7 Things You Didn’t Know About Audi

Audi has always been the forerunner when it comes to luxury car manufacturing and only a few can match the sheer brilliance with which Audi cars are built. Been here for more than 100 years, the German car manufacturer knows a thing or two about using cutting edge technology, strong design language and luxury at its best. What’s more, Audi has been successful in racing front too, and has an impeccable racing heritage.

Here are 7 facts about Audi you probably didn’t know

1. THE NAME AUDI IS THE LATIN FOR “HEAR”

August Horch founded his first car company, A. Horch & Cie. in 1899. But just 10 years later, Horch wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with his Chief Financial officer and left his own company to start August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH. Unfortunately, Horch soon learned the Horch name belonged to his former company when he was notified of a copyright infringement.
In response, Horch changed the new company’s name to the latin translation of his last name. In German “horch” means “hear,” which in Latin is “audi”.

2. THE FOUR RINGS IN THE LOGO REPRESENT THE FOUR COMPANIES OF AUTO UNION

By 1932, the name fiasco between Horch the man, and Horch the company was water under the bridge. Horch (the company) and Audi entered an agreement along with two other German car manufacturers, DKW and Wanderer, to form Auto Union. The four rings, which Audi still uses today, originally represented the four companies of Auto Union.
After the merger, Auto Union became the second biggest car company in Germany after Mercedes-Benz. Each of the companies were allocated a market segment: Horch would build high-end luxury cars, Audi focused on deluxe mid-size cars, Wanderer was put in charge of standard mid-size cars, and DKW was tasked with small cars and motorcycles.

3. AUDI HAS BEEN CONDUCTING CRASH TESTS FOR OVER 75 YEARS

We’re not entirely sure it should count, but Audi can claim to be the first to conduct crash test. These weren’t the sophisticated crash tests you see in commercials today with slow motion cameras, dummies, and advanced impact sensors. Instead, engineers from DKW simply rolled one of their subcompact F7 models down a hill in front of a group of spectators to demonstrate the car’s safety.
After the little car stopped rolling, the group of onlookers were astonished when they saw the F7 was virtually undamaged and the engine was still running.

4. THE ORIGINS OF QUATTRO ALL-WHEEL-DRIVE CAME FROM THIS THING

Yes, the system on which Audi has built its modern corporate philosophy comes from a humble Volkswagen military vehicle, the four-wheel-drive Volkswagen Type 183, also called the Iltis.
Volkswagen chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger was conducting tests in Finland with several VW group vehicles, one of which was the Iltis. The Iltis was walking away from every other car in the snowy tests despite having far less horsepower. Bensinger’s idea to put the Iltis’ four-wheel-drive system in an Audi 80 body would eventually become the original Audi quattro.

5. THE FIRST AUDI RS MODEL WAS CO-DEVELOPED WITH PORSCHE

The RS 2 was the first of Audi’s high-end performance cars and the first of a long line of fast Audi wagons. It would have never happened without the performance expertise of Porsche.
Bodyshells from the Audi 80 estate, on which the RS 2 was based, were shipped to Porsche in Stuttgart, where they underwent a thorough transformation. The turbocharged 2.2 liter 5-cylinder was tuned by Porsche to produce 311 horsepower. Porsche also supplied the braking and suspension systems.
Thanks to its quattro all-wheel-drive, and the Porsche tuned engine, the RS2 was able to out sprint the venerable McLaren F1 to 30 mph.

6. Audi was the first car manufacturer to win Le Mans with both Diesel and Hybrid powered cars.

7.Only the very best and most experienced factory workers get to build their halo car, the Audi R8 V10 Plus.

These lucky few are called the “Silverliners” because of the streaks of grey hair on their heads. Building an R8 is serious business and Audi trusts only the most qualified engineers to build these mean machines. Only twenty R8s roll out on an average workday. This beast goes from 0-100 kmph in just 3.2 seconds and has a top speed of a mind-boggling 330 kmph. It’s not for nothing that Audi puts its best people to work on the #FastestAudi