Real Road Test: 1967 Audi 80 Variant! (not DKW) 

Hi ! The engine is the "Mitteldruckmotor" - due to its initially high compression of 11.2:1 settled between Diesel- and Petrol-Engines. It was intended for the Mercedes Low-End-Modell W118, which however never came. Back in the mid-60s it was a rather progressive and modern engine and it should be powerful and fuel-efficient. It made it only to the Audi 100 (1st generation) up to 1974 with a 10:1 and lower compression. Looking closely while you were driving I'd noted that you did most of the tour in 3rd or 4th gear. That thing had a surprising push even in 3rd gear - sufficient to accelerate from out of a roundabout ... where you need to go back to second in a modern 1.2 Liter FSI powered car with 100-something horsepowers but absense of torque ... And - Yes - these cars were glasshouses. You had a good view to all sides while most modern cars resemble bunkers on wheels with only view slots to look through. They might be better off in case of a roll-over ... but *normally* you try to keep the wheels on the road so better lookout pays for the over all driving situation. (And the fun seeing where you go !) You should probably try one of the later 90 or Super-90 or the Audi 100 of first generation with stickshift and properly mounted seatbelts. Thanks for sharing.

Nice video of what was an expensive high powered car back in the day! Back then nobody bothered wearing a sear belt, so the h/brake & g/change would have been less of an issue.

Super nice looking car and nice history. Indeed SUPER RARE. In 1916 started Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen (1878-1964) from Danmark in Germany a factory to make steam engines. DKW stands for Dampf-Kraft-Wagen.

Had a 1974 Audi 80 and it was quite powerful. The initial low weight got furtherly diminished by the parts rusting away. There was a nice Aud 100 coupé.

That was fantastic. Looking forward to the NSU big time....Used to see Ro80s on the road regularly until the mid 80s. I guess everyone knows the old story about passing Ro80 drivers greeting each other with raised fingers - the number of fingers = number of engines replaced. The Audi was beautiful inside and out. Great work here.

What a lovely looking Audi. Clap hand wipers ftw! I used to love them on the old Mercs.

I know I tend to compare things to my first love, but I think the Renault 16 really got the layout right putting the engine _behind_ the front wheels and yes, a much better gearchange. But that said... it's a lovely-looking car. I really used to like the styling of these older Audis from the late 60s/early 70s, the (F104) 100 being my favourite (especially the Coupé S)

Looking forward to the Ro80 drive! My mate's dad had one in the early 70s and I can remember it being very advanced.

Wow, that's a seriously rare car, I wasn't even aware they'd done an estate version!

Loving the retro road tests. It's always interesting to revisit these early models after so many years to test the level of rose tinit on your spectacles . Great stuff . Thanks very much .

Nice condition and seems to be thoughtfully restored or looked after and nice old school sound. Thanks Ian.

Enjoying your review's, very natural and relaxing. Teaching me about motors I never knew existed. Top content!

My GP in my youth had one. Those were doctors that really came to your home, for those who are younger.

Frankly baffling !!!! Brilliant, feel I'm going to be learning again, thanks HubN

Excellent. A thoroughly desirable motor. Thanks for a great video Hubster

Amazing isn't it. There isn't a single car designer (nor state of the art computer software) that would even begin to design such a unique-looking car in this day and age. What an utterly superb piece of automotive machinery. Of all the cars you've tested for us, I would actually ADORE owning this particular masterpiece. The column change and handbrake just add to its charm and appeal. I think I'm actually in love. 😍😍😍😍

Love the channel. So many weird and wonderful cars I've never even heard of and explained excellently. Cheers for the content :)

How interesting Mr HubNut, another car I've never heard of or seen before ! In our necks of the woods anyway; great road test, as always.Thank you.

You learn something new every day, I been around cars since I was 7, but at 52 I find out how Audi does its model names, I didn't know that Audi does its models based on its Horsepower ratings. Also the Audi 80 in the US in the mid 70s was sold as the Audi Fox and the same was still being made in Brazil & sold as a Volkswagen up until the 90s. I thought I threw that trivia in.

I can't remember seeing this Audi live back in time in the Netherlands, nice video and history lesson, thank you Ian.

Nice old car - Can't wait for the RO80 test!!!!!

Well I've not seen one of these for many, many years. Thank you for the history lesson Ian.

Lovely old car even with it's little Foibles, I like interesting stories of how the badges of car makers come about, thanks for that one. Opening Quarterlight windows...yes please.

I love that Hubnut has so much fun making the opening Lancaster credits different and fun. First time he did a "PSCHOUUUUU" during that opener. Also, i appreciate the history lesson on the Audi name because i never understood where it came from. I know the original company, Auto Union, was the four rings but was never taught that Audi was one of the four rings. So basically Audi was one of four companies to make up the brand Auto Union?? And somehow when Volkswagen bought all the companies out, they renamed the company Audi?? My first car was an Audi 4000s(an 80 in Europe) here in the states and i just loved it to pieces. No really, it fell to pieces and cost me thousands and thousands in repair bills. Still loved it though. Lol.

Beautiful thing. History of the name was partic interesting. Thanks Ian !

What a gorgeous jiggly car ... and an encyclopaedic run down on the history - excellent I’ve had Audi A4’s, and currently an S4 V8 ... yes the engines are mounted north south, and yes they are a pain in the ass to get at anything ... that’s a bit of a trademark right there ;-)

Really enjoyed your review as always. I love these early Audis - I remember these being reviewed in Car magazine at the time and being wowed from the outset (I was about 11 years old).

My father had a saloon version of these when it was new, bought from Drake & Fletcher in Maidstone, who IIRC were also the Mercedes dealers in the town. It was a white 70 saloon with black vinyl trim and a painted metal dashboard. Once he had got used to the column gearchange he liked it a lot and it felt superbly built. He went on to have two 100s later on, a 100 GL and a 100 GL 5E.

I am definitely liking the little outro's/bloopers at the end of your videos!

Enjoyed that, was interesting. Looking forward to the NSU vid👍

A merc engine, a stick gearshift, the first Audi, the first Audi 80, and those seat belt low points were original. I remember as a kid who loved cars, there were lots of cars with seat belt points as low as those and many were a costly option. All in all, a fantastic test. Keep up the good work.

What a beautiful restoration. Interesting video too.

Ooo the F103....my Uncle owned F102 ( two stroke) and did buy a Super 90 in 1969. When I was a little boy...i may hold the wheel when go for a drive. ( yeah...the '60s, safety wasn't the first concern of ppl😜). No speed limits...and a lot of fun, when overtaking the Beetles- 2Cv etc....( I know....but who cares when your young.😜😜😜😜)

Very good video Mr Hubnut.

My late Dad had an Audi 100 C1 4-door saloon in around 1970/71. I can't tell you what a refined and upmarket car it felt compared to the brit equivalents he'd previously had. Back then, having an Audi didn't have the connotations it has today - it was viewed as pretty exotic and certainly very continental. I was beside myself when he then replaced it with the legendary 100 Coupe S, I was the envy of all my school mates then and the 1.9 engine felt very powerful and sporty. Loved the review and interesting to see the forerunner of dad's cars.

Quite a nice looking car as well, great video. Really enjoy these

Another Superb Road Test From You Ian! My Education Has Been Furthered! As I Wasn't Aware Of The Audi 80 Estate Variant From Then! Beautifully Restored Though! You Could Tell That Unmistakable German Quality And Attention To Detail! The Joy Of Vinyl Upholstery From That Era! There Was A Feeling That They Had Put Much Effort Into Making That Fake Wood As Real As Possible!! A Nicely Designed Shape To! Brilliant Review Ian! Can't Wait For The RO80 Test!!!!!

The Ro80 was so far ahead of it's time, remarkable car. Can't wait for the HubNut review

I drive this car in the 80tis . I love this car forever ! So much Beautiful ! So thank you very much to Show this car !

Very civilised, very nostalgic. All that was missing was the pipe and driving gloves.

Gorgeous looker, no unsightly rear doors to spoil the long lines. Nicer to look at than drive, one suspects.

My brother in law sold these new in the states, and we even did a road trip in his demonstrator. It was a pretty amazing at the time. And in only twenty years Audi would own the rally scene, wow.

Good review Ian, lovely example of a very rare car. (Nice colour too, same as my Skoda.) Thanks again as always.

I had a 1973 Audi, in 1980. The first front wheel drive car that I ever drove. It was fun as long as you did not have to buy parts. A water pump cost hundreds of dollars in Canada when a domestic car pump was $16!

I’m not even in the Audi, but I’m convinced I can smell those leatherette seats, oh memories, and those little windows you opened in the front are called fly windows, my dad loved those and still thinks cars should still have them

I had as a child, a a Corgi model of a RO80 which was the talk of the school! Doors bonnet and boot all opening and working suspension. However, best of all, when you pushed down the front suspension the headlights came on and similarly the rear lights with the rear suspension! Coolest corgi in town by a country mile!

And some nice "winky" action, right at the end. You spoil us, sir ;-)

Another great video Ian :-)

You must pull some lamb-wool seat covers over the vinyl!

Great video Ian, thanks.

I went to uni at Cranfield... My grandpa had DKW and my dad had a type 3 VW. Very relevant vid!

Dear Ian, My Norwegian grandmother had an A 60 in about 1970 after two Austin 1100s. I remember this sort of car, but she hung onto the gears higher than you! She wa a mental driver!! No doubt the reason the Austins died early. My grandfather had a pair of AMC Rambler Classic Staiton Wagons at the same time. Such a contrast. He said the Volvo [Amazon and 145] were too narrow! After the A60 my grandmother went for for a VW Golf Mk2, and then Square Passat. Happy days!

What a lovely car! I’m also looking forward to the Ro80 video 👍🏽

Woohoo! Halfway through the autoshite vid and this pops up! Double whammy of hubnut

love the video mate that is a awesome car i cant wait for the RO80 video. never seen one before

Just charming. Another transport gem. Thanks.

Nice to see the NSU hubnut,remember these from the early 70s👍👍👍

I wish they still made cars like this...really nice 😎👍👍

Lovely old thing! Many of the interior bits appear to have a strong Volkswagen flavor to them.

Lovely car, classy, stylish, understated and very practical. Column gearchange apart it appears pretty modern too for a late 60's car. You can still see DNA from this car in modern Audis. A friend has an early 2000's Audi S4 and the engine is almost located ahead of the front axle line in that. Again at the time journalists complained of understeer but I've driven it and there's so much grip even in the wet you'd have to be seriously irresponsible to get anywhere near its limits on a public road!

She's a lovely little design always liked Audi's earlier cars Especially the Audi 100 coupe s models lovely looking cars. I only owned one Audi an Audi A6 P reg 1.8 quattro model bought on a whim after my MK3 Cavaliers bodywork was starting to fall apart enjoyed learning the history of these cars quite fascinating alwats a joy Mr Hubnut.

Interesting bit of kit that..... Ignoring the rather odd column shift... I remember my dad having an Audi 100 saloon which went like the clappers for its day until a fuel leak set it on fire. And a nice bit of history Mr Hub.... Learn something new every day! And the nsu - Nazda have a lot to be thankful for there - I remember a fried had 2 - one with original rotory and it was amazing, turbine smooth with a 3 speed semi auto box (pneumatic clutch).... I heard that most ended up with Ford engines when supply of engines ran out and bankrupt nsu but I don't know if its true or not.

two very interesting motorcars, my granddad had a chocolate brown 1976 Audi 80 saloon before he bought the Renault 16 TX, the Renault was column change but not sure about his early Audi 80 LS I think that was a conventional 4 speed floor change. This one is very early for an Audi indeed. The absolute beauty of the Ro80 is very distracting, that will make a good video :) plus I like the last 10 seconds of this video

Lovely looking car, especially in that colour. I seem to recall Audi using that layout of the engine overhanging the front wheels until quite recently, a friend's S4 from the 00s was the same.

Keep ‘em coming - marvellous

Good choice from the VW collection - I knew Audi had emerged from the ashes of Auto Union at some point in the second half of the 20th C, so good to see what with and a bit of the story around it. My friends mum used to give me a lift to school in an 80's, then 90's Audi 80 - which still makes up almost all of my experience of being in an Audi.

I owned two Super-90 Variants, plus a 4-door parts-car, between 1977 and 1992, and have been told the Super-90 Variant was only sold in North America. All had floor-shift here, with springs instead of a prop-rod for the hood. "70 sedans had the long tail-lights and the curved dash wrapped in brown faux wood. '71 and '72 got short, fat tail-lights off the 100 model with a flat faux blond-wood covered dash. All US models got 7" round US-legal headlights for a slight bug-eye look. "72 engines lowered compression to allow regular unleaded gas, as unleaded was only widely available in regular at the time. Horsepower dropped from 100 US to about 85, with about a 10% increase in fuel consumption. The Super-90s had some very unique engineering, including 4-wheel torsion-bar suspension and inboard disc-brakes. Fortunately, for a front-drive, they were fairly easy to work on, and I enjoyed driving them, as my Audis were quite trouble-prone over the years I had them. Rust and lack of parts finally killed mine by 1992. Happy Motoring, Mark

I saw a Type 3 Variant yesterday (in Finland). I was awestruck that one of them still existed.

Lovely - I miss my early 80s 80. A202XSC was the last car I owned before giving up owning vehicles for over a decade - a hiatus I broke in 2012 when I bought Gloria the Transit.

Very nicely restored sample, looks 'beautiful', though I never liked the 60's style of many German cars, like the fish bowl headlights (exception is perhaps the NSU 1000). Clearly a design from the early sixties, based on the DKW of that era. The Ro80 shows the leap that was being made in the late sixties, such a difference. Eagerly awaiting your video on the NSU!

What a beauty (sehr schon). Audi were quite plainly not afraid to be different, engine in front of transaxle gearbox (has served Subaru well), radiator beside engine on an angle. We like it!

That is a lovely car - crisp clean styling - space. I like it.

My father in law had a 1973 Audi fox 4 cylinder back in the day similar looking to what you are testing a 4door saloon a brilliant little car it was

Love the cars styling and your video, she did seem to go well 👍

Another great video Ian. Lovely looking car,wouldn't fancy that column gear change though. 🙂

My father had an Audi 60 1969 for many years a fantastic car!

Interesting Ian. My first car was a DKW, but fitted with a 1500 BMC engine. Only ran it a few weeks, before getting a Mini. I started spending my spare time with Carl, who became my friend and mentor. He had fitted a Ford 1500 GT engine in one, hence making one of the first "super Mini's" however the man who did mine had not done a good job.

I’m loving your world Ian, I’m loving your world and I loved this Audi. Pete UK

What a beautiful car, lots of TLC given to it. Can't wait for the Ro80 vid, as I've actually driven one. Interested to see what you think.

afternoon Mr Hub, nice 26 min vid to relax to.

Great video.always liked these lesser known German cars.I can recall as a boy when these audi cars appeared they were considered quite high end luxury vehicles.here in Glasgow D kw junior and borgward were not uncommon in early 1960s and nsu prinz4 was very popular right through to the mid 70s

Tester might have been dissing the disc brakes' lack of feel compared to the mostly drum setup on motors of the period? Good job planting the camera for the road test, Ian, the quarterlight let in some induction roar, business with the controls, top ride out :)

Gorgeous looking car. Something very fascinating about German cars from around this era. 👍

So when people say it's the LT van engine it's a durable design. I love them. When I have my old first year 1976 / 77 model year ( i think it was August to October I forget.. C2 Audi 100 up and running I am considering donating it to Audi UK it's highly original 40,600 miles from new 2ltr been of the road 30 years and finding parts is slow and expensive. When I finish the mechanical work brakes etc. You are welcome to have a test run. Can't be many in Scotland due to rust. A rare survivor. Original sills inner and outer front, rear valances are mint as are wheel arches. Cream Brown, burnt orange interior and fake wood. Oddly enough the Kurt Lotz era 1968 to 1971 is my fave dispite the resulting quality drop and poor decisions. He was more an accountant rather an engineer.

My tearaway uncle had the saloon version of this car. He used to zoom around at 80 - 85 mph in the thing, no seat belt, puffing a pipe. He was some sort of top secret Navy submarine electronics chap, tall and thin.

hello Mr Hubnut. what a nice survivor. I had an X Plate audui coupe GT 5E i think it was a 1.9 inline 5 with a 5 speed manual and a tilt sunroof you could store in the boot. very fun ugrade from the J plate capri 1.6 that may have been a gxl. what a shock power steering was. I also had a similar vintage audi 100 with the 2.2 inline five with an auto box that was great untill it rained and due to the filler pipe having rusted into a gutter it got rain water in the fuel injection. I did enjoy the five cylinder audi engines great sound and power delivery. I did have a very scary ride in an ro80a when I was in my teens it seemed mad fast to me

I had a 1993 Audi 80 2.0E (ZOE). I loved it :)

We've had 2 Audi 80s, 2 A4s and an A6 Avant over the years, and yes my first car as a student was a Lada1500 combi Estate in hearing aid beige, the most fun on 4 wheels until my present BMW convertible on runflats in the rain

Extra bonus ptchew at the start, and fancy twirling ptchew at the end. I’m only here for the ptchews.... :)

Great entertainment again, Mr. Seabrook.

Nice film Ian, looks like a front end shunt would be expensive if not catastrophic for the engine!! although the rad and fan will be safe,LOL. Good looking car overall. Nice ending with the pleasant bi metal strip switching of the filament bulb indicators, hate the stark sudden on off from LEDs.

what a beautiful car never seen one

My old neighbour had an NSU my dad bought a rhd Audi 80 L when i lived in Germany. Bright yellow.

Nice road test of the car Ian,it was a bit bouncy on the drive but it's a old car,pulls very well on the road.

German schoolteachers, in particular Latin teachers, drove these back in the day. Nothing to do with the Audi hooligans known today. Rare find, most rusted away by the mid '80s. Great video!

Very interesting to see the earlier days of the Audi 80. I had a much newer '82 model that I enjoyed a lot - stood up well to being used as a van a lot of the time! Not a fan of manual column shift myself. Had a few and Renault 16TX stood out as the best to use and Mitsubishi L300(?) van was the worst. That one gave me back ache from leaning forward for the furthest gears.

I was looking forward to some Marina action (you did promise!) but, ahem, anyway.... I remember seeing the Audi in another recent video of yours - I did wonder about it. What a fantastic resto job (as an Australian would say). Another great video, very informative.

Here is a bit of trivia for you. After August Horch had been removed from the company bearing his name that he founded, he was in the process of starting again. Unable to use his name, he was struggling to come up with a new one for his fledgling car company. His son was a latin scholar and mentioned that as "Horch" means "to listen" in German (where we get "hark" from), his son suggested using the latin word for "to listen" - Audi. The rest, as they say, is history.

Great informative review as ever. Mat Watson from Car Wow has jumped on your bandwagon & 'bought' a Polski Fiat 126, declared it the best car in the world on here - sort of hard to believe when most of his other videos feature him eulogising about various supercars.

I begged my father in the 70,s to buy one of those Audi’s, I always thought they were way ahead of other cars in there range... still looks great thought. Love all the glass in those older car gives the car a great panoramic view from inside