Round and...
06/22/2025
I met "Ralf" the other day. Ralf is a 1968 Audi 80 Variant with the British registration RAL 837F - in other words, Ralf. The green estate was available as part of a short trip to Spain with Audi. The purpose of the trip was to explore 60 years of Audi design history. This article is currently being written.
Ralf, however, showed all the innocence with which the Audi brand was revived 60 years ago. Hardly anyone took the DKW F102 seriously when it was the last Western European car with a two-stroke engine to roll off the production line. The Audi, on the other hand, developed by the previous owner of the Auto-Union, Mercedes-Benz, brought the brand with the four rings back from the niche of eccentric flag-bearers into the middle class in 1965.
Yes, Ralf was probably a beginning - and such beginnings are sometimes quite modest, perhaps even a little restrained. Perhaps along the lines of "let's please everyone first", or something like that.
The first Audi, or rather the early Audi, feels a bit strange. Old, but less unfamiliar than expected. Perhaps it's the respectable performance with which it scores points. Our colleague Bruno von Rotz briefly described the unknown Audi 80 Variant here some time ago.
80 hp and weighing just one ton, that's a pretty decent power-to-weight ratio. The steering wheel gearshift seems exotic today, but it is precise, but what is really irritating about this F103, as the first Audi was called internally, is the oval steering wheel. It was a long day there in Spain, and I saved the Variant for an evening tour. I couldn't get used to the steering wheel. It seemed like a visual defect. I knew what to expect, but still. Just round, that's fine. No customer ever seriously asked about anything else. Audi probably realized this later and decided to do without it.
Ralf's trunk was really great, by the way. Why it took Audi so long to finally make an Audi 80 Estate available again with the B4 series remains a mystery - just like the oval steering wheel.
Ah, and one more thing: wooden foil on the dashboard, simply delicious!
