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Scale
Audi car models.
Audi car model kits featuring some of your favorites.
In 1886, a man with the name Dr. August Horch, decided to start his own car company. The Horch & Co. was soon formalized in 1899.
Dr. Horch wanted to make cars with high performance precision engineering.
However, he soon parted the company because he disagreed with the shareholders plans.
He went on to try and start a new company with the same name, Horch & Co., but when legal issues came up about this attempt, he chose to start a company with a different name.
More or less.
A son of one of his friends, who was studying latin at the time, suggested "Audi", the latin translation for Horch (a German word that means "Listen").
By 1910 Audi was off to a start with their first car, the all new "Type A". This car was already on the right path and was revered for it's smooth and quiet running engine.
Another first was Audi using a driveshaft - while many vehicles of the day were still using a chain drive.
The Type A had a 2.6 inline four, and was produced till 1912. Audi had also began making a new model, the Type B, D and others as the years went by.
The Type A's and B's could do 45 MPH. Remember these were not like a 4-cylinder engine you think of today. Such as a small 1.8 Litre engine you would see in a compact car.
The 1912 Type D models alone had a four cylinder engine that was 4.7 Liters! They were huge. By 1913 Audi was making 5.7 Litre engines - the same CID as a small block chevy!
In 1928 Audi introduced their first true luxury car, the Type R. The car was powered by an inline 8 cylinder engine, and could do around 75 MPH.
Around this time Audi was sold to Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, a business industrialist.
Around 1932 the Auto Union company was founded, and it absorbed Audi.
In 1932 Audi introduced their Front UW220, a front wheel drive car.
In 1938 Audi introduced the 920. The car had an inline 6 cylinder engine.
Production of the cars ran till 1941, and around 1300 of the cars were built.
During the war some factories were destroyed, and the Auto Union factories came into possession of Communist East Germany.
Auto Union never recovered.
Audi would not officially produce another vehicle till around 1965. At this time Volkwagen had purchased the Auto Union / Audi brand assets (from Daimler-Benz?) and would produce the new cars.
The first one being the F103. Later came the Audi 80 and Audi 90 in the 1960s. All were front wheel drive.
The engines were developed by Daimler-Benz.
Trivia - The four rings used in the Audi logo represent the four brands that combined to eventually form the Audi brand we now know - Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer.
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