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

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

Cs Audibook1
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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.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

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:

Cs Audibook Woodtires

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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!

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Autojunkie
Autojunkie
1 year ago

Is it a paperback? Can you show a cover of the book? I’m wondering if it’s the same one I picked up at the museum in Germany back in 1995.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
1 year ago

The triple headlight, Braun electric shaver head look is awesome.

Amberturnsignalsarebetter
Amberturnsignalsarebetter
1 year ago

I didn’t realize those 30” Cadillac Escalade rims were just salvaged from a scrapyard full of 1917 Horches.

https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/people-are-putting-cadillac-escalades-on-30-inch-wheels-now-200332_1.jpg

SonOfLP500
SonOfLP500
1 year ago

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.

…and they are all sitting there in serried ranks looking neat and tidy, but loading/unloading the passengers through a single door with no aisle must have been chaos.

Last edited 1 year ago by SonOfLP500
John E
John E
1 year ago

The Germans had a fixation with extraordinarily large machines back then. Look at their rail guns and tanks from WWI. Were they compensating for something?

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