of just 40 built in 1903 and was one of the first fruits of Horch's fertile engineering mind after he fell out with Karl Benz – at that time yet to join forces with Gottlieb Daimler or build the first Mercedes. 
The 1903 Horch (picture 2 in gallery) ran on rubber tyres (ie: solid rubber, not pneumatic) fitted to wooden artillery wheels and was capable of a 50km/h top speed. It followed what was already a 'modern' design paradigm – front-engined, with a driveshaft taking torque to the rear axle. While it was common practice at the time, it seems strange now to note that the Horch was right-hand drive – despite Germans driving on the right side of the road even then. According to tour guide Chris, many European cars of the time were right-hand drive, simply so the driver could see how close the car was to the shoulder of the poorly maintained roads of the time. Overtaking, when top speed was just 50km/h, was not a major factor in deciding where the wheel should be located. 
Horch – "not much of a businessman," in Chris's words – was fired by his own incorporated company (Horch AG) in 1909, but continued to reside in the same town, Zwickau, where he established a new company named Audi. It's common knowledge that Horch adopted the Latin form of his surname (which translates into English as 'hark' or 'listen') for the new company name. The Audi name is linguistically associated with common words in English such as 'audible', 'audit' and 'audience'. 
Horch's first Audi – the Type A – was built in 1910. All Audis in those years prior to the First World War and the Great Depression were hand-built in tiny numbers. Horch remained an adherent to this labour-intensive manufacturing philosophy when prestige rivals were all embarking on a mass production business model. It was to be his undoing. 
The next car in the collection was the Type C of 1913 (picture 1 in gallery). It rode on pneumatic tyres and steel (wire) wheels. Powered by a 3.5-litre four-cylinder engine, the Type C developed 35hp and could run at up to 80km/h. A modified 40hp version won a long-distance rally from Vienna to Trieste and return. 
Until 1923, when the first German service station was established in Hamburg, early motorists were forced to obtain petrol ('Benzin') through pharmacies. Horch's first company – still bearing his name despite the board of management pushing him out of the business – was building up a reputation as a manufacturer of quality cars. 
Once service stations began to proliferate throughout Germany it was clear that petrol-engined cars were here for the long haul. Easier procurement of petrol seemed to lead on to bigger, thirstier and more prestigious models, just as a matter of course. Audi introduced its first six-cylinder car – the Type M – just two years after the Hamburg service station opened, in 1925. Displacing 4.7 litres, the engine produced 70hp and was left-hand drive – reflecting the compelling argument the driver should be located on the side of the car providing the best view of the road ahead... now that overtaking was made easier by having 60 more horses under the bonnet. 
Priced at 22,000 Reichmarks, the Type M matched the Rolls-Royce Phantom of the time. Just over 220 were built. An example resides in the museum, but has been cut away to reveal the engine and wooden bodywork underneath (pictures 3 and 4 in gallery). 
Audi's Emperor of 1927 (picture 6) was even more exclusive; just 150 units of the inline eight-cylinder car were built and sold. By 1927, all German cars had adopted left-hand drive, but Audi had been one of the pioneers, with its Type K of 1921. Horch – the car company, not the man – was also at the forefront of vehicle development during this period. Already perceived to be a prestige brand of world class standing, Horch introduced four-wheel brakes, semaphore indicators and a brake light in the 1930s. These features were far from universal at the time. 
The museum is home to a number of motorcycles from Wanderer (pics 13-15) and cars designed and built by DKW ('Damp-Kraft-Wagen' – 'Steam Car'). August Horch's commitment to low-volume production had left Audi in serious financial difficulty in 1927, but Jørgen Rasmussen of DKW acquired shares in the company just a year before the sharemarket crash that resulted in the Great Depression. 
As part of the deal with Audi, Rasmussen insisted the car manufacturer was not to build any further six- or eight-cylinder cars. Only four-cylinder Audis were produced during the years 1928 to 1932. 
During that same period, DKW also entered the car business, building its first model – with rear-wheel drive and a two-stroke engine developed for its motorcycles – in 1928. The company's first front-wheel drive car followed in 1932. 
At the time an unrelated company, Wanderer built its first car – a six-cylinder – in 1929. It was unfortunate timing for the fledgling car builder. Practically overnight, the 1929 sharemarket crash wiped out most of the German car manufacturers, with just 16 remaining viable. Of those 16, four banded together to form Auto Union. These four were Horch, Audi, DKW and Wanderer. The four firms were ably assisted by the Bank of Saxony, which insisted they merge, but allowed the four companies to remain separate brands operating under the aegis of the Auto Union banner. 
In the aftermath of the Great Depression – and the rise of Nazism in Germany – GM subsidiary Opel was the top-selling brand, with Auto Union following in second place and Ford rounding out the top three. 
Audi's first front-wheel drive car was launched in 1933. Unlike the Issigonis transverse mounting nearly 30 years later, Audi engineers stayed with longitudinal mounting ('north/south') and simply turned the engine through 180 degrees with the transmission now located at the very front of the car. 
During the years leading up to the Second World War, the German government encouraged car companies to take part in international motor racing. Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz quickly became fierce rivals in Grand Prix racing. The museum accommodates two Auto Union GP cars from the period. One is a V16 in hillclimb configuration with dual rear wheels for added traction (picture 5). The engine, displacing 6.0 litres, drove to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission. This particular car had been souvenired by the Russians at the end of the war in 1945. It was recovered from Riga in Latvia during the 1990s. 
The other 1930s vintage race car on display at the museum is a one-off hybrid of Type C and Type D models with a twin-supercharged V12 engine (picture 8). Peak power for this vehicle was rated at 485hp and a top speed of 330km/h at the Nurburgring. Driver Bernd Rosemeyer successfully reached a speed of 442km/h in the car during a land speed record attempt, but died in a crash on the return leg. 
Auto Union's last official GP race was held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1939 – the same month the war broke out. 
A 1939 Audi 920 – with a six-cylinder engine – is one of the quiet achievers on display in the museum (picture 19). Originally purchased in the northern hemisphere summer of 1939 – just months before the war, the black sedan remained in the same family up until 1990. It retains its original paint job, engine and interior. The family that owned the car drove it sparingly for a long time, worried that it would draw the wrong sort of attention during years when luxuries were hard to come by. 
On display in the museum are two military motorcycles (picture 21) and the V8-powered Horch 901 Kommand Car (picture 22), developed for the German army (the Wehrmacht). 
After the war three of the four companies that constituted Auto Union remained in East Germany. Only DKW's staff and management had the foresight to up stakes and "get the hell out of Saxony," as tour guide Chris put it. The company's workforce and management voted in favour of the move on May 9, 1945, the day after the war in Europe ended. By December 1945 the company had moved en masse to its present location of Ingolstadt. 
This was the point where the four-company legacy ended. While the Auto Union badges remained affixed to new DKW models, there was no longer a direct link back to Horch, Audi or Wanderer as disparate business entities and brands.
With assistance from the State Bank of Bavaria, DKW occupied former military barracks and other facilities. The company recommenced operations by manufacturing and supplying parts for pre-war DKW models. Before long the company was back in the business of designing and assembling new cars, starting with the F89 van, which was powered by a two-stroke two-cylinder generating 20hp. This vehicle remained in production until 1962. 
DKW continued building cars into the mid 1960s, at which time Mercedes-Benz sold its DKW shares, and Volkswagen acquired its controlling interest in the company. This was the second break with the company's past. 
DKW ceased to trade under the brand, instead adopting the old name of Audi in 1965 for the first new model – the Audi 72 (picture 28) – under Volkswagen's control. The last two-stroke car from the factory was the DKW F102 of 1964. There's a pristine teal example in the museum  (picture 29). 
Unable to convince Volkswagen it should build a larger car, Audi went its own way and built the first 100 model anyway (picture 31). Despite its initial proscription, Volkswagen came to welcome the new car, which became a design paradigm for the smaller Audi 80 and 50 models in the post-oil crisis period of the early 1970s. 
In the late 1960s, Volkswagen also acquired NSU – a company known for its radical Ro80 sedan (picture 30), with a Wankel rotary engine driving to the front wheels. NSU, a company unrelated to the old Auto Union concern, was folded in with Audi and the Ro80 became a prototype of sorts for future Audi 100 models, and particularly the trend-setting aerodynamic design from the early 1980s (picture 36). During the 1970s, once Volkswagen had made the transition from air-cooled rear-engined cars to water-cooled front-engined machines, there were closer synergies between the products of the two companies, further severing ties with the past. 
And Audi's brand image changed forever following the introduction of the rally-winning Quattro with its all-wheel drive and turbocharged five-cylinder engine. Developed during a transitional period as the Audi 100 moved from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive, the Quattro incorporated both front and rear drivetrain components from old and new models. 
As the car that ended the seemingly unstoppable dominance of Ford's Escort in international rallying, the Quattro (with an upper-case 'Q') drove the rush to forced induction and all-wheel drive, culminating in the notorious Group B rally cars of the mid 1980s. A short-wheelbase Quattro Sport, finished in red (picture 35), is on display in the museum, alongside a standard Quattro in metallic brown (picture 34). 
After pioneering the use of galvanised steel in 1986, Audi subsequently branched out into aluminium construction, with the first A8 of 1993 (picture 37) presented at the Tokyo motor show that year. Finished in 'Emperor Red', the show car on display in the museum features a silk interior and a third power bulge in the bonnet – a tell-tale for the V12 engine fitted to the car. 
Among all the production cars and rarities at the museum, including the beautiful Horch 853 owned by Oskar Schindler, there are also several competition cars present; cars like Michelle Mouton's Quattro, for instance, or the 90 quattro IMSA GTO shared by Hans Stuck Jr and Walter Rörhl. 
The Museum is a compact facility – and visitors can take in the sights within an hour, but can also dwell longer if desired. It's well worth seeing for its significant collection of Audis – with a shop selling merchandise on the ground floor as well. So next time you're planning a visit to Germany, don't leave Ingolstadt off the itinerary. 
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Written byKen Gratton
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