10 Audi Facts Most People Don't Know

Intro

With over one hundred years of history, it is not easy to keep track of all the various Audi events that have happened along the way. So, we are here to help you with ten Audi facts that most people probably don’t know. Impress your Audi friends at the next cars and coffee. Or annoy your family at the next family reunion with your newfound Audi knowledge. We could have made a whole list on just the Audi R8, but we tried to mix things up and pull facts from different eras to keep things fresh. Give yourself ten points for each fact you already knew and then head to the Audi World forums and let us know your score.  

Images: Audi

10. A Child Named the Company

August Horch left the first car company he founded in 1909 and immediately began another. Unfortunately, his first company, A. Horch & Cie, still had rights to his surname so he needed something else. The story has it that at a business meeting Horch and his business partners were discussing name ideas. One of the sons of a business partner overheard the discussion and suggested that they use the Latin translation of Horch, which is Audi. And the new company had a name.

9. Audi Was the First to Perform Crash Tests

In 1938 Audi became the first car brand to crash test their cars. Of course, crash tests were very different back in those days. No sophisticated crash dummies, high tech cameras, or powerful computers were involved. Instead, Audi engineers would simply roll a car down a hill in front of spectators to show them all just how safe the car was. That may seem comical today, but it was the start of building safer cars.

8. Audi quattro was Inspired by VW Iltis

By now just about everyone is aware of the sophisticated Audi quattro all-wheel drive system. It lead to racing dominance and eventually to more capable cars on the street. But what everyone might not be aware of is that it was inspired by an off-road vehicle for the German army. Audi developed the VW Iltis in the winter of 1976. And it didn’t take long for the engineers to become impressed with the performance on snow and ice. They compared the system to front-wheel drive cars and the difference was obvious. It was then decided to offer a roadgoing Audi with this system. The first was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in 1980. That model was called the 'Ur-quattro' and it would remain in production for 11 years. That model is gone, but the all-wheel drive technology is still used today.

7. Only Porsche Has Won Le Mans More than Audi

Audi has won Le Mans 13 times. That is second only to Porsche. More impressive than their outright win total is the fact that Audi was the first brand to win Le Mans using a diesel-powered car. That was the R10 TDI back in 2006. Audi was also the first brand to win Le Mans using a hybrid-powered car. That was the R18 e-tron quattro in 2012. Vorsprung durch Technik (Progress through Technology) is real at Audi.

6. CBS Show '60 Minutes' Nearly Destroyed Audi

An entire book could be written on this one, so we will just hit the highlights. In the early 1980s the Audi 100, known as the 5000 in the United States was involved in several fatal crashes. Drivers claimed the cars accelerated on their own. Even pressing the brakes was not enough to stop the car. Then in 1986 the CBS show '60 Minutes' modified an Audi to ensure it would accelerate as the drivers claimed. The public panicked and lawsuits poured in. Audi sales dropped from over 74K cars in 1985 to just over 12K cars in 1991. Eventually the truth came out about the doctored car in the show and government agencies around the world all determined that nothing was wrong with the Audi. The accidents were due to the driver pressing the gas instead of the brake.

5. Audi A4 quattro Conquers Panamericana

In 1995 Austrian driver Gerhard Plattner got behind the wheel of a factory stock Audi A4 quattro. Over the course of the next 20 days, 11 hours and 55 minutes he drove that A4 across the Pan-American highway which crosses both North and South America. He and the A4 covered 23,298 kilometers on that trip. And he beat the previous record that was held by a legitimate off-road vehicle by nearly three and a half days. It was a perfect display of just how capable the Audi A4 was right from the factory. 

4. Four Rings Logo – Four Brands, One Lawsuit

The Audi four rings logo represents the merger of four different automobile manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. They combined to form Auto Union in 1932. Auto Union was eventually bought by Daimler-Benz and then eventually the VW Group. It was the VW Group that brought the Audi name back to the market. In 1995 the International Olympic Committee sued Audi in international Trademark Court because they claimed the Audi four rings logo was inspired by the Olympic five-ring design. The court ruled in favor of Audi.

3. R8 Builders are Called ‘Silverliners’ for an Obvious Reason

The Audi R8 is leaving us this year, but it will go down as one of the best supercars in history. And as you can imagine not just anyone can be trusted to build such a special car. The R8 is more complex and takes significantly longer to build than a standard production car like the A3. In a single shift a regular worker may work on 250 to 300 Audi sedans. But a worker on the R8 line may only touch about 10 R8s per shift. Audi is particular about who they choose to build the R8 and tend to go for the most experienced. These experienced workers have adopted the nickname ‘Silverliners’ since many have gray hair.  

2. Porsche Co-Developed First Audi RS

The Audi RS2 Avant launched in 1994 was the first Audi RS model. And it was as much a Porsche as it was an Audi. It was co-developed with Porsche and built in the Porsche factory in Zuffenhausen. Look around the car and you will find many bits borrowed from the 993-generation Porsche 911. The door mirrors, front and rear bumpers, and brakes were Porsche parts. In total about 20 percent of the RS2 Avant was built with Porsche parts.

1. Audi Made an Autonomous Car... to Climb Pikes Peak

In 2010 an Audi TTS nicknamed ‘Shelley’ climbed Pikes Peak. ‘Shelley’ refers to the nickname of Michelle Mouton, the first woman to win at Pikes Peak. Which is did in an Audi Sport Quattro. But an Audi TTS climbing Pikes Peak might not sound all that interesting. Especially considering that the TTS has quattro all-wheel drive and plenty of horsepower. It certainly has the goods to make the climb. What makes the event so special is that there was no driver behind the wheel. The VW Group and Stanford University collaborated on the autonomous car. The car negotiated the 12.42 mile, 156 turn and 4,721-foot climb run in about 27 minutes. About ten minutes off the pace of human drivers but still massively impressive.