Rowlie

I was driving in this morning thinking about how much the dashboard of my A8 has in common with my dad's old Audi Fox. I love that it reminds me of riding in my of my late father's car, but I also like that it does illustrate a design heritage which is often downplayed by the brand.

Mister Bally

Closest I had was a '78 Rabbit with a similar steering wheel. The shift lever & **** remind me of my '74 VW Super Beetle. The parking brake handle & Lever looks just like the one on my '81 4000 5+5.

MP4.2+6.0

My college car was a 1973 100LS bought used after the first 5000 came out. Great "mechanic's learning car," as in hopelessly unreliable though a blast to drive back in the 70's era of mostly smog equipment choked cars. Fox came out circa 72, while 100LS was circa 1969. I see in your picture, it has that classic crack in the center of dashboard. Just like my 100LS. Your Fox memory (first gen. Audi 80 in Europe) was the first Audi with the timing belt, while mine was the last one w/ a timing chain until they finally returned w/ the W12 and then the FSI motors. If you had the automatic in that one instead of the (funner) stick, the shifter would seem about the same as now too, other than some leather instead of hard plastic.

Still, nice memories. The wood on the dash was also real instead of endlessly polished who knows what.

Simca

My first Audi was a 1978 Audi Fox which I owned for four years. I still have fond memories as it was quite a jump from my 1975 Yellow Rabbit. As I remember, the vehicle was noisy at highway speeds with both wind and mechanical intrusion into the cabin. I experimented at mitigating the sound pressure level; but, was never entirely satisfied. I sold the Fox privately and subsequently purchased a 1982 Audi Coupe. I once also owned a Volkswagen Fox station wagon (Brazilian made). A true rough and ready utilitarian vehicle, no power steering; but, definitely not an Audi.

Peter

Rowlie

Dad's was a '73 in lemon yellow. He bought it when my mom did a 360 on the highway in his '68 Porsche 912. I wasn't driving then, but I remember that he hated the stick shift. Apparently it was changed in '74, but couldn't be retrofitted to his. It was a pretty basic car & somehow the curve of the rear window would occasionally cause the sun to burn holes in the top of the back seat. He ended up trading it in on a '77 Oldsmobile Starfire. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we all know how quickly they turned to dust.

I'm sure Audi doesn't necessarily want to make a connection to a car that cost about $75,000 less than the A8, but for those of us with long Audi ties, it's kind of nice to see.

mishar

Talking nostalgia. One of my first cars. 1972 NSU TT. Yes same TT as Audi. Same font too. It was made in Neckasulm, same factory where A8's are made.

Rowlie

Cool. I've never seen one of those. Was it similar size to a BMW 2002?

mishar

No. It was quite smaller. Only 650kg (1433lb) 1.2L 4 cylinder 65HP air cooled engine at the rear. But on some diet it easily came to 600kg and with over sized pistons to 1.3L. Two double barrel Weber carburetors, exhaust manifold and relaxed muffler would pump up 130HP. That's very close to S8 weight/power rate. It would easily outrun it on any but strait road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3gNMw-57n4

Bigbottlebob

Yep,

I had a Fox a long time ago (my first Audi)
I remember carrying around a can of WD 40 to hit the CV joints when they got
noisy (boots were trashed) but hey at that age I wasnt as interested in fixing as I was in keeping going.

That car and I had a lot of interesting experiences..