30th International Auto Union Historic Vehicle Meeting In Ingolstadt on First Weekend of August

450 historic cars and 900 participants: these are the record figures expected at the 30th International Auto Union Historic Vehicle Meeting, to be held from August 1 to 3, 2003 at the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt. Cars and motorcycles built by Audi, Auto Union, DKW, Horch and Wanderer will be arriving from 14 countries for this large-scale `birthday party’ organised with the aid of Audi Tradition.

DKW club members are coming from as far away as South Africa, though of course by air in this case, whereas others from Portugal and Norway will be driving their 1961 DKW Monza or 1965 DKW F12 all the way to the meeting point in Ingolstadt. Two of the oldest vehicles attending will be a DKW P 15 Roadster built in 1928 and a 1930 Wanderer W 11. A full and varied programme has been organised to accompany the event, with tours of the factory, visits to the museum mobile and the special exhibition “Two-stroke Success – Jörgen Skafte Rasmussen and DKW” and a spare parts mart on the Audi Forum parking lot on August 2, 2003. Two legendary Auto Union `Silver Arrow’ racing cars, the Type A dating from 1934 and the Type C from 1937, will catch the eye on the Piazza in front of the museum mobile.

A memorable drive through the romantic valley of the Altmühl begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, August 2, 2003 in front of the museum mobile. The route is via Pfünz, Kipfenberg, Beilngries and Dietfurt to Riedenburg, where the lunch break will be taken between 10.30 a.m. and 3 p.m. The historic Auto Union vehicles will return via Altmannstein to Ingolstadt, where a festive evening party will be held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first of these meetings. Following a Bavarian white-sausage breakfast on Sunday, the International Auto Union Historic Vehicle Meeting in Ingolstadt will end at about midday.

Interesting news for DKW fans: timed to coincide with the Auto Union Historic Vehicle Meeting is the appearance of the book entitled “Vom Dampfkraftwagen zur Meisterklasse” (“From Steam Vehicle to Meisterklasse”) by Thomas Erdmann, the Audi Tradition historian, who will be autographing copies at the Auto Union Historic Vehicle Meeting on Friday August 1, 2003 and again on Saturday, August 2, 2003, in both cases from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Museum Shop in the museum mobile.

The four rings of the Audi badge symbolise the brands Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer, which were later combined under the umbrella of Auto Union. Auto Union and NSU, which merged in 1969, made many significant contributions towards the development of the car. AUDI AG was formed from Audi NSU Auto Union AG in 1985. Together with the two traditional companies Auto Union GmbH and NSU GmbH, Audi Tradition nurtures and presents the deep and diverse history of Audi. The Audi museum mobile at the Audi Forum Ingolstadt is open from Monday to Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.