RE: quattro-digest V4 #3340

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <0D1316C4DFFED0118B990000F804E8BCC05B48@MOENT1.MINEDU.GOVT.NZ> Eaton Dave writes:

> piech was fired (or is that fried?) at porsche, after developing the famo> us
> (and mythical) 917.  he joined audi as engineering boss, and is credited
> with the ur-quattro, although he did not design it.  he certainly gave th> e
> go-ahead.
>
> as posted recently,  the renowned piech cars are the ur-quattro and sport
> quattro in 1985 (ignoring the aero 100 and 80).

Seriously at variance with my own experience in Germany during the late
1970s and early 1980s.  If Piech is associated with any single phenomenon,
it's the Type 44.

He went public quite early with the design goals.  One of them was to
produce a car "so aerodynamic that it would be able to travel from
Hamburg to Munich on a single tankful".

I can't remember exactly why, but "Stern" magazine decided to ridicule
the idea of a large car achieving this.  At the time, Stern (and other
titles) were customers of mine, and I was a frequent visitor to their
main offices at Alsterufer 1, Hamburg.

One day a transporter arrived.  On board were three Audi 100s - a
carburettor 2l, an injection 2l, and a diesel.  The tanks were full,
and the fillers sealed.  The "Lieferschein" (delivery note) was a
challenge from Piech - "see how far you get".

"Stern" published the results.  The "injection" car reached Munich, and
got most of the way to Salzburg.  The carburettor car got almost to
Istanbul.  The diesel got to Istanbul, turned around, and damn near
reached Salzburg on the way back,

"Stern", to its eternal credit, headlined an issue:

                   "Herr Piech hat Recht"

                   (Herr Piech is right)

He may have been (and was) right about other things - but at the time
and in the media, the Type 44 was his triumph.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
 (The contents of this post will _NOT_ appear in the UK Newsletter.)