audi produces an fia gt car; other news

[Eaton Dave <dave.eaton@minedu.govt.nz>]

confirmation from audi that they are entering a "sports car" into next
year's fia championship.

what the press release does *not* state is whether the car is a gt1 or a
open top.  the machine will begin testing within the next 2 months..

other items:

1) the acquisition of cosworth and lambo are due to be complete by the
end of july.  the stated intention is to "increase audi's high-tech
engine capability", audi's "market presence" and audi's
"internationalisation".

2) sales volume, revenue and profits are also expected to rise.  main
ingredients to this are supposed to be the a6 and the a8.
- 12 month revenue over 25b dm expected (1997 22b dm)
- sales volume (+10% expected over 1997 to over 600,000 units for the
1st time)
- a6 volumes (up almost 70% in the last 6 months to 80,000)
- a8 volumes (up 17% in the last 6 months to 8,000)
- while vehicle production for the last 6 months is over 300,000, engine
produciton is 590,000!
- over 1m engines will be produed for the 12 months.
- sales to the usa continues to improve (+20% to 20k), while asia and
japan are down.
- sales in germany ar up 1% to 123k for the 6 months, 132K for the rest
of europe (+20%)

3) response to the ttc is "very positive"


dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q