Remember, when this car stunned the Frankfurt motor show in 1967, most cars had fins, chromed bulges, swages, and channels and gutters you could slice cheese on.It really was the future, if you compared it with the Rover P5, the Ford Zephyr, or the Austin 1800 dinosaur-by-design. The problem was that the engine failed regularly, resulting in massive warranty bills for NSU and, later, bills for owners.Worn rotor tips, and poor fuel economy eclipsed the engine's turbine-smooth wall of power, in-board brakes, superb handling and rare early clutchless, semi-automatic transmission Also eclipsed was the car's design. From the 1950s, NSU turned out small cars - weird little things with two-cylinder engines that looked like bathtubs and were named "Prinz". By 1963, NSU launched a rotary Wankel-engined coupe - the Spider - the world's first mass-produced use of this piston-less engine.Not long afterwards, the twin-rotor Ro 80 came and went - as did a VW labelled K70 saloon that had started life as a smaller brother for the Ro 80, which VW inherited when it acquired the brand in 1969 For a few short years, the Ro 80's star shone over Europe. NSU was established in southern Germany in 1905 - they made motorbikes in the town of Neckarsulm Their first proper car came along in 1908. In the 1960s, there was no other car like it, and even today its shape is aped by all (even Jaguar), and still looks fresh.
But advertising is strong stuff.The names are forgotten by the public, and giant car-maker ad-men claim the fame - after all, was it not the Ford Sierra that invented modern aerodynamic styling? The Ford adverts of the time - as ultimate 'spin' - tried to suggest it, but this was crapiola.The first car to "chop" the tail, build it up high and massively reduce the drag behind the car, as researched by a Dr Kamm, was the NSU Ro 80. In its shape lay the roots of modern car design - not least later Audis. Bertoni, Jaray, Sayer, Sason, Ledwinka, Porsche, etc, these are the names of earlier forays into aerodynamic car design. The car was the NSU Ro 80 and it was as revolutionary as the Citro?DS was in its time This car was industrial design taken to the exquisite. Sadly, its advanced design became lost in the fog of an engine that kept going wrong. That was the legend printed all over the adverts for a car that had a unique never-seen-before design with a high rear-tail deck, flush glazing, a low front, curved roof, tuned aerodynamics and an advanced engine. The car with all this was German and produced from 1967 to 1977 in just under 40,000 examples. Make no mistake, Audi makes superb cars - now at the leading edge of automotive design.
It has pioneered the aero-weapon "wedge" car designs - curved fronts, high tails and flush-glazed elegance But Audi did not invent this style - someone else did. The trick is that the someone else was part of a reborn Audi-NSU car company that re-emerged with VW in the 1960s "The Future through Design". 'Vorsprung durch Technik" (progress through technology) runs the Audi marketing mantra. You should always sit relaxed with your arms bent, not stretched and tense."Determinedly relaxed on the drive back to Erfoud, there was time to reflect on what a kaleidoscope of driving experiences you can pack into a couple of days It had certainly been a hell of a Mini adventure.. People lean too far back, sit too far away from the wheel with their arms too straight, and that way they don't have enough control on the steering. People make fun of the old lady who is so close she is almost biting the wheel, but actually it's safer than being too far back. Milking the wheel is one of the reasons why British people have trouble on slippery surfaces."We tend to sit badly in a car too, he complains "Worldwide, there are the same bad habits.
