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Audi Front UW 220 Audi Front UW 225 | |
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Audi Front UW 220 | |
Overview | |
Manufacturer | Audi-Werke (Auto Union) |
Production | 1933–1934 (UW 220) 1935–1938 (UW 225) |
Assembly | Zwickau, Germany (Horch plant) |
Body and chassis | |
Class | Obere Mittelklasse |
Related | Wanderer W22 |
Powertrain | |
Engine | 1,950 cc straight-6 2,257 cc straight-6 |
Dimensions | |
Wheelbase | 3,050 mm (120 in) - 3,100 mm (120 in) |
Length | 4,375 mm (172.2 in) - 4,500 mm (180 in) |
Width | 1,650 mm (65 in) |
Height | 1,575 mm (62.0 in) |
Chronology | |
Predecessor | Audi Type T |
Successor | Audi 920 |
Initially presented early in 1933, the Audi Front UW 220 was Europe’s first car to combine front-wheel drive with a six-cylinder engine. It remained in production for slightly under two years before being replaced by the Audi Front UW 225 featuring a larger 2.25-litre engine. The larger-engined car introduced in 1935 was built till April 1938 and continued to be listed into 1939. Between 1933 and 1938, the Front was the only Audi in volume production. [1]
At launch the Front UW 220 featured a straight-six-cylinder ohv engine of 1,950 cc. Claimed maximum power output was 40 PS (29 kW; 39 hp) at 3,500 rpm. The two-litre engine was shared with the Auto Union group’s Wanderer W22 introduced at the same time. The letters "UW" in the car's name stood for "Umgekehrter Wanderer" and referred to the fact that it featured a Wanderer engine that had been "umgekehrt" (turned around) through 180 degrees in order to drive wheels which, on this application, were actually ahead of the engine.
In common with many performance cars of the period, the Front UW 220 provided a claimed top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph): presumably actual performance data would have varied according to the weight and wind-cheating qualities of each individual car body. Various body styles were offered, including four-door sports limousines and two-door cabriolets / roadsters. [2] The car was one of the few at its time to have a sloping grille, a feature first popularized by the 1932 Packard Light Eight and later the 1933 Ford.
For the UW 225 produced from 1935, engine size was increased to 2,257 cc, and reported maximum power rose to 50 PS (37 kW; 49 hp) or 55 PS (40 kW; 54 hp), respectively at 3,300 or 3,800 rpm: increased power was reflected by a modest increase in the claimed top speed to 105 km/h (65 mph). [2] The ohv engine came, again, from fellow Auto Union group member Wanderer, being shared with the Wanderer W245 and its successors.
Despite the relative novelty of the front-wheel-drive configuration, the manufacturer quoted the car's turning circle as 12.5 metres (41 ft) which was not greatly above the norm for cars of this size. The rear-wheel-drive Wanderer with which the Audi shared its engine featured an advertised turning circle of 12 meters.
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen who till 1932 owned and controlled the companies that comprised the Auto Union had acquired Audi in 1928, and as part of the deal had acquired their manufacturing plant at Zwickau. However, since 1931 the Audi Zwickau plant had been producing the DKW F1, replaced in 1932 with the DKW F2. The small front-wheel drive DKWs proved popular, and completely utilised the production capacity at what had hitherto been the Audi plant. The Audi Front was therefore assembled at the nearby plant of Horch, another automaker purchased by Rasmussen in 1928, and one which, after Rasmussen's bank enforced a restructuring in 1932, became another of the four Auto Union group companies. [3]
Approximately 4,500 Audi Fronts were produced, including 1,817 of the earlier UW 220 model built between April 1933 and November 1934. By 1938 2,591 of the successor UW 225 model had been produced. [2]
Production of the successor model, the Audi 920, began in November 1938. The Audi 920 was designed to be built and branded as a Horch, and the last minute decision to badge it instead as an Audi was led by marketing considerations. The 920 neatly slotted into the Auto Union range between the larger and more costly Horch models and the slightly smaller cheaper cars produced by Wanderer. [1] Under these circumstances, the description of the rear wheel drive 920 as a replacement for the front wheel drive Audi Front UW 225 is not unchallenged.
Audi AG is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
DKW was a German car- and motorcycle-marque. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and thus became an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company.
Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen was a Danish engineer and industrialist.
Auto Union AG was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today.
Wanderer was a German manufacturer of bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, vans and other machinery. Established as Winklhofer & Jaenicke in 1896 by Johann Baptist Winklhofer and Richard Adolf Jaenicke, the company used the Wanderer brand name from 1911, making civilian automobiles until 1941 and military vehicles until 1945.
Horch was a car manufacturer, founded in Germany by August Horch & Cie at the beginning of the 20th century.
F103 is the internal designation for a series of car models produced by Auto Union GmbH in West Germany from 1965 to 1972, derived from the earlier DKW F102. To signify the change from a two-stroke to four-stroke engine, the DKW marque was dropped in favour of Audi, a name that had been dormant since before the Second World War.
The Auto Union 1000 is a luxury compact front-wheel drive automobile manufactured by Auto Union GmbH between 1958 and 1969. It was the first model branded as an Auto Union by the manufacturer since the 1930s; it replaced the DKW 3=6, although the latter continued in production, until the end of 1959. The two cars were broadly similar, but the new car had its two-stroke engine enlarged to 981 cc yielding a 10% - 37% power increase.
The DKW 3=6 is a compact front-wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union GmbH. The car was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in March 1953 and sold until 1959. It carried the name Sonderklasse on the right hand fender of all steel bodied models – this being part of the model name for this range. The first model in the range was named by factory project number, DKW F91, which was replaced by the F93 and F94 models from the 1956 model year. The F93 and F94 models were referred to by Auto Union as the "Big DKW 3=6". From 1958, by which year the car's successor, the Auto Union 1000 Coupe de Luxe, was already being sold and the earlier version had therefore become, in essence, a ‘run-out’ model, it was known more simply as the DKW 900.
The Auto Union Grand Prix racing cars types A to D were developed and built by a specialist racing department of Auto Union's Horch works in Zwickau, Germany, between 1933 and 1939, after the company bought a design by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche in 1933. The Auto Union type B streamlined body was designed by Paul Jaray.
The Audi 920 is a car introduced in 1938 by the Audi division of Auto Union to replace the Audi Front UW 225. Its engine was a shortened version of the eight-cylinder in-line engine used by sister company Horch. The car was planned to occupy a niche in the Auto Union range between the large Horch products and the middle market cars produced by Wanderer. Audi had no stand-alone production facilities at that time and the car was produced, like its predecessor, at the Horch plant.
The Wanderer W22 was an upper-middle-class six-cylinder sedan introduced by Auto Union under the Wanderer brand in 1933. It replaced the W20 8/40 PS, from which it inherited its OHV engine, developed by Ferdinand Porsche.
The DKW Typ P was the first motor car made by DKW. It was a light-weight design with a unit body made of wood and imitation leather. It was powered by a two stroke inline twin engine.
The Audi Type P was a small two-door sedan/saloon car introduced by Audi in 1931. It was discontinued by 1932.
The DKW F1 was a small car produced by DKW between 1931 and 1932. It was launched at the Berlin Motor Show in February 1931.
The DKW F2, firstly marketed as "DKW Meisterklasse", is a front wheel drive economy car, produced from 1932 to 1935 at the company’s Zwickau plant. DKW launched the F2 model at the Berlin Motor Show in April 1932. It shared its 584cc engine and drivetrain with its DKW F1 predecessor, but offered a longer wheelbase and a larger body.
The DKW Typ 4=8 is a small rear-wheel drive two-stroke V4 engined car produced at the company's Spandau plant by DKW. It was launched at the Berlin Motor-show in 1929 as a successor to the DKW Typ P built at the same factory, although the DKW Typ P 4=8 was significantly larger than the Typ P: in terms of market positioning a more direct successor to the DKW Type P was probably the DKW F1 produced in Zwickau from 1931.
The Adler Primus is a small family car introduced by the Frankfurt based auto-maker, Adler in March 1932. In a move reminiscent of British Leyland in the 1970s, Adler launched two similarly sized cars in the same year, one of which followed the then new trend set by DKW for front-wheel drive, and one respecting the conventional rear-wheel drive configuration still used by the market leader, Opel.
The Adler Trumpf is a small family car introduced by the Frankfurt based auto-maker, Adler in March 1932, with Trumpf production fully starting in the late summer that year. In a move reminiscent of British Leyland in the 1970s, Adler launched two similarly sized cars in the same year, one of which followed the 1931 DKW F1's then innovative front-wheel drive layout, and the other model using the conventional rear-wheel drive configuration still used by then market leader, Opel's 1.2 litre 'model 6'.
The August Horch Museum Zwickau is an automobile museum in Zwickau, Saxony, Germany. Opened in 2004, it covers the history of automobile construction in Zwickau, the home of Horch and Audi prior to World War II, and Trabant during the Cold War-era German Democratic Republic.
Oswald, Werner (2001). Deutsche Autos 1920-1945, Band (vol) 2 (in German). Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 3-613-02170-6.