Talk:Audi
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Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz staged a great racing rivalry in the immediate pre-war years, producing some of the most powerful Grand Prix cars (it wasn't until the 1980's turbo era that the outputs of the cars) and, apparently, some of the most exciting racing of the time. I've got a couple of books on the topic, but written from the perspective of the Mercedes-Benz team. Does anyone have anything written specifically from the Auto Union/Audi perspective? Robert Merkel
It would be great if someone in the know could add some info about the VW takeover. The two seem to be pretty inseperable today -- stewacide 20:58 2 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Wow ... well, this page is in serious need of 'fleshing' out by an auto enthusiaist. If I have time, I'll try to do it, as I'm an avid Audi fan / owner. However, if anyone else reads this comment, please regard it as a plea to bring in some 'gear-head' and historical know-how.
Well, what happened as how I hear it is that in the 1930's, Audi had employed a designer from Porsche to work on their cars. The German government (or someone) wanted a really cheap and easy car to build for the people to use because they realized the populating masses need to get around. The Porsche designer came up with the Beetle concept and released it under the car brand "Volkswagen" ("people's car"). This influence can be felt in some VW cars have the same type of air-(or is it water?) cooled system Porsche's used too. Audi kept chugging along, acquiring another company in the 1970's (I think NSW) while their Volkswagen unit exploded with Beetle popularity since the Beetle came out. The company then changed their name to VAG (Volkswagen-Audi Group) (others think it stands for Volkswagen AG, where AG is the abbreviation for the German word "Aktiengesellschaft" which is english for Stock Company) to reflect that VW was more of an equal partner because without their capital, Audi might not have survived into the 80's. Audi as a car brand started becoming popular through rally racing. Their advertising unit used the "if it's good enough to drive 80 mph through dark forest paths in the snow, it can handle anything you've got to drive it through" notion and sharing the lead with Subaru in the All-wheel drive craze of the mid-80's. This goes off-topic I know, but more trivia for the readers. Subaru and Audi used all-wheel drive as a big selling point whereas Porsche and Mercedes had it available but their all-wheel drive systems weren't as reliable with Mercedes being the worst of the group, I hear it wasn't true all-wheel drive, that it was a hybrid between four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. Audi took the luxury all-wheel drive road, Subaru took the economical all-wheel drive road and all others practically pulled out but a few manufacturers still dabble or offer all-wheel drive systems on a very limited basis. --LighthouseJ 17:37, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Vorsprung?
Your translation of Vorsprung durch Technik is not correct: "progress" translates "Fortschritt" in German. I'm afraid that I can't offer you a better translation, my English just isn't good enough. I would suggest "leadership", that's a little bit closer, but still not exactly the same as Vorsprung. Let me put it like this:
After on e wekk Lance Armstrong was only 20 seconds ahead, but in the Pyrenees his VORSPRUNG rose to more than two minutes
Who can help?--62.199.240.86 01:56, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)(from de:wikipedia)
To further help out the translation, I found an advertisement on the net for Audi. It poses the question "vorsprung" and then "what is it?". It then says "there are those who have it..." and shows Muhammed Ali fighting, Albert Einstein thinking and Marilyn Monroe with her famous dress, Dr. Martin Luther King at his I Have A Dream... speech, Mahatma Ghandi looks around a room and other imagery. The second part says "and those who don't" and it shows lazy guys sleeping, sipping coffee, falling asleep in a recliner and waiting for a haircut. The sequence ends with "and never will." The third part begins with "But you'll always know it, when you see it." and shows some older and powerful Audi racing films from earlier in the 20th centure and the 21st century Le Mans competitions and includes some clips from the 80's (my personal favorite time in Audi racing) of the Audi quattro kicking dirt up around turns and people desperately trying to get out of the way. Before the end, there's a radio-quality clip of what sounds like Dr. August Horch laid over film of him actually speaking that says "You've got to have the vorsprung in order to be in front." The rest of ad shows mostly racing clips intermixed with examples of vorsprung. If you are interested in watching it, I suggest you download a copy at http://wippermann.free.fr/audi/
Vorsprung means the passion to accel ahead of the rest, to be the best. --LighthouseJ 06:32, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)
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