Today is the exact date that Audi was founded by August Horch back in 1909 and to celebrate Audi’s 100th anniversary, here is the third and final part of Audi 100 Years of Car Making History.

Vorsprung durch Technik – Advantage through Technology

In 2000 Audi revolutionised sports car racing once again with the Audi R8 and dominated the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning 5 of 7 years it competed.

After 20 years of research with diesel engines the results were paid off with another revolutionary racing car the Audi R10 TDI, which again dominated Le Mans’ racing tracks for four consecutive years, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, till it was replaced the new Audi R15 TDI.

All technological advances made by Audi in the racing tracks are used in its models nowadays. With their high fuel efficiency and low emissions the TDI engines are a reference, the petrol engines have high fuel efficiency thanks to Audi’s Valvelift technology, not to mention the Quattro four-wheel-drive and all the other technological advances Audi makes year after year.

Prove to that is the Audi R8 a state of the art sports car that was successful in the racing and in less than 2 years gained respect of sports cars enthusiast form all over the world.

Audi’s success is the reflect of the company’s tagline Vorsprung durch Technik, meaning “Advantage through Technology”.

In case you missed the first to parts here they are:

Audi 100 Years of Car Making History – Pt 1

Audi 100 Years of Car Making History – Pt 2

Happy Anniversary Audi!

For the second part of our story, we’ll skip the WW II and Post War periods and jump all the way to early 80’s.

Auto Union Extinction, Quattro and the 90’s

In the 80’s Audi introduced the revolutionary Quattro four wheel drive and the Audi Quattro, commonly know at the time as Ur-Quattro, a turbocharged coupé that dominated the rally tracks in the 80’s and was the first German car to be produced in large scale featuring permanent all-wheel-drive (Quattro).

In 1985 Auto Union was officially dead and Audi shortened its name to Audi AG. Over the following years Audi introduced less successful models like the Audi 80 and the Audi 90.

Audi’s big break happened in 1994 with the introduction of the Audi A4, a predecessor for the Audi 80, the Audi A4 gain recognition and sales went up which led Audi to develop more powerful and luxurious models like the Audi A6 and A8.

Two years later Audi released what became its most successful model to date, the Audi A3, built in conjunction with the Volkswagen Group using the same platform as the A4, the A3 was initially available only as a 3 door hatchback.

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 and the miss on Thursday the third and last part of Audi 100 years of Car Making History.