Paths Forward: 1990s Renderings of B5 Future Relevant to Audi’s Current Challenge

ooooIYKYK, ISSUE #0018

Ever notice that the older you get the younger old things seem? Take that first Audi A4 (B5), which hit the market all the way back in 1995. Having just graduated from college that year, I was a newly-minted self-identifying adult. And that new A4, it not only grabbed my attention but also the attention of seemingly everyone else in the mid-90s German automotive enthusiast space.

YEARS BEFORE I DID MY AUDI / VORTEX THING

I was working in sales for the family business that catered to the construction industry, though was quickly learning it wasn’t my passion. My office had acquired a very early scanner with rudimentary black and white equivalent to today’s Photoshop by Adobe. The idea was to create promotional flyers and other collateral to aid in sales. I enjoyed working with the graphics more than selling tools, and found myself staying after work to focus on creating images of cars.

For me, this was the beginning of a long life practice of image rendering. I discovered it was much easier to create visions of cars I fantasized about and, as you can see here, the B5 Audi A4 I couldn’t afford at the time was an early focus.

Given the confines of my work were black and white only, line art worked best. I found myself inspired by the stack of Road & Track magazines I’d amassed over the years with their line art cutaway drawings attached to every road test. So, when the B5 A4 got tested, I naturally scanned it.

Of course, it was a cutaway, so cloning, cutting and clearing were painstaking. Still, they netted me a clear side view of the car I was fantasizing about. And once I’d realized I could create the basic car, it didn’t take long to find the inspiration to change it even more.

1996 Audi A4 BTCC Racecar (photo: Audi AG)

B5 MARKED A NEW ERA

By 1996, Audi had only introduced the basic sedan and Avant. Even the S4 was years away, but cars like the Coupé quattro, Cabriolet and RS2 of the early 90s were seared into my head as fantasy cars as well.

In 1996, I figured it was just a matter of time before Audi released these variants as well. However, much like Audi finds itself today constricted by budgets (though for different reasons) the B5 era would also represent a stepping back from more niche and passion-inspired models with less than four doors.

I didn’t know that at the time. Come to think of it, there’s a lot I didn’t know at the time. I figured passion variants were right around the corner and quickly created a visual for what I hoped to see.

When it came to imagining a successor to the RS2, the B5 RS 4 was years away. Considering the schema of that post RS2 moment in time, it seemed natural Audi would again turn to Porsche for the RS variant. Formulaically, I pulled from the period Porsche lineup… namely the 993-era 911 with its Cup 2 wheels and 993 styling cues. Road & Track had already tested that car too, so more cutting and pasting got me there. My only flourish beyond the Porsche pieces was an additional four-ring logo on the lower side sill that I felt harked the logos from the ur quattro.

At that time, Audi was years away from having the resources to build the B5 RS 4. It was also a generation away from having budget for another Cabriolet and three generations away from building another Coupé.

Early B5 Range Composite (rendering: George Achorn)

NEW BEGINNINGS

For me, this rendering marked a change. I was bored in a job and found myself stymied in a receding industry, yet I’d put in extra hours working on things like that B5 composite. Back in my D.C. apartment, I’d get online and pour over listserver digests like the quattro-L or early forums like Auto.com where I’d create posts that waxed on about how Piëch should buy Bugatti from Romano Artioli after losing Rolls-Royce to BMW. When it actually happened, part of me secretly wanted to believe that Piëch was reading my posts.

I proudly shared the A4 composite image with my new-to-me-then friend Brad Beardow at his small shop, the earliest iteration of 1552 Design. Yes, it’s that 1552 and would eventually evolve into the wheel brand. Back then it was a small upstairs office across the street from VW Springfield (Virginia). Brad hung this image on the wall in that little shop, which meant a lot to this car kid seeking his own creative outlet. His doing so helped fuel the fire of my automotive passion and growing my confidence as an enthusiast with all these ideas that would pop off like fireworks in my brain.

By the time I got a ride in 1552’s first A4, an ABT tuned 1.8T quattro owned by Brad’s 1552 partner Adrian Jones, my eyes were opened to the new potential. We’d just started VWvortex, and I was now coming to their shop as member of the newly-minted industry of online press.

By 1999, I watched in person as Audi pulled the wraps off of its first RS 4 Avant at the Frankfurt IAA. Sure, I was a bit disappointed that the RS 4 wasn’t an RS4 – now plus a space in the name and minus any Porsche association. It wasn’t what I expected. I felt a little disappointed that the RS 4 on that Frankfurt show floor was so different than the rendering that hung on the wall at 1552’s earliest Springfield office.

Audi RS 4 at the 1999 Frankfurt IAA (photo: George Achorn)

FERRIS SAID LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST. NOW IT MOVES SO MUCH FASTER.

Sometimes it takes time to rebuild, time that seems all that much more arduous by today’s digital standard. Whereas my B5 composite took me weeks to create in my spare time back in the mid-90s, A.I. can spit out so much more detailed renderings in mere seconds. For Audi, those cuts and changes put into place in 1995 also took almost five years to see an RS car, and over a decade to bring back a Coupé

It’s been so long, I think we forget that we’ve been here before. Alas, not many even had access to the internet back then, much less a platform to voice negative comments over such pivotal changes. Much of the concerns over paradigm changes at Audi today seem to me almost like echoes of 1995. Back then, the design changed. The model nomenclature changed. Badges changed. Passion models like coupés and convertibles went away. So did the much-loved 5-cylinder turbo.

In fact, Audi very nearly pulled out of North America altogether. They didn’t though. The brand showed fortitude just like it always does. It hunkered down, took its lumps and rebuilt. Things changed, but progress marches on… sometimes in ways you don’t expect or even want, but new dawns bring new opportunities and new passions. New traditions are formed. Audi and its community have been here before. We’re here now. We may return here to these rebuilding grounds again someday. It’s a cycle.

THE ooooIYKYK PODCAST

I’ve been intending to launch an Audi-focused podcast since the inception of this site. Years of hosting the Unfair Advantage Podcast for Audi Club had proven the value of the genre, and my years in the space have developed relationships that make for informed and entertaining storytelling.

That podcast launched just a few weeks ago, though in its first two episodes it’s gone a direction that is timely if not intentional at the outset. In most episodes, the intention is to celebrate Audi, though the first two installments are a bit more critical. @Auditography’s Speak up for Audi video launched around the same time and so speaking with him about that was prioritized for Episode 1. So was furthering the conversation with two of my close enthusiast confidants who both happen to have their own expertise in brand management for Episode 2.

In those first two episodes, I’ve been critical of the brand. That too I think is important. This is a brand aficionado site where we’re all part of the four ring family, but even family needs to have interventions at times. Those too are part of the cycle.

If you haven’t listened to the podcast yet, you can check it out on YouTube or other popular podcast distribution channels like Apple, Amazon, Spotify and more. I’d be curious what you think of those first two episodes, or other corners of the Audi world you’d like to see me cover.

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