Audi

August Horch had started producing cars under his own name in 1899, but broke out and formed the Audi brand in 1910 - "Audi" being the latin translation for "Horch", meaning "Listen!". The four rings that adorn the front of the modern Audi come from the fusion of the four brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer into Auto Union in 1932. Audi's long tradition of front-wheel-drive cars began already in 1933. Auto Union also had a great racing tradition, most notably in the 1930s when the "silver arrows" ruled the world's racing circuits. DKW, the dominating Auto Union brand after the World War II, started as a motorcycle manufacturer, but later became known for their compact, two-stroke cars. The story of the modern-day Audi began, however, in 1965, when the brand name was re-born with the introduction of a new compact sedan, based largely on the DKW F102, but marking the end of the two-stroke era. At the same time, Auto Union was taken over by Volkswagen, whose Beetle was produced alongside the new Audi at the Auto Union plant in Ingolstadt, just north of Munich.