Auto Union racing cars
Auto Union AG, Chemnitz is an amalgamation of four German car manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony during the Great Depression is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today.
In addition to acting as a holding company for its four constituent brands Audi, DKW Horch Wanderer, Auto Union is widely known for its racing team Auto Union Rennabteilung based Horch works in Zwickau Saxony The Silver Arrows of these two teams German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union dominated not only racing GP in 1934 but set records that would take decades to beat, as the fastest speed ever achieved on a highway 432 7 km h 268 9 mph uninterrupted from 2013 3 After being reduced to ruin close after the second world war Auto Union was refounded in Ingolstadt Bavaria in 1949, evolving eventually into modern society Audi following its takeover by Volkswagen in 1964 and subsequent fusion with NSU Motorenwerke in 1969.
The current corporate entity named Auto Union Auto Union GmbH was founded in 1985 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi AG; its purpose is to act as the owner of the historic brands of Auto Union and intellectual property, as well as the management of Audi distinctive logo heritage operations of the company, four interlocking rings representing the first four members Union Auto, survives as the Audi logo.
Auto Union was founded in Germany in 1932 4 merger.
J S Zschopauer Motorenwerke Rasmussen steam car brand driven DKW founded by Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen in 1916, he embarked on motorcycles, then cars before driving two-stroke built Audi factory in Zwickau since 1931.
Horch founded 1904 by Horch in Zwickau August he built cars from straight, two engines to luxury models with V12 engines and V8- 5.
Audi due to disputes with the CFO, August Horch in 1909 left his company of the same name and founded Audi across the city, the construction of four cylinders in line - six - and eight -cylinder car engine in 1928 Audi became a subsidiary of Zschopauer Motorenwerke.
Wanderer automotive division only founded in 1911, with small cars with four cylinders and later a luxurious 6 right now built in Siegmar Chemnitz.
In August 1928, Rasmussen, owner of DKW, acquired a majority stake Audiwerke AG 6 In the same year, Rasmussen bought the remains of the US automobile manufacturer Rickenbacker, including eight manufacturing equipment and six-cylinder engines these engines were used in Audi models Audi Zwickau and Audi Imperator Dresden the same time, were manufactured under license from Peugeot models six cylinder and four cylinder.
In 1930, the Regional Bank of Saxony, who had financed the expansion of Rasmussen's business in the 1920s, Richard Bruhn installed Audiwerke of the Board AG and followed a brutal size and streamlining of various automotive companies that Rasmussen had the accumulated result was the founding in 1932 Auto Union AG was only four component companies being Zschopauer Motorenwerke with its DKW brand, Audi, Horch and car production piece of Wanderer, 7 brought together under the umbrella of the corporate shareholder Unique Auto Union While the four brands continued to sell cars under their own names and trademarks, technology development has become more centralized, with some Audi models using the engines of Horch and Wanderer.
Auto Union President Klaus, Baron von Oertzen wanted a centerpiece project to announce the brand new Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1933 Berlin Motor Show, German announced two new programs 8.
The people's car project that became the KdF car.
A racing program sponsored by the state to develop a German automobile industry high speed, the basis would be an annual sum of RM 500,000 Reichsmarks.
A fellow insistence Adolf Rosenberger, von Oertzen met with Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, who had done the work for him before, and has developed its own project racecar P-Wagen according to the new formula 750 kg 1,650 8 lbs.
German racing driver Hans Stuck Sr. Had met Hitler before he became Chancellor, and not be able to get a seat at Mercedes, accepted the invitation to join the Rosenberger, von Oertzen and Porsche to approach the chancellor at a meeting in the Chancellory Reich Hitler agreed with Porsche that for the glory of Germany, it would be better for both companies to develop the project, which in Hitler agreeing to pay 40,000 for the best car racing in the country in 1934 and an annual allowance of 250,000 MR 8 9 20 000 each for Mercedes and Auto Union time, this would rise to 250 000 10 this highly annoyed Mercedes, who had already developed their nevertheless Mercedes-Benz W25 was happy, his race program with financial difficulties since 1931 10 It led to a heated exchange both on and off the race track between the two companies to the S econde World War.
Having garnered public funds, Auto Union GmbH bought Porsches Hochleistungsfahrzeugbau HFB High Performance Car Ltd and hence the P-Wagen project 75,000 RM, the relocation of the company to Auto plant Horch in Zwickau unions 8.
The Auto Union racing cars Type A to D were built as racing cars of the Grand Prix 1934-1939 They looked like the first Tropfenwagen Benz also built in part by Rumpler engineers, only 11 riders from Grand Prix to wear logo four ringed Auto Union, they were particularly dominant in 1936 from 1935 to 1937, Auto Union cars car won 25 races, led by Ernst von Delius Bernd Rosemeyer Hans Stuck Sr. And Achille Varzi much has been written about the characteristics of tough handling of this car, but its immense power and acceleration was undeniable that a driver could induce wheelspin at over 100 mph 160 km h.
Used cars supercharged piston engines; optionally producing nearly 550 hp 410 kilowatts; 560 PS, designed to provide an optimal torque at low Rosemeyer later regime lead one around the Nürburgring in a single device, to prove the engine was flexible enough to make the fuel tank was located in the center of the car, behind the driver who would be well placed forward, so that the car distribution front to rear weight remain unchanged as fuel was used exactly the same location used in modern cars to open-wheel racing, and for the same reason the frame tubes were originally used as water carriers from the radiator to the engine, but it was finally abandoned after often sprung small leaks.
The list of drivers for the initial 1934 season was headed by Stuck; he won the events in Switzerland and German Czechoslovakia, as well as victories in several hill climbs becoming European champion of the mountain.
In 1935, the engine was extended to 5 L 305 cu in displacement, producing 370hp 276 kilowatts; 375 PS Achille Varzi joined the team and won the Tunis Grand Prix and the Coppa Acerbo Stuck won the Italian Grand Prix, as well as its usual collection of side wins, take again the European Mountain Championship The new sensation, Rosemeyer won the Czech Grand Prix.
Stuck also managed to beat speed records, reaching 199 mph 320 km h on an Italian highway in a closed cockpit streamliner 12 lessons learned from this rationalization were then applied to the car record T80 land speed.
For 1936, the engine had grown to full 6 L 366 cubic inches, and was now producing 520 hp 388 kW; PS 527; in the hands of Rosemeyer and his teammates, the Auto Union Type C dominated the world of the race Rosemeyer won the German Eifelrennen, Swiss and Italian Grands Prix, and only victory in the Coppa Acerbo He was crowned Champion Auto Union the European championship driver, and also took the European championship mountain Varzi won the grand Prix of Tripoli, while Stuck won second place in Tripoli and German Grands Price and Ernst von Delius finished second in the Coppa Acerbo .
In 1937, the car was virtually unchanged and surprisingly well against the new Mercedes-Benz W125 winning five races to seven Mercedes-Benz Rosemeyer took the Eifel and Donington Grands Prix, the Coppa Acerbo, and the Vanderbilt Cup Rudolf Hasse won the grand Prix of Belgium.
In addition to new 3 L 183 cu in the formula, 1938 brought other challenges, principally the death of Rosemeyer early in the year, in a land speed record attempt on a German autobahn Tazio Nuvolari joined the team and won the Italian and Donington Grands Prix, in what was otherwise a thin year for the team, other than yet another European championship for Stuck mountain.
In 1939, war clouds hovering over Europe, Nuvolari won the Grand Price Yugoslavia in Belgrade, while Hermann P Müller won the French Grand Prix in 1939.
The accumulation and onset of World War II encouraged the development and production of special vehicles for military purposes in the 1930 Auto Union became an important supplier of vehicles to the armed forces of Germany 6 After the outbreak of war, civilian production was interrupted in May 1940 After this, the company produced exclusively for military purposes 6.
For the production of aircraft engines Junkers licensed Auto Union founded in 1935, the subsidiary Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke German Central Motor Works in Taucha northeast of Leipzig.
During World War II, Auto Union Horch provided the frame for the Sd-Kfz 222 armored vehicles powered by a 90 hp 66 kW; 89 hp Horch V8 engine has a top speed of 50 mph 80 km h on the road The all-wheel drive Kfz 11 or Horch Wanderer Type 901, was used as a means of transport vehicle to shuttle German military Horch also working produces heavy transport vehicle wheel drive type 801 once named Einheits-PKW der Wehrmacht.
Since early 1944, the Auto Union plants Horch and Audi factory in Zwickau, Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke plant and Siegmar Wanderer Siegmar-Schönau were heavily bombed and severely damaged the US army occupied Zwickau April 17, 1945 near the end of the Second World War After the withdrawal of the US military on June 30 in Zwickau, all the Saxon plants of Auto Union were occupied by the red army.
After the war, the Saxon plants of Auto Union were in the Communist Soviet zone of occupation in East Germany.
In 1945, on the orders of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, factories were dismantled as war reparations 13 while racing cars stored in a colliery were returned to Moscow for reverse engineering suite, Self Union AG assets were liquidated without compensation 13 on August 17, 1948, Auto Union AG of Chemnitz was deleted from the commercial register 13 plant remains and Audi Horch in Zwickau became the VEB for persons belonging company Automobilwerk Zwickau or AWZ; Automobile factory Zwickau 14.
The former Audi factory in Zwickau, now under East German control, restarted assembly of the pre-war models in 1949. These models were renamed IFA F8 and IFA F9 and were similar to the new versions of DKW West Germany in time, a lawsuit forced East Germans to stop using the trademark DKW plant continued to manufacture the infamous Trabant until the early 1990s when it was bought by Volkswagen, effectively restore its connection with the Auto Union and Audi.
With the Red Army quickly Zwickau immediately after the war, and facing the prospect of trying to save what remained of the leaders of the Auto Union company had no choice but to flee and restore the company on the west side cloisonné Germany Thus, a new company Auto Union was launched in Ingolstadt, Bavaria with loans from the state government of Bavaria and the Marshall Plan aid 15.
The Auto Union GmbH reformed company was launched 3 September 1949 The Ingolstadt service had been performed only as a spare parts operation since 1945, but eventually the directors found the funding to restart production first in an old attic converted building in the city with West Germany still in the early stages of rebuilding its economy after the war, cheap transport demand meant that only the DKW brand survive in the luxury postwar era focused brands Audi and Horch were placed in a latent state, while Wanderer had been the property of its original parent company Auto Union therefore continued DKW's tradition of producing affordable FWD vehicles with two-stroke engines 15 This included the production of the small but sturdy motorcycle DKW RT 125 W and a delivery van known as DKW Schnellaster many employees of Saxony factories in Zwickau Horch and Audi plants, plant Chemnitz Siegmar former Wanderer and DKW plant Zschopau motorcycle came to Ingol stadt and restarted production.
In 1950, after a former factory Rheinmetall-Borsig in Düsseldorf-Derendorf was created as a second assembly plant, the first postwar car began production of the DKW F 89 P Meisterklasse available in sedan sedan company a break and the four-seat convertible built by Karmann 13 16 F the 89 were based on the DKW F8 and F9 DKW motor car bodies pre-war buildings.
In response to pressure from Friedrich Flick then their main shareholder, 17 Daimler-Benz acquired 87 Auto Union in April 1958, taking total control of the following year in 1958, saw the return of the Auto Union brand represented by Auto Union in 1000 a small sedan along Sp 1000 coupe was produced for Auto Union by the coachbuilder Baur in Stuttgart Under the ownership of Daimler-Benz company has invested heavily in the Ingolstadt plant Car production in Düsseldorf is completed, and the plant became the center of production for Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz 319 a role he continues to this day the DKW brand and Mercedes were able to establish a greater presence in the north American market through an agreement with the Studebaker-Packard Company in 1956, which through 1964 was the only distributor in the United States because of the extensive network of dealers SPC Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz brands were former Pand much faster in US markets today Many dealers can trace their origins to be dealers Studebaker-Packard citation needed.
However, prosperity began to return to West Germany, and the West German products have gained valuable currency through exports to the rest of Europe and North America, Daimler became increasingly concerned about this market that Auto Union for its products in two stages, without massive investment, would be impoverished East Germany two-stroke engines became less popular in the mid-1960s as customers were more attracted the finest four-stroke engines began to sell shares, which, with the assistance agreed by the west German government, were acquired by Volkswagenwerk AG.
In 1964, Volkswagen acquired the factory in Ingolstadt Auto Union and trademark rights, with the exception of the Horch brand dormant that Daimler-Benz has chosen a program that Daimler launched at the Auto Union created a range of cars which would then serve as a basis for the range of Volkswagen motor front-wheel models such as the Audi 80 and Volkswagen Passat at the time a new model F103 was internal development being designated one was based on the last DKW model, the DKW F102 with a four stroke engine implanted and some front and rear styling changes Volkswagen abandoned the DKW brand because of the association with two-stroke engines, effectively leaving Volkswagen Audi brand with the new model was launched in September 1965 as simply the Audi name was a model designation rather than the manufacturer, who was still officially Auto Union as more models were added earlier ard to the Audi range, this model was renamed the Audi 72.
In 1969, Auto Union merged with NSU Motorenwerke AG in Neckarsulm near Stuttgart in the 1950s, NSU had been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer, but has evolved to produce small cars like the Prinz NSU TT versions TTS that are still popular as vintage race cars NSU then focused on new rotary engines based Felix Wankel's ideas in 1967, the new NSU Ro 80 was a car of the space era, ahead of his time in technical details such as aerodynamics, light weight, and safety but teething problems with the rotary engines put an end to the independence of NSU NSU average size car had worked on the K70 was intended to slot between Prinz models and rear engine futuristic NSU Ro 80 However, Volkswagen took the K70 for its own range, spelling the end of NSU as a separate brand.
After being merged with the automaker NSU Neckarsulm became the official name Audi NSU Auto Union AG was simply reduced to Audi AG in 1985, ending both Auto Union and NSU brands company headquarters in Ingolstadt came back; at the same time Audi has formed new companies Auto Union GmbH and NSU GmbH as wholly owned subsidiaries whose function was to own and protect historic brands and intellectual property both Auto Union and NSU.
In May 2009, Porsche took majority control of Volkswagen Group and proposed a merger of the two companies citation needed In August 2009, Volkswagen AG's supervisory board signed the agreement to create an integrated automotive group with Porsche driving Volkswagen citation needed Volkswagen will initially take a 42 stake in Porsche AG by the end of 2009, and see the clarification of the family shareholders needed to sell the automobile trading business of Porsche holding Salsburg Volkswagen Rumors began to appear in the press the name Auto Union would be revived for the new holding company of the group 18.
The symbol of the brand of Auto Union and current Audi four rings that overlap, symbolized the four brands forming Auto Union Audi DKW Horch and Wanderer 19 20.
Although Auto Union used the logo of the four rings, it was used to Auto Union racing cars in that period while the member companies used their own names and emblems.
There is also a version of logo that uses the two rings that overlap and interlock 21.
Auto Union, auto, union, Auto Union GmbH, Auto Union company.