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Audi 80, the car that established the current pillars of the brand

The history of Audi is linked, as many will know, to Auto Union, but also to Mercedes and the Audi 80. With the 80, the German firm finished creating the foundations on which the current Audi was built, taking advantage of the investment and remodeling that they carried out from Mercedes and that the brand exploited to the maximum to grow.

If we were to list the best current car manufacturers, without a doubt, Audi would be among the top. The German firm is, today, one of the best valued in the world and that is not by chance. The quality of Audi, of any of its models, is very high, as well as its technological content and its commitment to digitization. Getting into a car with the four rings on the front is like getting into a spaceship. like the ones that appear in the most futuristic Hollywood movies. And this, possibly, is the worst thing about their cars, since their cabins are full of screens, making daily coexistence difficult. The profusion of screens to the detriment of physical controls, in reality, we are not interested in this time. In addition, it is something that we cannot change, because it is a solution that today's drivers ask for, so the brands, with the aim of selling as much as possible, comply with the wishes of potential customers. We are going to focus on another issue, which was, although many people do not know it, the first pillar for the evolution that the brand suffered to this day. Because one thing is clear, Audi has not always been the reputable manufacturer that it is today, having needed many years of work and a lot of investment to rise to become a serious rival to BMW and Mercedes. https://youtu.be/QJnrTolCWlE In fact, one of the important points in our history, and one that is also especially interesting, has Mercedes as its main axis. A part that not everyone knows, but that was when the foundations were laid on which Volkswagen built everything that would come after. And to know this part of history, we have to go back in time to 1958. At that time, Audi was part of Auto Union, an industrial group that was formed after the First World War and to be able to survive the dire state of Europe and above all , from Germany. A union that gave rise to one of the most powerful manufacturers in the German country (and in the entire world) between the 20s and the 30s. It was a time of madness, starring a disproportionate evolution of performance and technical developments; It was the time of the “silver arrows”. All of this was undone, as one might expect, with the outbreak of World War II, seriously affecting Auto Union. At that moment, Friedich Flick appeared, who took control of 40% of Auto Union. However, it should be noted that Mr. Flick also owned 40% of Daimler-Benz, the parent company of Mercedes at the time (changed its name in 2022 to Mercedes-Benz AG). He was a businessman with businesses related to steel and coal, who shortly after had the crazy idea of ​​merging both companies.

Mercedes controls 88% of Auto Union

DKW F102
DKW/Audi F102

Yes effectively, Mercedes and Auto Union were part of the same industrial conglomerate, although it would be more fair to say that Mercedes took control of Auto Union. The idea was approved at the meeting on March 6, 1958 and the purchase of 88% of Auto Union was completed on April 11 of the same year. Almost from the same moment, a restructuring of Auto Union began, which at that time was barely surviving thanks to DKW models with two-stroke engines and some Wanderer models. Horch and Audi, meanwhile, were in a very delicate moment (by the way, Horch and Audi were founded by the same person, August Horch, a story that deserves to be told another time). However, the technology that kept Auto Union in business was the first to be discarded by the new board, to immediately begin with the development of new four-stroke engines, which took as its starting point a project that had been initiated by the Auto Union itself. At the same time, the Ingolstadt facilities were remodeled and modernized, later coming to work on several prototypes that never went into production.

DKW F102
Rear three-quarter view of the DKW F102

The fact is that while Mercedes invested in Auto Union and gradually recovered the proper functioning of the mythical company, almost all shares were sold to Volkswagen (Mercedes kept the rights to Horch and the factories in Düsseldorf and Vitoria, in Spain, from where many industrial vehicles manufactured by Mercedes began to come out), also adding the developments and advances that had been completed up to that time. When Volkswagen took control of Auto Union in 1965, another transformation began as well. The first part was to "clean" the image of the company, it was Auto Union was closely related to the Nazi regime (curious way of thinking, since Volkswagen was a 100% Nazi project). So therefore the decision was reached to stop using the name of Auto Union and use that of one of the brands with less relation to what happened: Audi. Although the logo of the automobile group would not be changed, the famous four rings that represented the four brands that originally shaped Auto Union.

Audi 100
Audi 100 (F104)

The first car of the “new” Auto Union was the DKW F102, which was soon renamed the Audi F102. This car used the engine that Mercedes had developed and was manufactured in the remodeled Ingolstadt factory, also the work of Mercedes. However, Audi's work was limited to existing models, with the Volkswagen directive expressly prohibiting the development of new models, order that was not fulfilled by Dr. Ludwing Kraus, an Auto Union engineer who secretly worked on the development of the Audi F104, which ended up being the Audi 100 launched on the market in 1968, a hugely successful car, with more than 3,2 million units sold and many awards: 5 times awarded the “Golden Steering Wheel”, “Best Car of the Year” twice and once. time “Best World Car of the Year”. No one had foreseen such a success, not even its creator, but it served for the board to launch another development: the Audi F103, which would end up giving rise to one of the brand's greatest successes and one of its most important cars: the Audi 80. And all this thanks to the investment of Mercedes, made between 1958 and 1965.

The Audi 80, the "dad" of the Audi A4

Audi 80 and Audi A4 The history of the Audi 80 is a story of success, of opening a new era that has come to new days under the name of Audi A4. The German firm changed the name of its models in the mid-90s, passing the Audi 100 to be the Audi A6 and the Audi 80 to be the Audi A4. For this reason, the first generation of the A4 is known internally with the code "B5", since it is actually the fifth evolution of the Audi 80, whose first launch was with the code "B1". A curiosity in which, possibly, few have fallen. With 80, Audi inaugurated the "B Series", which ended up being a "best seller" and the first car of the brand to exceed one million units. It was also the model that inaugurated the modular development of models in the brand, the same way of working that any manufacturer uses today and as if that were not enough, the Audi 80 was the car that helped the brand begin to forge its image. in the United States, where it was sold under the Audi Fox name. And all this, again, thanks to the investments and developments that Mercedes made in the 60s, very well used by Volkswagen. Audi 80B1 It is curious that Volkswagen, which in the first instance bought 50% of Auto Union with the intention of exploiting the facilities to manufacture more units of the "Beetle", would end up bolstering a dying company into one of the most respected in the world. However, not everything is the work of Volkswagen, in fact it was the result of the stubbornness of the Auto Union engineers, who, seeing the new potential that could be achieved, set to work at their own risk. Some of the best projects have emerged in this way, in secret and Volkswagen has "eaten" more than one. A few later it also happened to him, for example, with the creation of the Volkswagen Golf GTI. With the Audi 80 there was no need to do anything "under the hood", it had already been shown with the Audi 100 that the potential that the rebel engineers saw was real and enormous. So after proposing the idea of ​​a compact sedan for the premium segment, quickly got the green light, as well as access to all of Volkswagen's technical and financial resources (then they were not known as “Volkswagen-Audi Group” or “VAG”), which included, as has been mentioned, the developments carried out by Mercedes and that had already been incorporated in the development of the Audi 100 (they were also applied, although to a lesser extent, to the Audi 60 and 75, predecessors of the Audi 80).

Advanced, light, but at the same time, conventional

Audi 80

Ludwing Kraus, head of technical development at Audi, put some unmovable conditions such as keep the weight as low as possible, but without losing stiffness, strength or overall quality. It had to be an easy car to drive, with a quality interior and room for at least four occupants and their luggage. Important section the interior, well, remember, the car would also be sold in the United States. In the end, a car with a length of 4,18 meters and a wheelbase of 2,47 meters was created, measurements that today exceed any compact such as the Audi A3 itself. Its descendant, the Audi A4, exceeds 4,70 meters in length and the battle reaches 2,80 meters. Characteristics include a well-balanced combination of technical advancement and conventionalism. The suspensions were one of those sections where he did not risk, using a McPherson system at the front and a rigid axle with trailing arm and Panhard bar for the rear wheels, schemes that were simple, cheap and fully tested, but effective and suitable for the claims. of the car. Nor did he take risks with the position of the engine, which was longitudinally ahead of the front axle, with the gearbox (four-speed manual or three-speed automatic) just behind. Since its inception, all Audi have been characterized by having the engine very advanced, affecting the passenger compartment for good, that is, this position allows it to be wide. Secondly, premiered diagonal braking circuit and the first negative steering roll radius in Europe.

Audi 80 TDI
Audi 80 1.9 TDI Estate

For the range of engines, on the other hand, something else was innovated by using a modular design with an overhead camshaft, a brainchild of Mr. Ludwig Kraus. Based on this idea, the engineering team led by Franz Hauk developed the EA827 block, which included displacements from 1.3 to 1.6 and powers from 55 to 100 hp. This block gave rise to the engine of which the Volkswagen Group has manufactured the most units.. The Audi 80 “B1” was officially presented in 1972 with three different bodies: two-door coupé, classic four-door sedan and five-door family body (this was basically a Passat with Audi 80 front, rear and details). It was awarded "Car of the Year in Europe" in 1973. That same year the Audi 80 GT was launched on the market, which was replaced in 1975 by the Audi 80 GTE with a 1.6 hp 110 engine, which would end up under the hood of the already mentioned Volkswagen Golf GTI. Since the first Audi 80, launched on the market 50 years ago, more than 4 million units have been sold, including the Audi A12,5 (since it is its current evolution). Also was in charge of launching the famous 1.9 TDI 90 hp engine on the market and, how to forget it? It served as the basis for the brutal Audi RS2, possibly one of the cars that have done the most for Audi's "Premium" image.

What do you think?

Written by Javi Martin

If you ask me where my love for motoring comes from, I wouldn't know how to answer. It has always been there, although I am the only one in the family who likes this world. My father worked as a draftsman in a metallurgical company with a lot of auto parts production, but there was never a passion like I can have.

I really like automobile history and I am currently creating a personal library dedicated exclusively to motor history in Spain. I also have a huge collection of scanned material and have written the book "The 600, a dream on wheels" (Larousse publishing house).

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