Re: Audi books/literature

[jdouglas@mitre.org (jason douglas)]

>
>Was wondering if someone has a good reading list for learning more about
>Audi history, specifications, model productions, etc.  Could you also
>post where the book or literature could be obtained (i.e. bookstore or
>publisher.)

I have a British book at home that provides thumbnail histories of all the
car companies 
that ever were.  At least thats what they say.  I'll have to get the name.
The most interesting thing about the book is the connections between companies.

Presuming that you are interested in the entire history of the marque, there
are several other marques you should also research.  The obvious are the
four companies of the "Auto Union."  As best as I can recall, these are
Audi, Horch, DKW, and Wanderer.  You should also be interested in NSU.

Horch was a high end company started by Herr Horch.  He made luxury cars
back in the teens and twenties.  At some point, he left the company, I think
on bad terms.  He then started Audi, which, according to my British book was
supposed to be a latinized version of his name (Horch).  Since I don't know
latin, that makes no sense to me.  

DKW and Wanderer made smaller, lower cost  cars.  

The Auto Union, symbolized by the 4 rings, was in place in the 30s.
Remember the famous late '30s Auto Union grand prix car?  I think Car and
Driver got to drive it several years ago, and found it rather awesome.
Maybe someone can resurrect that copy out of the basement and give us some
more info: by all accounts it was a _most_ remarkable car.

NSU really had little to do with Audi.  Their main contribution was the
Nekars Ulm factory.  They did make some interesting cars in their own right,
including the wankel powered Ro-80.  Call me crazy, but the Ro-80 always
seemed to me eerily ahead of its time.  It has a cleaness of line that
reminds of (if you can imagine it) a cross between a Saab 99 and the C3
5000.  Maybe some of the Ro-80 engineers worked on the C3?   I think NSU
also toyed with one of Porsche's people's cars before he got funding from
Der Fuhrer.

Well thats awfully sketchy and doesn't answer the original question anyway.
Remind me to bring in the book for a proper citation and to type in some of
the text!

Jason