Engines
The F103 series were equipped exclusively with four-cylinder four-stroke engines. These were longitudinally mounted. This combination of front-wheel drive, which Auto Union's DKW brand had pioneered during the 1930s, and the longitudinally positioning of a four-cylinder engine would provide the basic template for Volkswagen's successful new Passat as well as the Audi models Audi 80 and Audi 100 after Volkswagen acquired the business from Daimler-Benz late in 1964. Since the chassis on the F103 was taken from the DKW F102 with a 3-cylinder two-stroke engine the longer engine meant that the cooling system had to be offset to the left of the engine instead of the normal position in front of it.
The engines of the F103 series were a joint development with Daimler-Benz who owned Auto-Union at the time (from 1958 to 1964). They were dubbed the Mitteldruckmotor (medium pressure engines), because of their unusually high compression ratio, mid-way between conventional petrol and diesel engines.
Read more about this topic: Audi F103
Famous quotes containing the word engines:
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—Thomas McGuane (b. 1939)