PoloDriver

Audi celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2010, and part of its celebrations include the publication of Four Rings – The Audi Story, a 368-page book documenting the company’s illustrious and at times, ground-breaking past. Available in English and German language versions, Audi has posted new pages on its corporate website to document both the publication and the evolution of its models and, more excitingly, has released vintage colour publicity images of the Audi 50 at various locations.

The ‘new’ photographs depict the car in France as well as at the press launch in Sardinia in 1974, and have a typical Seventies look about them. The 50 is in the Four Rings book, too; a spread on pages 226 and 227 tell the development and production story of Audi’s premium supermini, on sale from 1974 to 1978. An online digital preview is available here; the book is published by Delius Klasing and can be ordered by clicking on this link. Head over to our Audi 50 publicity image gallery to see the new colour pictures.

The current issue of monthly independent VW title Volkswagen Driver features three pages on Rachel Inglis’s 1981 Derby GLS. We saw the car at the recent Stanford Hall event (coincidentally where the photos for the magazine feature were taken) and it really is a stunner. With only 21,000 miles on the clock since new, its paintwork gleams and the interior looks like brand new. Find out more in the June 2010 issue of Volkswagen Driver magazine on sale now.

Following the addition of a gallery of publicity images to our Audi 50 pages in the ‘Heritage’ section of the site this week, you can now find the basic specification of the baby Audi in the same area of PoloDriver. Click here to read about what made the Audi 50 tick, from its engine choices to its tyre sizes. There are also details of factory-fitted optional equipment, from car radios to headlamp washers.

Following our recent updated ‘Heritage’ page, here is a group of publicity images from the Audi 50’s launch, back in a more naive 1974. A sister car to the original Series 1 Polo, the Audi 50 was produced from 1974-1978 when the more successful baby Volkswagen deleted the Audi from the catalogues. Our thanks to Michael Höcker and the gang at Audi 50 Friends for permission to use the pictures – be sure to visit the brilliant German home of the Audi 50 for all the facts, figures and pictures on the first-generation Polo’s prestigious sister.

The Audi 50 played an important part in the history of the Volkswagen Polo. Born into a energy crisis-hit world, the smallest production Audi ever built soon had a cheaper and more popular sister to play with, as Volkswagen launched its own less expensive version. Setting a template for the premium supermini, the 50 was a test bed for many technological developments and ultimately gave its life for the baby VW. We’ve just updated our history of Audi’s forgotten supermini. Pop across here to read the full story of the Audi 50.