COMPANY

NSU, or NSU Motorenwerke AG to give it its full title, was founded almost 140 years ago in Germany. Jumping forward to the present, its legacy can still be seen in Audi, the firm that was formed when owner VW merged NSU with Auto Union at the end of the 1960s. This means the brand is still influencing the contemporary market, albeit in a much changed form.

Back in 1873, NSU started out producing knitting machines, before moving on to bikes in the 1880s and motorcycles in the early 1900s. This motorcycling heritage would eventually lead to several notable victories at the Isle of Man TT event throughout the 1950s.

In 1905, NSU built its first four wheeled vehicle and over the next decade, worked on models such as the 6/17 PS Doppelphaeton, of which there are still operational examples. It was not until after the Second World War that NSU began to make a real splash in the motor industry, using its success with motorbikes to launch cars during the 1950s and 60s.

The NSU Prinz was born in 1957 and it was the first car made by the company after WWII. Its regal name was alluded to in adverts, suggesting that drivers would feel kingly behind the wheel of one. Although it was a two-door saloon car, it had enough room for four adult passengers and its 20 horsepower engine was renowned for being noisy but thankfully simple to maintain.

In 1959, the NSU Sport Prinz, which featured a revamped design from Italy, was launched, upping the engine capacity and delivering a top speed of 75mph, although this was disputed. The Prinz range was expanded again in 1961 with the Prinz 4, which directly replaced the original model. When the Prinz 4 was on sale in the UK during the 1960s, it was a direct rival to the Mini, which it could not match in terms of performance but was certainly superior to when it came to seating and luggage room.

Although NSU was acquired by VW in 1969 and would eventually become a defunct brand, various models continued to be manufactured well into the 1970s. The NSU Ro 80 was one such example and at the time, this saloon car was ahead of its rivals in terms of technology. It won Car of the Year in 1968 thanks to its Wankel engine, which delivered 113bhp, but was not as reliable as the simpler, older models. This meant that used prices plummeted, but NSU and its parent firm managed to sell almost 40,000 during the decade in which it was produced. The Wankel engine was championed in other NSU vehicles such as the Spider. Although this type of powerhouse did not catch on amongst other mainstream vehicles, its technology can still be found today in the Mazda RX8.