The NSU Ro80 won
the Car of the year award in 1968 with 197 points. Second was the
Fiat 125 with 133 points and third the Simca 1100 with 94 points.
The Ro80 designed
by Claus Luthe, was considered very modern at the time. With a large
glass area and a very slippery shape, the car looked very futuristic
in 1968. The low drag coefficient of 0.355 allowed a top speed of 180
km/h. Not only the shape was ahead of its time, the Ro80 was also
technologically advanced, particularly the powertrain, a 84 kW 995 cc
twin-rotor Wankel engine driving the front wheels through a
semi-automatic transmission. The Wankel rotary engine was for the
first time used in the NSU Spider (1964).
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| First Place: NSU Ro80 |
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| Second Place: Fiat 125 |
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| Third Place: Simca 1100 |
In September 1969
the rectangular headlights were replaced with twin halogen units, and
air extractor vents appeared on the C-pillar behind the doors. In
August 1970 a slightly reshaped plastic grill replaced the original
metal grill. In May 1975 the rear lights were enlarged and the
bumpers were fitted with rubber inserts.
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| NSU Ro80 1967 |
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| NSU Ro80 1969 |
By 1969 NSU was
acquired by Volkswagen, and merged with Auto Union to create the
modern day Audi company as it is known today. The last designed NSU,
the NSU K70, was sold as the Volkswagen K70 (1970 – 1975).
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| NSU Ro80 1975 |
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| NSU Ro80 1975 |
Production of the
Ro80 started in October 1967 and the last examples came off the
production line in April 1977. In total 37398 NSU Ro80s were
produced.
NSU Ro80 ZDF Autotest with Rainer Günzler (German, 1967)
NSU Ro80 1969 advert with "Der Kommissar" stars
Erik Ode as Herbert Keller and Günther Schramm as Walter Grabert
NSU Ro80 Top Gear with Quentin Wilson (English, 1994)
NSU Ro80 Brochure, Germany 1967
NSU Ro80 Brochure, Germany 1971
NSU Ro80 Brochure, UK 1968
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