Does Anyone know the History of the 4 Audi Rings?

[ymsin]

I was told the 4 car companies that collaborated to produce the A.U.D.I. but can't remember who they were. I know one of them was Auto Bavaria, and the others have since closed shop.

Anyone?

[el presidente]

I had the four companies as:

Horch, DKW, Wanderer and Audi.

Hope this helps

[CJ]

The man is correct, the four rings represent the union of the four companies. AUDI stands for something like Auto Union something, something.

[Mark DiSilvestro]

In 1908, August Horch was forced out of the car company he founded and forbidden to use the Horch name. After losing a lawsuit, August Horch then translated his name (horch = listen) into Latin (Audi), which he registered as his new trademark.
The first Audi was a 2.6 liter 4 cylinder model, introduced in 1910.

Horch, Audi, Wanderer and DKW merged in 1932 to form Auto Union. Auto Union was owned by Daimler Benz from 1958 to 1965, when it was acquired by Volkswagen.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[mikemover]

He ended up merging with the company that stole his name? That's an unusual turn of events! On the other hand, Audi is the name that survived the test of time, so I guess he wins anyway.

Mike

[Mark DiSilvestro]

The first postwar Audi was the final DKW FWD F102 sedan, fitted with a Mercedes designed 4 cyl pushrod engine, marketed by Volkswagen.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[bobbyv]

the lord of the rings ....

[Eberhard Weilke]

The first postwar Audi was the final DKW FWD F102 sedan, fitted with a Mercedes designed 4 cyl pushrod engine, marketed by Volkswagen.

Almost.

First postwar Audi was in fact the late DKW F 102 with front wheel drive, but the engine was an old DKW two-stroke three cylinder.

The new model in Summer 1965 was called Audi 60 and had a fourcylinder in fact designed with a little help from Stuttgart. It was called "Mitteldruckmotor" since it working pressure was higher than from the average engine. It had a rather rough run, but in fact was pretty fuel efficient. It was a an engine designed for military purposes, to run on different fuels (the plan was to have an engine which would run on Diesel an gasoline.

Kind regards
Eberhard

BTW: You find more information about the early Audis athttp://www.acdm-online.de/HISTORY/Index.html

[Eberhard Weilke]

The 100 always had a four cylinder four stroke



It was just the F 102 which had first the two-stroke


and than as the Audi 60 (there was also a Audi 72 and Super 90 available) the Mitteldruck-fourstroke:



There was also a pretty neat station waggon available which is very rare today, because most of them were beaten up as workhorses for handyman.



BTW: It is an interesting story, that the first Audi 100 was completely developed without any knowledge of Mr. Nordhoff in Wolfsburg.

They showed him the finished, production ready car and he was pretty upset. Front wheel drive, inline-engine and water cooling was just too much for him (he still believed in 411/412 and other marvels of german engineering)

Kind regards
Eberhard

[Eberhard Weilke]

Lets see:

Here is the sound of Mitteldruck:

<

[Eberhard Weilke]

Lets see:

Here is the sound of Mitteldruck:

[Eberhard Weilke]

Lets see:

Here is the sound of Mitteldruck:

[Eberhard Weilke]

Well, I screwed up. Copy and paste ;-))

The 1000 SP had the three cylinder two stroke

Kind regards
Eberhard

[Mark DiSilvestro]

I have read that neither Daimler Benz or Volkswagen were very fond of 2-strokes.
I wasn't aware that the first postwar Audi was still sold with the 2-stroke DKW engine.

All through the 1980s, I drove the final version of the DKW/Audi car - a 1971 Audi Super 90 Variant (2 door wagon). It had almost the same engine as the early 100LS, with about 10 less HP. My Super 90 had such unusual features as 4 wheel torsion bar springing (adjustable in front), inboard front disc brakes and a 45 degree slant 4 cyl with a belt driven fan IN FRONT of the radiator ( I used to call it 'the insect eater'!)
I enjoyed that car so much that I put up with all its' mechanical ills - dropped an exhaust valve through #2 piston in'82, broke a transaxle bearing in '83, etc... For a FWD it was fairly easy to work on.
In 1990 a broken rear torsion spring finally killed it - parts no longer availible, not even from Germany.
I was going to junk it but when I got a couple of DKWs, the Super 90 sort of became part of that collection. It's pretty rusty but the engine transaxle should still be OK, if anyone's interested.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[ymsin]

Originally posted by el presidente
I had the four companies as:

Horch, DKW, Wanderer and Audi.

Thanks for the wealth of information!

Anyone knows what is the abbrev of DKW??