Though Us residents could buy new vehicles designed by Audi ancestors DKW and NSU during the 1950s and 1960s (couple of did so), the Audi story as we know it right here truly commenced in 1969, when the 1970 100LS went on sale in the United States. The 100LS remained on sale by 1976 and acquired a tiny-but-devoted American adhering to, and I test my ideal to discover discarded examples throughout my junkyard travels. This has been a tricky job, with just a lone ’76 sedan appearing before my digicam all through the previous decade or so. Previous 7 days, nevertheless, I discovered this exceptionally unusual to start with-design-year 100LS in a property northeast of Denver.

Notice that the enterprise identify was “Audi NSU Car Union” at the time of this car’s manufacture that is what Volkswagen’s bosses named it following the 1969 acquisition of NSU, and the title caught till the organization turned just Audi AG in the 1980s. Date of manufacture was April of 1970, around the time when the Baader-Meinhoff Group was stirring up issues in West Germany.

Bob Hagestad ran a Porsche/Audi dealership on Colfax Avenue in Denver, became perfectly-regarded as a Colorado 924 racer, and went on to sell Volkswagens in Texas. 

This car or truck appears to have been effectively-cared-for for the duration of its 1st couple of many years, at which position it finished up spending numerous many years sitting outdoors in the harsh High Plains climate. A lot of the paint has been burned off its higher surfaces and there is certainly rust-by way of from numerous several years of winter snow buildup.

The when-deluxe interior has been irradiated into a dust-billowing crispiness.

As so normally happens with cars and trucks stored outdoors for lengthy periods in this article, rodents made their nests in the passenger and engine compartments. You want to be cautious with mouse-poop-crammed cars and trucks like this in Colorado boneyards, due to the fact hantavirus is a truly deadly risk in this article. I’ve noticed even worse rodent-poop automobiles than this, even though — considerably worse.

The 1.8-liter engine all the way at the front of the engine compartment manufactured 115 horsepower when new, which was rather superior electrical power for 1970.

The 4-on-the-ground guide was still point out-of-the-art in 1970, with most Detroit 3-pedal cars nonetheless functioning a few-on-the-trees. The final new four-pace guide motor vehicle offered in the United States strike the showrooms when this Audi was a quarter-century previous, so this variety of transmission remained appropriate for very a when. The 100LS bought an optional automated transmission setting up in 1971, and it value $200 more (about $1,310 in 2021 pounds).

The change diagram created into a typical VDO gauge housing is a pleasant contact.

These VDO/Kienzle clocks went into tens of millions of European automobiles in excess of the many years.

This Emden AM/FM radio was an $85 alternative. Which is about $555 in current-working day bucks, but unquestionably essential if you wished to listen to the hits of 1970 with the essential fidelity.

So how much was the complete car or truck? MSRP on the two-doorway 100LS sedan arrived to $3,695, or about $25,450 in 2021 pounds. In the meantime, the even larger and flashier 1970 Buick Gran Activity hardtop coupe value just $3,283, and that involved a 455-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) V8 rated at 350 horsepower. An American car shopper experienced to be one thing of a devoted Europhile to pick out a new Audi in 1970 (in that scenario, nevertheless, the $2,982 BMW 2002 would have been hard to resist).

I hope some Colorado 100LS restorers extract some usable components off this motor vehicle ahead of it faces the chilly steel jaws of the crusher!

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Like acquiring a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Mercedes-Benz 280SE, and a Cadillac Eldorado all at the same time!