The gentleman's motoring community. Dedicated to sharing the lesser-known facts of the automotive world.
Audi AG (1985) In 1985, with the Auto Union and NSU brands effectively dead, the company's official name was now shortened to simply Audi AG. At the same time the company's headquarters moved back to Ingolstadt and two new wholly owned subsidiaries; Auto Union GmbH returned and NSU GmbH was formed to own and manage the historical... Continue Reading →
Auto Union GmbH (1949) With the Red Army quickly advancing on Zwickau immediately after the war, and faced with the prospect of trying to salvage what was left of the company, Auto Union's executives had no option but to flee and re-establish the company on Western side of the partitioned Germany. Thus a new Auto Union company was launched... Continue Reading →
This week it's about the history of Audi. In Part 1 we set the stage with some of the iconic Marques which came to make up the Audi we all know today. The first key merger in the corporate family tree is the original Auto Union - a series of significant developments across four companies... Continue Reading →
Before exploring the men who shaped the marque in its early years, let us first look at how the brand has changed from its inception to where we are today. Alfa's origins actually came from France. Alexandre Darracq established a factory in Milan to build cars out of French-supplied parts. This however, was not a... Continue Reading →
BMW pride themselves on delivering the "ultimate driving machine" to their customers. A lot of that is owed to the reliable, durable and powerful engines which BMW carefully match to their models. Listed are what we deem to be some of M Divisions greatest production car engines. M88 BMW M1 1978-1981 3,453 cc 277 hp... Continue Reading →
The history of the automobile holds many uniquely valuable vehicles, innovative milestones and outstanding classics. However, there are only a few cars that have such an unusual biography as this. In the early 1950s BMW made a major effort to revive its sporting success of the 1930s. In 1954 Max Hoffmann, an importer who had... Continue Reading →
Sir John Arthur ‘Jack’ Brabham, was born on April 2, 1926, in an Australian town near Sydney. At 18 he joined the Royal Australian Air Force in Adelaide, where he wanted to learn to fly but was instead trained to fill a wartime shortage of flight mechanics. Upon his discharge, in 1946, an uncle in... Continue Reading →
The BMW Z1 was source of great admiration when it was premiered at the International Frankfurt Motor Show in 1987. Even though it was the first BMW roadster of modern era, it still succeeded in perpetuating the brand's great roadster tradition. Nowadays the BMW Z1 changes hands at top prices as a future classic, but... Continue Reading →
This feature is particularly special as it has taken Infernal Combustion on a historical journey around Bavaria on search of the most authentic and accurate information. Conventional Engine History Everything rotates in cycles. This is the view you could reach if you look at the basic principles of nature, because many things that shape our... Continue Reading →
Some time before the burbles of the Rover V8 could be heard on British shores, the all-aluminium Buick "Fireball" V8 was born in Detroit, Michigan. Let's take a short look through history of how that came to be. Buick Era In the 1950's the car industry in the US turned to aluminium as a material... Continue Reading →
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