BeSPOKE 07

aboVe, the 1955 DKW hoBBy
scooter and, to the right,
the Celebrated nsu tts
DatinG to 1967
and the Delphin iii,
nsU onCe again, FroM 1956.
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lastly, nsU which joined the group in1969. it is an
extremely diverse panorama particularly if we bear
in mind that the first merger led to the creation
of auto Union ag in 1932, the year in which the
celebrated four rings logo was first used on all the
cars of the group. it was a logo which first made
its impact in racing particularly thanks to the initial
successes of legendary drivers such as rudolf
Caracciola and the famous tazio nuvolari. at the
end of world war two, in 1949, once the Chemnitz
factories (right in the middle of occupied saxony)
were expropriated by the soviet Union, the whole
group moved to bavaria to its current ingolstadt
site chosen by wealthy german shareholders because
of its strategic position for logistical reasons
and ease of access to the city, once an important
german military base. From then on and for the
next twenty years, the audi brand produced no
more motorcars partly because of the technical
and economic inadequacies of the company itself
and partly because of the later strategic choice
of daimler benz which, ironically, bought up the
then auto Union-dwk in 1958 and then ceded
it in 1964 to the company who is still now the
‘four rings’ company’s main shareholder -Volkswagen
who already in 1965 breathed new life
into the audi brand by presenting audi 72 at the
paris salon. the flipside to the limited commercial
success of this 1972 launch was the later audi 80
which finally restored the pre-war audi legend to
its former glory and contributed in an extremely
positive way to the arrival as company president
the splendid 1936 wanderer
W 40 caBriolet.
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