It is definitely an exotic member of the NSU family: the NSU "Uruguay". This is what the Neckarsulm-based company casually called the rustic station wagon at the time. Between 1969 and 1971, the NSU importer in Montevideo produced a total of around 500 of the rather angular car, which was available in the P6 and P10 variants. Audi Tradition presents the NSU Uruguay in this fourth installment of the anniversary series on NSU history.
A model with rough edges - as if it had been drawn with a ruler; the NSU Uruguay does not fit in at all with the design language of NSU automobiles in the late 1960s. How it came about: More or less on its own initiative, the NSU importer in Uruguay, the Quintanar company, had been producing and selling a station wagon since the beginning of 1968, using technical assemblies from the two-cylinder NSU Prinz 4 model. By the end of 1968, the company had brought 140 of them onto the market. However, the importer wanted more, and above all he wanted a more powerful engine for his station wagon: preferably a four-cylinder. To clarify whether this was feasible, a meeting was held at the Neckarsulm plant in May 1969. For this meeting, a "naked" sample body was sent to Neckarsulm by air freight, which the NSU developers used to build a prototype. The result: the four-cylinder engine of the NSU Prinz 1000 does not fit into the engine compartment without major modifications, but there is room for it in the rear of the estate.
The fact that a lot of storage space is lost in the process does not seem to bother the Quintanar representatives, and even a lengthy list of defects from Neckarsulm TE does not deter them from their plans. Apart from a few "easily remedied complaints", the inspection authority in Darmstadt gave the NSU station wagon a positive overall assessment and gave it the green light. And so, between 1969 and 1971, around 500 estate cars in its P6 and P10 model variants rolled off the production line in South America.
In 1971, NSU withdrew from the Uruguayan market; this also sealed the end of "the Uruguay". Today, the prototype of the NSU P10 - the first and only one of its kind ever to drive on German roads - is part of AUDI AG's historic vehicle collection and is definitely one of the most unusual, angular and striking examples in this collection.
