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Tracing Audi’s history requires navigating a vast latticework of alliances and take-overs.
German entrepreneur August Horch helped create the automaker that bore his name but was pushed out by his business partners in 1909. He wasted no time in starting another car company. He couldn’t use his last name for legal reasons so he got creative. Horch literally translates to “listen!” in German; he named his new firm Audi, the Latin translation of the word.
Then, in an unexpected twist of fate, Audi merged with Horch, DKW, and Wanderer to form Auto-Union in 1932. Each company did its best to occupy a specific segment and avoid overlapping. This arrangement worked relatively well until the 1960s, when Volkswagen purchased a battered Auto-Union from Daimler-Benz and later added NSU to the fold. Audi came out on top when Wolfsburg began thinning its assets, but it came dangerously close to joining its peers in the pantheon of automotive history.
Still with us? Join us as we embark on a virtual visit of the Audi museum in Ingolstadt, Germany, to better understand the companies and the cars that helped turned Audi into a world-class luxury brand:
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Audi 18/70 PS (1925)
Presented in 1923, the 18/70 PS was the first Audi model equipped with a six-cylinder engine. The 4660cc straight-six generated 70hp, an impressive statistic at the time, and it was made of light alloy to keep weight in check. Big, powerful, and luxurious, the 18/70 PS was one of the most expensive cars available in Germany when it was new.
Audi made 228 examples of the car. Three examples (including the cutaway model in the Audi museum) and one chassis are accounted for in 2018.
1925 model pictured
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Wanderer W 10 (1925)
In 1925, Wanderer caught its rivals off-guard by releasing the W 10. It was a thoroughly modern car equipped with features like a dry-plate clutch and brakes on all four wheels. These advancements played a significant role in making the W 10 more user-friendly to drive on a daily basis. Wanderer updated the model with a 40hp, 1940cc four-cylinder engine in 1927.
The example displayed in the museum was purchased new by a doctor and driven daily until it joined Audi’s collection in 1996. Always garaged and religiously maintained, this one-owner W 10/II is entirely original with the exception of the front turn signals and the mirror behind the driver-side headlight.
1928 model pictured
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DKW F1 (1931)
DKW developed the F1 in about six weeks to expand its line-up towards the bottom. It was smaller and much cheaper than its other models and, significantly, it was front-wheel drive. Engineers saved time and money during the design phase by powering the F1 with a two-cylinder, two-stroke 494cc engine sourced from one of the company’s motorcycles. It made 15hp. Wood construction kept its weight down.
The F1 stood out as one of the cheapest new cars in Germany when it made its debut in 1931. DKW manufactured 4353 examples of the model until 1932. It was short-lived but it had a profound effect on the company’s line-up. Two-stroke technology and front-wheel drive became DKW staples until the brand stopped making cars in 1966.
1931 model pictured
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DKW Schwebeklasse (1934)
The DKW Schwebeklasse wore a surprisingly streamlined front-end design. This was a daring move by the styling studio; the engineering department took a more basic approach during the design phase. Also called 4=8, the Schwebeklasse received a two-stroke, 32hp V4 engine and a body made entirely out of wood. It nonetheless featured patented floating axle technology to offset body roll during cornering.
1936 model pictured
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Horch 853 Sport-Cabriolet (1935)
Audi keeps the most valuable models in its museum behind glass. This 1937 Horch 853 Sport-Cabriolet is one of the collection’s jewels. With a 100hp straight-eight engine, the 853 Sport-Cabriolet was among the most prestigious cars sold new in Germany in the late 1930s. This example is particularly well-equipped; it even features metallic paint. At the time, Horch achieved the effect by grinding fish scales and mixing them into the paint. No one remembers the type of fish the scales came from.
1937 model pictured
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Auto-Union Type C (1937)
Not content with winning grand prix races across Europe, Auto-Union commissioned a more aerodynamic variant of the Type C fitted with a highly streamlined body to see how fast it could go. Intrepid German pilot Bernd Rosemeyer set a land speed record by reaching 268mph on the autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt on 28 January 1938. He believed he could go faster in another run the same day, but he lost control of the car and died after getting ejected from the car.
The Type C pictured above is, consequently, a replica.
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Auto-Union Type C/D (1939)
Auto-Union built the Type C/D for hill-climb races. As its name implies, it was a combination of the 16-cylinder engine from the Type C and the chassis from the more recent Type D. Its specifications sheet still impresses by 2018 standards.
The mid-mounted, 6005cc V16 engine made 520hp, enough to send the Type C/D to a top speed of 155mph. Like other Silver Arrow race cars, the Type C/D was shipped to Russia after World War II. It didn’t return to Germany until 1995.
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DKW F 89 L (1949)
Auto-Union’s first post-World War II design wasn’t a sleek convertible or a luxurious limousine. It was a compact delivery van named DKW F 89 L. This choice made sense; commercial vehicles were in high demand as Germany rebuilt its cities and its economy after the war. Powered by a two-stroke engine, the F 89 was also the first Auto-Union car made in Ingolstadt, the Bavarian town Audi calls home.
1950 model pictured
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DKW F 89 P (1950)
The F 89 P was DKW’s first post-war passenger car. It was an evolution of the F9 prototype developed during World War II built on a modified version of chassis found under the F8. Its two-stroke, two-cylinder engine sent 23hp to the front wheels. DKW offered several variants of the F 89 including a coupe as well as two- and four-seater convertibles.
1951 model pictured
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Horch 830 BL (1953)
This one-of-a-kind 830 BL is the last Horch-badged car made. It was built in 1953 for Richard Bruhn, the head of the Auto-Union brand. It’s an imposing limousine with 92hp V8 engine and a glass partition between the front and rear seats.
In 1956, Auto-Union sold the 830 BL to an American soldier who shipped it to the US and, to the bewilderment of his fellow motorists, drove it daily. He nearly sent it to the junkyard when the gearbox broke but collector Al Wilson saved it and parked it on his property in the arid Texas desert. Wilson certainly didn’t brag about owning the 830 and historians lost track of it. Many feared that no one would ever see it again.
The 830’s future took an unexpected turn when Wilson’s kids contacted Audi’s archives department to inquire about the big, black limousine enigmatically parked in their dad’s yard. The company bought the 830 BL and shipped it to Germany after sending a team of experts to Texas to verify its authenticity. Audi told Autocar it’s not planning on restoring the car.
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Auto-Union 1000 S (1958)
The first Auto-Union-badged car of the post-war era arrived in 1957. Called 1000, it built upon the DKW 3=6 (itself an evolution of the F 89) with a bigger, more powerful three-cylinder engine and an updated design that brought it in line with the styling trends of the 1960s. The example displayed by Audi is a 1000 S model, which stood out from the 1000 with a 50hp engine and a wrap-around windshield.
1961 model pictured
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Auto-Union 1000 SP convertible (1961)
Auto-Union presented the 1000 SP coupe at the 1957 Frankfurt auto show and turned the model into a convertible in 1961. Both body styles wore a shockingly Ford Thunderbird-like design. This was a relatively common and accepted practice at the time; many other companies (including Volvo and DAF) sold models that liberally borrowed styling cues from the cars meandering across America.
German coachbuilder Baur manufactured 1000 SP bodies in Stuttgart and shipped them to Ingolstadt, where final assembly took place. Both variants backed up their sporty pretentions with a 980cc three-cylinder, two-stroke engine rated at 55hp.
Auto-Union made 1640 roadster models and 5000 coupes.
1965 model pictured
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DKW Junior (1959)
DKW designers again looked towards America as they drew the Junior. It loosely resembled a scaled-down version of Ford models made in the 1950s when viewed from the front. Out back, the tail fins were almost Cadillac-like in execution. The sheet metal hid a 741cc, three-cylinder two-stroke engine that delivered 34hp to the front wheels through a manual transmission.
Nearly 120,000 examples of the affordable Junior were made between 1959 and 1962. Production took place in a new purpose-built factory located in Ingolstadt. The facility has been comprehensively remodeled and is still part of Audi’s production network in 2018.
1960 model pictured
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DKW F 102 (1964)
DKW finally replaced the 1000 – a model which traced its roots to the F 39 – with the considerably more modern F 102. It brought the company into the 1960s with a contemporary design and unibody construction, features many of DKW’s rivals had already adopted. However, road-testers complained that the F 102 continued to use an outdated three-cylinder, two-stroke engine. It had a displacement of 1168cc and made 60hp, which was enough to let motorists take advantage of the German autobahn.
1965 model pictured
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NSU Ro 80 (1967)
NSU played a small but noteworthy role in forming Audi as we know it today. Though it’s remembered as a fiasco, the Ro 80 was lionized as one of the most advanced family cars when it made its official debut in 1967. It was NSU’s first front-wheel drive car, its design was far ahead of its time and it used a twin-rotor Wankel engine developed jointly with Citroën through a disastrous joint-venture named Comotor.
The Wankel engine was smooth but unreliable. NSU could have ironed out the kinks but it decided not to. The Ro 80 drank like a fish, a serious flaw in the wake of the first oil embargo, and the firm quickly found itself in dire financial straits as a result of a huge number of warranty claims from the Ro 80. Volkswagen purchased NSU in 1969 and later merged it with Auto-Union to create the Audi brand we know today.
1977 model pictured.
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Audi 100 (1968)
Audi remembers its engineers began working on the 100 in complete secrecy. The firm hadn’t received permission to design a new model from parent company Volkswagen so the 100’s existence remained undisclosed until the last minute. Volkswagen likely wouldn’t have approved its development because it merely wanted Audi’s production capacity to build more examples of the Beetle. Employees determined to keep the brand alive worked on the project after hours to fly under the radar.
When the 100 was ready, Audi invited Volkswagen to examine a basic mid-cycle styling update for an existing model. Executives were angry when they realized they had been misled; the 100 was all-new, not an update, and it was the work of a mutinous team who was essentially rebelling against the Beetle. The car spoke for itself, though. It was modern, light, quick and surprisingly efficient.
Management eventually cooled down and allowed Audi to make 100,000 examples of the car. 100 production ended in 1976 after nearly 830,000 examples were built.
1969 example pictured
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Audi 50 (1974)
In the early 1970s, NSU began working on a brand-new, front-wheel drive city car to replace the aging Prinz. Volkswagen gave the nearly-finished car to Audi after officials decided to mothball the NSU brand. Called 50, it was positioned as Audi’s entry-level model and it played a big role in helping the company survive the aftermath of the first oil crisis.
Volkswagen began making a badge-engineered variant of the 50 named Polo in 1975. It was cheaper and more popular than its Audi-badged variant; the writing was on the wall. The Polo survived after management decided Audi should focus on making bigger, more expensive vehicles and leave the economy car segment to Volkswagen. The Polo repaid its debt by lending its underpinnings to the original A1 in 2010, the small entry-level Audi sold in most markets apart from the US.
1977 model pictured.
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Audi Quattro (1980)
In 1977, road testers looked on puzzlingly as a Volkswagen Iltis – a bare-bones, Jeep-like off-roader – performed much better than considerably more powerful Audi passenger cars on a makeshift track in Scandinavia. Jörg Bensinger, one of the road testers, recounted his experience to Audi board member Ferdinand Piëch when he returned to Ingolstadt. Audi’s Quattro all-wheel drive system was born during their conversation.
To create the original Quattro, Audi installed a four-wheel drive system in a modified Coupe body and blasted 200hp through it. Power came from a sonorous five-cylinder engine. The Quattro stood out from the front-wheel drive coupe with bigger bumpers on both ends and punched out wheel arches, a styling cue that characterizes Audi models in 2018. The four-wheel drive system helped the Quattro become one of the most successful rally cars of all time during the 1980s.
1982 model pictured.
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Audi Sport Quattro (1983)
Though the Audi Sport Quattro looked a lot like the standard Quattro, the similarities were few and far between. Audi produced the Sport Quattro purely for homologation reasons. Its body was made with composite materials and it received a 306hp five-cylinder engine that made it the most powerful series-produced German car of its era – it packed more power than even the mighty Porsche 911 Turbo.
German coachbuilder Baur made 214 examples of the Sport Quattro for Audi between 1983 and 1984. The example in Audi’s museum is the first one built.
1984 model pictured
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Audi Space Frame concept (1993)
Audi turned every head at the 1993 Frankfurt auto show with the Space Frame concept, which previewed a new range-topping luxury car in the vein of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and the BMW 7 Series. While the Frankfurt show car – finished in polish aluminum – used a V8 TDI diesel engine, the dark red model displayed in Audi’s museum was unveiled at the 1993 Tokyo show with a 354 hp W12 engine. Both variants sat on a ground-breaking aluminum chassis in a bid to offset the weight added by the Quattro permanent four-wheel drive system.
The Space Frame concept reached production as the first-generation A8. It made its debut at the 1994 Geneva auto show. The fourth generation A8 went on sale in 2017.
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