Tell Me There Isn’t Something Hilarious About This Image: Cold Start

Yesterday, I got this Audi-published book of Audi’s history for a buck and a half at a used book store, and it’s a lot better than you’d think for a corporate self-published history. Maybe that’s because the history of Audi is actually weirdly complicated: Audi is just the lone surviving name from the companies that formed the Auto-Union (Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer), and there are periods of association with Mercedes-Bnz, NSU, and then Volkswagen. And even now, you could argue that even though VW bought NSU-Auto Union, like a virus they took over VW, and modern VW is, really, modern DKW/Auto Union. Anyway, more importantly, look how hilarious that 17-passenger sightseeing Horch car is up there, from 1912.

There’s something about the length of the car, the slight ramping up of the seats to the rear, the proportions, and all those be-hatted people that make this thing feel, I don’t know, almost cartoonish? If they were animals in those hats, this would feel like it drove out of Richard Scarry’s Busytown.

Also, can you imagine the process of putting up that top? It might take everyone in that thing, requiring the same levels of co-ordination as an Amish barn-raising.

Also fascinating in this book was this:

So this 1917 Horch was a product of WWI materials deprivation, and, despite having a luxurious three headlamps, had wooden tires. Wooden! Why wood? I’d think layers of leather or something would be better than wood? How do wooden tires perform? Is there any flex? Any grip? Can you do a burnout and it smells like camping? What about compressed paper? Rope? Sausages?

Fascinating stuff in this book! More to come!