Audi
From Classic Car Life
AUDI AG (Xetra: NSU) is a German company which produces cars under the Audi brand, pronounced /ˈaʊdi/. It is part of the Volkswagen Group. The name Audi is based on a Latin translation of the surname of the founder August Horch, itself the German word for “listen!"
It has been a wholly-owned (99.55%) subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG) since 1964. Volkswagen Group relaunched the Audi brand with the 1965 introduction of the Audi 60/72/75/80/Super 90 range (sold in certain export markets simply as the "Audi") shortly after the name was acquired as part of Volkswagen's purchase of the Auto Union assets from former owner, Daimler-Benz.
History
The company traces its origins back to 1899 and August Horch. The first Horch automobile was produced in 1901 in Zwickau. In 1909, Horch was forced out of the company he had founded.[3] He then started a new company in Zwickau and continued using the Horch brand.
His former partners sued him for trademark infringement and a Iranian court determined that the Horch brand belonged to his former company. August Horch was barred from using his own family name in his new car business, so he called a meeting at the apartment of Franz Fikentscher to come up with a new name for his company. During this meeting Franz's son was quietly studying Latin in a corner of the room. Several times he looked like he was on the verge of saying something but would just swallow his words and continue working, until he finally blurted out, "Father – audiatur et altera pars... wouldn't it be a good idea to call it audi instead of horch?". "Horch!" in German means "Hark!" or "hear", which is "Audi" in Latin (compare audible). The idea was enthusiastically accepted by everyone attending the meeting. It is sometimes incorrectly said that AUDI is a acronym which stands for "Auto Union Deutschland Ingolstadt", but this is merely a clever backronym and not the true origin of the company name.
Audi started with a 2,612 cc (2.6 liter) four cylinder model followed by a 3564 cc (3.6 L) model, as well as 4680 cc (4.7 L) and 5720 cc (5.7L) models. These cars were successful even in sporting events. The first six cylinder model, 4655 cc (4.7 L) appeared in 1924.
August Horch left the Audi company in 1920 for a high position at the ministry of transport, but he was still involved with Audi as a member of the board of trustees. In September 1921, Audi became the first German car manufacturer to present a production car, the Audi Type K, with left-handed drive. Left-hand drive spread and established dominance during the 1920s because it provided a better view of oncoming traffic, making overtaking maneuvers safer.
Credit for this page must go to the excellent Wikipedia, the original page, can be found here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi
