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Did you
know... .
...what the name Audi means?
August Horch Contrary to what many
people think, Audi is not an abbreviation for something to do with Auto
Union.
In 1910, When August Horch quit his own company Horch and started a
new one, he could no longer use his own last name as company name.
Heinrich Fikentscher, the 10-year-old son of Horch's business partner, came up
with the brilliant suggestion to translate the name Horch, a German imperative
form meaning "Listen!", into Latin - "Audi".
...................where the name
"quattro" comes from?
It was Walter Treser, project leader, who got
the idea after reading about a Jeep model with a transmission called
"Quattratec". Another name suggestion was "Carat", meaning
"CoupéAllRadAntriebTurbo". "Quattro" actually means "four" in
Italian.
As an Audi trademark, "quattro" is always supposed to be written
with lower case characters - that is, "quattro" and not "Quattro". ...
what
the four Audi rings mean?
The Auto Union brands They symbolise the four
German car manufacturers
- Audi,
- Horch,
- DKW
- Wanderer, who merged into the Auto
Union in 1932. ..
- ............ ......that James
Bond was once an Audi driver? Yes, in "The Living Daylights" from 1987,
Timothy Dalton drove two silver grey Audi 200 quattros, one Avant and one
sedan.
In an interview, Dalton complained about the lack of headroom for
his tall body: "I think it's probably because everybody's gotten into this
coefficient of drag, haven't they? So they try to streamline."
.................that there is a Chinese Audi-clone called Hongqi? Audi
A6, Chinese edition Yes, the old Audi 100 type 44 was manufactured under
license in China as a statesman limousine.
They were available in several
shapes, some very similar to the original, some very altered, like the
super-long, open-top limo. The later, re-styled version is similar to the Audi
100/A6 type C4, but with a quite different-looking radiator grille making it
look more like a Hyundai in my opinion. Lately, the modern A6 is also
duplicated, but under the Audi name and with only small alterations.
You
can see some pictures of these cars here (you need to scroll down a bit) at the
site Auto Soviet. By the way, "Hongqi" means "Red Flag".
......................that Audi were on their way to produce a
motorbike? In 1976, the engineers at Audi were developing a 1300 cc
motorbike, powered by the same engine as the Audi 50.
The project didn't go
further than to one single prototype, though.
......................that
already in 1933 came the first Audi with front-wheel-drive? Audi Front type
UW, 1933 The Audi Front, as it was called, was a medium-sized car with a
2-litre, six-cylinder Wanderer engine. The small DKW F1 introduced
front-wheel-drive even earlier, in 1929, and was driven by a 500 or 600 cc
two-stroke engine.
It was the world's first mass-produced front-wheel
drive car.
....................that Audi has a strong tradition of
technical developments?
- * Audi was at the forefront of
introducing front-wheel-drive, especially in larger cars.
- * Audi introduced the negative
steering radius technique in 1972, a world first resulting in greater safety
and stability.
- * Audi produced the first
five-cylinder petrol engine in 1976.
- * Audi quattro was the first
mass-produced performance car with permanent four-wheel-drive (even though it
was by no means the first four-wheel-drive car - besides jeeps and trucks, a
few Jensen Interceptors were made in the 1960s with 4WD, and Subaru has used
engageable 4WD in all their models since 1973).
- the 1980s.
- * In 1986, Audi became the only car
manufacturer besides Porsche with a fully galvanised body for rust resistance.
- * Audi's unique safety system
Procon-ten (Programmed Contraction/Tension) was introduced in 1987, where a
mechanical system would tension the seat belts and pull the steering wheel away
from the driver in the event of a serious crash.
- * In 1994, the Audi A8 became the
first mass-produced all-aluminium car.
- * Five-valve technology, the W12
engine of the Audi A8 6.0 and the Multitronic continuous transmission represent
some of the latest steps in Audi's technical evolution.
.... .............that the Audi
motto has been quoted in pop lyrics? Paul van Dyk's album cover. Yes, the
famous Vorsprung durch Technik - Advancement through Technology - can be heard
in U2's "Zooropa" from 1994: "Zooropa - Vorsprung durch Technik. Zooropa - Be
all that you can be." In the video for Blur's "Parklife", also from 1994, the
text line "It's got nothing to do with that Vorsprung durch Technik you know"
coincides with Damon Albarn and Phil Daniels pulling away from a red Audi Cab
at a traffic light in their old Ford Granada.
1998, German trance DJ Paul van Dyk
released an album called "Vorsprung Dyk Technik". ...............what
FrontTrak is? In America, not only Audi's famous four-wheel-drive system
quattro has a cool-sounding name of its own - the front-wheel-drive system is
called FrontTrak™
......
.............that the first female winner of a world championship rally drove
an Audi? Michèle Mouton
Michèle Mouton and her
co-driver Fabrizia Pons took the victory in the Rally San Remo in 1981, driving
an Audi quattro.
In 1982, she came second in the drivers' championship,
while Audi managed to win the manufacturers' title.
..... .............that Audi were
testing methanol fuel already in 1976? Methanol-driven Audi 100 Here is a
picture of a methanol-driven Audi 100 from winter tests in Nikkaloukta in
northernmost Sweden, performed by Audi and Volkswagen in 1976.
Both pure
methanol and a mixture of 15% methanol and 85% petrol were tested.
...... ...........that Audi were
about to equip the type 43 Audi 100 with a 170 hp Wankel engine?
NSU
RO80 The Wankel or rotary-piston engine type was developed by NSU, and used in
the futuristic sedan NSU RO80. However, the five-cylinder engine prevailed, and
the last NSU was built in 1977.
..... .............where Audis are
built? The Audi plant in Ingolstadt The pre-WW2 Audis were built in Zwickau
in Saxony. After the war, an Auto Union spare parts depot was located in
Ingolstadt, just north of Munich in Bavaria. That became the base for Auto
Union's and later Audi's production. When Audi and NSU merged in 1969, the NSU
plant in Neckarsulm was made available for Audi production, especially after
the last NSU was produced in 1977.
Today, the main plants are still
Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, with the addition of an assembly plant in Györ
in Hungary.
..... .............that not only
Audi models have been produced in Audi factories? After the take-over by
Volkswagen in 1965, the Ingolstadt plant was also used to assemble Volkswagen
Beetles.
In the 1970s, the four-wheel-drive jeep VW Iltis was completely
built in Ingolstadt, and Porsche 924s were built in Neckarsulm.
- ..... ...that Audi's station
wagon or estate models weren't always called "Avant"? Audi 75 Variant, 1969
Avant, ususally meaning "before", "pre-" or "front-" (as in "avant garde"), was
introduced in 1977 for the 5-door version of the Audi 100 type 43.
But
Audi's first station wagon or estate car was the 3-door version of the Audi
60/75/80 model introduced in 1968. It was sold under the name Audi Variant, but
in fact the first prototype went under the name Audi 80 Universal.
The next
version was the 5-door Audi Fox Wagon or Audi 80 Estate, of the type B1 kind
from 1973-79. This model was only sold in a few countries (Fox Wagon in the US,
80 Estate in the UK and South Africa), but was practically identical to the
Volkswagen Passat Variant.
In the Audi spare parts database ETKA, it is
named "Squareback", yet another name for this practical car type. ...some more
movies with Audis in them?
- * An Audi S8 is used in "Ronin"
from 1998, starring Robert de Niro. At the beginning of the movie, wheelman
Larry (actor Skipp Sudduth) is asked what kind of car he needs for an upcoming
mercenary mission and he replies: "Something very fast. Audi S8, something that
can shove a bit." After that, the S8 is involved in spectacular car chases
before being demolished.
- * In "Mission:Impossible 2" from
2000, Tom Cruise in a Porsche 911 races Thandie Newton in an Audi TT Roadster
on winding mountain roads. Read more about Audi's involvement in this movie in
this article from AudiWorld.
- * In "The Insider" from 1999,
Russel Crowe drives an Audi A4, but after he's lost his job and his money he
has to trade it for an old Volvo.
- * In "Lethal Weapon", one of the
bad guys hijacks an Audi 5000 with the phrase: "Mind if I test-drive your
Audi?" Later, he rolls up to an unsuspecting police officer and shoots him
through the driver's window.
- * Apparently, there is supposed to
be an Audi involved in the French movie "A Man And A Woman - 20 Years Later"
(original title: "Un Homme Et Une Femme - Vingt Ans Déjà") from
1986, though I have not seen this movie myself.
- * Nick Nolte plays a small town
sheriff in "The Affliction". He's out driving with a friend when they meet a
car on the highway. "That was my ex-wife in the Audi", the sheriff says, and
his friend replies: "Audi's a good car!" They turn around and go back into
town, where the sheriff ends up having an argument with his ex-wife in front of
the silver Audi sedan (I've forgotten which model it was).
- * In British thriller "Divorcing
Jack" from 1998, the main character and his journalist colleague are driving a
Ford Mondeo, when they notice that they're being followed by a type 43 Audi
100. The Audi starts chasing them and tries to push them off the road, but ends
up crashing into a tractor.
- * Fellow Audi-nut Tom Nas from The
Netherlands told me these additional Audi-spottings: "Reading through your
'Audis in movies' notes, I can tell you that there's a red 5000 prominently
starring in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off',
a type 43 5000 in 'E.T.',
a
type 82 in 'View To A Kill',
a Coupe GT in 'Patriot Games'
two Audis
(4000 and 5000) in 'Independence Day',
a couple of Audis in 'Dumb and
Dumber',
a Coupe GT in 'Goldeneye',
besides that S8 there's a type 44
100 and a type 81 80 in Ronin.
- Now you know which tapes to rent
when you're bored..." Thanks!
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