This three parted post is a compilation of the most important facts in Audis history and a tribute to Audis 100th anniversary. Over the next 3 days we will be telling you all about Audi since it was founded by August Horch in 1909, through the Auto Union days, going pass the dominant rally cars of the 80s till now. So sit back, relax and enjoy the read.

Foundation and the Auto Union Days

Audi was founded by August Horch in 1909, the year he was forced out of the company he founded in 1899. In the beginning, Horch continued to trade under the Horch brand, but after his partners sued him for trademark infringement, he was forced to come up with another name for his company; it was then that the Audi name came up.

During a meeting in Franz Fikentschers apartment to come up with a new name for the company, Franz’s son who was studying Latin at the time (common in those days), suggested that instead of Horch they used Audi (Latin for hear) which means “Hark!” or “Horch” German for “hear” and the idea was accepted by everyone attending the meeting.

The first models produced by Audi were the 2,612 cc 2.6 litre 4 cylinder model, followed by a 3564 cc 3.6 litre model, as well as 4680 cc 4.7 L and 5720 cc 5.7L models. In 1921 Audi was the first German car manufacturer to build a left-hand drive production car, the Audi Type K.

Audi Models of the 1920’s were luxurious and were becoming successful in the racing tracks, in the early 30’s Audi merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer to form Auto Union. With the creation of Auto Union the four overlapping rings badge was created to represent the union of the four German car manufacturers. The Auto Union era is best known for its success in the racing tracks. The Silver Arrows dominated the GP car racing from 1934 onwards and established records that were only equalled in the early 80’s by turbocharged F1 cars.

If you think we missed any important facts about Audi from that period, we would be interested to hear them, feel free to add them in our comments section.