German sport luxury brand Audi has played a powerful role in helping to shape client tastes and influence the entire European touring market. For virtually a hundred years, the Audi brand has been associated with manufacturing prime quality, trustworthy, and well engineered cars. An odd start nearly scuttled the corporation's plans, yet today Audi has risen above trouble and is producing cars that are world respected in quality and engineering.
August Horch set up Horch automobile in Cologne, Germany in 1899, and began manufacturing cars in 1901 which featured a horizontal engine manufacturing upwards of 5 horsepower. Demand for these models propelled Horch to expand production and move to a bigger producing facility where a newer, stronger model pushing out a then-amazing ten h.p. was released.
By 1910, Horch himself was booted out of the company that sported his name so he set up shop somewhere else and began to sell autos under the Audi moniker. Originally, Horch tried to use his family name, but German courts ruled against him so the Audi name was selected instead. In German, Horch means "hark" and the word "audi" is the Latin interpretation of horch/hark. So, though he could legally no longer use his family name, the Latinized version of the same won out. Guess which name is known today?
In between a couple devastating world wars, the modern Audi company began to take shape. Indeed, the "four rings" brand of the company represents the union of four distinct German automotive manufacturers under the auspices of Audi. Yes, you know it : the Horch company that originally booted Mr. Horch was absorbed by Audi and makes up one of the four rings. August Horch lived to see that big day, but he also witnessed the dismantling of the company following the end of the second world war.
Reparations was the rallying cry when World War Two stopped, so thus the Soviet Union who was occupying the eastern portion of Germany in the postwar era, appropriated the company, took all of its assets, and by August 1948 the company no longer existed. One year later thanks to state loans and Marshall plan help, a resurrected Audi was back on the scene manufacturing a delivery truck and a bike. Continuing expansion across the 1950s highlighted by Daimler's purchase of the company in 1958 fueled further enlargement. In 1964, the Volkswagen group bought Audi from Daimler and to this day Audi remains a significant part of the Volkswagen establishment.
By the late 1960s, Audi commenced what many consider to be its significant run to the top of car models were developed many of which were also marketed as Volkswagen models for that time. In 1980, Audi shook the automobile world to its foundation when it released its Quattro sports car, a vehicle with full time all wheel drive and a turbocharged engine. Right away , the Quattro propelled the Audi name to the pinnacle of the race automobile world when the auto started to win race on race. Undeniably, the Quattro was such a runaway hit that the model was banned from some races for having an "unfair" technological advantage.
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, Audi began to produce extra models including its first premium model, the Audi V8 in 1988. Sporting a 3.6L 32-valve V8 engine, the Audi V8 featured full time all wheel drive and a four speed electronically controlled automated transmission. This model was a huge departure from earlier Audis and set the brand on a collision course with Mercedes and BMW, Germany's two other luxury brands in a bid for automotive supremacy.
Today, Audi continues to expand and compete against all the top luxury brands in the world. New technology including its Audi Space Frame all-aluminum body - renowned for its rigidity and improved crashworthiness - are among the highlights of a brand that doesn't settle for second best. From sedans to sport coupes to an all new SUV, Audi has a model that competes against the likes of Lexus, Mercedes, Cadillac, Infiniti, and BMW its chief rivals.
That "hark" sound you hear is both the name of a company and the awareness the brand merits in an ocean of capable premium models produced by Germany's esteemed Volkswagen Group. Yes, Audi has weathered several hurricanes and the company appears poised to continue its thrust forward thanks to its many inventions and continued prime quality.
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