Today's A4 carries the internal designation B9. However, Audi's success started with this model, an Audi 80 B1.
When Audi's story is to be told, one often brings in Horsch and Wanderer, luxury brands from the interwar period. The truth is that these cars never had any influence on Audi. Today's Audi originates from simple, popular car brands such as DKW and NSU.
Today's Audi?
The Audi 80 B1 was "Die neue Leistungsklasse". It gave Audi a new face. Its predecessor, the Audi 60, also bore the Audi name, but the internal designation F103 revealed its origins as DKW, – a continuation of the DKW F102 which was a simmering two-stroke.
The new Audi 80 with its straight, elegant lines became Audi's identity for many years. Not only Audi, but also Volkswagen. The following year, the sister model Passat appeared, then Golf and Polo. All with the same clean lines as the Audi 80.
In the first years, the Audis were not sold through Volkswagen's dealer network. If you wanted to take a closer look at the new Audi 80, you had to go to Audi NSU-the dealer. There weren't that many of them, and they didn't sell cars from elegant premises, like today. The sales premises were small and often located in backyards and the like.
When the Audi 80 B1 was launched
I was a young man who did not yet have a driver's license. I still wrote to Germany to get a brochure. I got that with a typed letter that referred me to the small Norwegian dealer network. So I stopped by the nearest dealer - on a Saturday with my father to test drive the wonder. The dealer had two demobiles standing by his house. We test drove a GL with the dealer's silent but beautiful wife in the back seat.
Audi 80's most important innovative technical solution was "Negativem Lenkrollradius", or negative scrubbing radius. The factory wheel angles were supposed to ensure that the car remained stable during braking on uneven road surfaces, or in the event of a puncture. The journal Car engine and sport set up a test track with dry asphalt in one wheel track and a water slide in the other. Then they let the Audi brake suddenly from 80 km/h. It worked well.
Another technical innovation was the placement of the rack and pinion housing above the engine and gearbox so that the steering would not be pressed into the passenger compartment in the event of a collision. The steering column was of course also designed to be deformed.
The Audi 80 B1 then, as now, had a longitudinal engine placed far forward above the front axle. The radiator had been moved to the side in the engine compartment so as not to steal space in the longitudinal direction. Despite modest external dimensions, the car was "well packed" so that it offered reasonably good space conditions.
To no avail
I never managed to persuade my father to buy an Audi 80. The 1.92 meter tall man couldn't find a good driving position in the Audi and instead ordered a new Saab 96 V4 the following week. The most affordable Audi 80 L with a 1.3 liter engine and 55 HP cost about 34.000 in 1973, - exactly the same as the Saab. The Audi 80 GL cost 41.000, - the same price as a Volvo 142.
I have taken pictures of a great 1975 model. It is an L, which originally has a 1.3 liter engine with 55 HP. Most chose the 1.5 liter engine with 75 horses. The nice GL grill with double headlights suits the car well. Despite good technology, high quality and good design, there are not many B1s left on the road.
A car that belongs in Memory Lane.
The technique showed how Negativem Lenkrollradius works during emergency braking.
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