The Audi Type R was a large car produced by

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

between 1928 and 1932 as a successor to the

Audi Type M The Audi Type M was a large car first presented at the Berlin Motor Show in 1923 and produced by Audi between 1924 and 1927. The vehicle had a six-cylinder in-line engine with 4,655 cc of displacement. The engine incorporated several innovative f ...

. The Type R closely resembled the predecessor model, which had been perceived as too expensive. In reality the Type R was a little smaller than the Type M, its specification was less lavish and its price was lower. Nevertheless, it remained a large, expensive car produced during a period characterised by increasing austerity as the economy underwent the aftershocks from the

stock market crashes A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often foll ...

and bank failures of 1929. Like its even more extravagant predecessor the Type R struggled to find customers. The car had an eight-cylinder in-line sidevalve engine with 4,872 cc of displacement. It developed a claimed maximum of output at 3,300 rpm, which converted into a top speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). Gone were the light-metal cylinder head and overhead valves that had excited commentators on the Type M. The three-speed manual transmission represented a step back from the four-speed transmission of the earlier car, and while the Type R retained four-wheel brakes, these were now mechanically rather than hydraulically controlled. The Type R also lost some of the earlier car's bulk, its wheelbase being shorter than that of the Type M. The vast Pullmann-Limousine-bodied car was also 200 kg lighter, with an official weight of "only" 2,300 kg. Particularly noteworthy was the price of the Pullmann-Limousine-bodied car, with a manufacturer's listed price of 16,575 Marks, a significant cut when compared to the 22,300 Marks that had been asked four years earlier for the then newly introduced Type M, although it should be borne in mind that there was more general

price deflation In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate). Inflation reduces the value of currency over time, but sudden deflation ...

recorded in the German economy between 1928 and 1932. The Type R was much more efficient and less expensive than its predecessor, but it still found few buyers. 145 were eventually produced. Audi could not survive on these volumes and was running out of cash; purchase of the

business by

Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen (30 July 1878 – 12 August 1964) was a Danish engineer and industrialist. Life The son of a shipmaster who died when Rasmussen was still a young child, he attended middle school in Nakskov and in 1894 began an app ...

in 1928 came as a timely rescue.

Oswald Oswald may refer to: People *Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbur ...

, p. 42

Specifications

Sources

* Oswald, Werner: Deutsche Autos 1920-1945, Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, 10. Auflage (1996 edition), * {{Reflist Type R 1920s cars 1930s cars