Abt Sportsline is a motor racing and auto tuning company based in
Kempten im AllgäuKempten im Allgäu is the largest city in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. Population was c. 61,000 in 2006. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later overtaken by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Abt mainly deals with
AudiAUDI AG, is a German company which produces luxury cars under the Audi brand, . It is part of the Volkswagen Group. The name Audi is based on a Latin translation of the surname of the founder August Horch, itself the German word for “listen!"Audi is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany.It...
, and the related primary
Volkswagen GroupVolkswagen Group is a German automobile manufacturing group, currently the third largest automobile maker in the world, and the largest in Europe...
brands -
VolkswagenThe Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft , also known as Volkswagen Group or as VW, is an automobile manufacturer and mobility organisation based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany and is the pioneer brand within the Volkswagen Group, which contains the car brands Audi AG, Bentley Motors Ltd.,...
,
ŠkodaŠkoda Auto , also known as Skoda, is an automobile manufacturer based in the Czech Republic, Škoda became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 1991, which also contains the car brands Volkswagen, Audi AG, Bentley Motors Ltd., Automobiles Bugatti SA, Automobili Lamborghini Holding S.p.A., SEAT,...
, and
SEATSEAT, S.A. is a Spanish automobile manufacturer founded in 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria , with initial Fiat assistance, and now a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group. Its headquarters are at Martorell near Barcelona, Spain...
.
Johann Abt (born December 1935), who continued a horseshoeing tradition of his family with motor cars, was a motorcycling and
hillclimbingHillclimbing is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course....
racer for
AbarthAbarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Italian-Austrian Karl Abarth in Turin in 1949.- History :In the 1960s, Abarth & C. S.r.l was quite successful in hillclimbing and sports car racing, mainly in classes from 850cc up to 2000cc, competing with Porsche 904 and Ferrari Dino...
factory team until 1970. He later entered cars with his own team, winning the "Trophée de l’Avenir“ and other series.
Since the death of their father Johann in 2003, the company with 100 employees has been run by the brothers Hans-Jürgen Abt (born 1962, Managing Director) and
Christian AbtChristian Abt is a successful race car driver born in Kempten, Germany, into a family of amateur race drivers and car dealers....
who is also a race car driver.
After Christian Abt won the German STW
SupertouringSuper Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created for the British Touring Car Championship in 1990...
championship title in 1999 with an
Audi A4The Audi A4 is a compact executive car produced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG since late 1994. The initial generation A4 succeeded the four previous generations of the Audi 80...
, a quick decision was made to join the new
Deutsche Tourenwagen MastersThe Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is a touring car racing series based in Germany, but also with rounds elsewhere in Europe....
.
Abt Sportsline is a motor racing and auto tuning company based in
Kempten im AllgäuKempten im Allgäu is the largest city in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. Population was c. 61,000 in 2006. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later overtaken by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Abt mainly deals with
AudiAUDI AG, is a German company which produces luxury cars under the Audi brand, . It is part of the Volkswagen Group. The name Audi is based on a Latin translation of the surname of the founder August Horch, itself the German word for “listen!"Audi is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany.It...
, and the related primary
Volkswagen GroupVolkswagen Group is a German automobile manufacturing group, currently the third largest automobile maker in the world, and the largest in Europe...
brands -
VolkswagenThe Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft , also known as Volkswagen Group or as VW, is an automobile manufacturer and mobility organisation based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany and is the pioneer brand within the Volkswagen Group, which contains the car brands Audi AG, Bentley Motors Ltd.,...
,
ŠkodaŠkoda Auto , also known as Skoda, is an automobile manufacturer based in the Czech Republic, Škoda became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group in 1991, which also contains the car brands Volkswagen, Audi AG, Bentley Motors Ltd., Automobiles Bugatti SA, Automobili Lamborghini Holding S.p.A., SEAT,...
, and
SEATSEAT, S.A. is a Spanish automobile manufacturer founded in 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria , with initial Fiat assistance, and now a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group. Its headquarters are at Martorell near Barcelona, Spain...
.
History
Johann Abt (born December 1935), who continued a horseshoeing tradition of his family with motor cars, was a motorcycling and
hillclimbingHillclimbing is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course....
racer for
AbarthAbarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Italian-Austrian Karl Abarth in Turin in 1949.- History :In the 1960s, Abarth & C. S.r.l was quite successful in hillclimbing and sports car racing, mainly in classes from 850cc up to 2000cc, competing with Porsche 904 and Ferrari Dino...
factory team until 1970. He later entered cars with his own team, winning the "Trophée de l’Avenir“ and other series.
Since the death of their father Johann in 2003, the company with 100 employees has been run by the brothers Hans-Jürgen Abt (born 1962, Managing Director) and
Christian AbtChristian Abt is a successful race car driver born in Kempten, Germany, into a family of amateur race drivers and car dealers....
who is also a race car driver.
After Christian Abt won the German STW
SupertouringSuper Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created for the British Touring Car Championship in 1990...
championship title in 1999 with an
Audi A4The Audi A4 is a compact executive car produced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG since late 1994. The initial generation A4 succeeded the four previous generations of the Audi 80...
, a quick decision was made to join the new
Deutsche Tourenwagen MastersThe Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is a touring car racing series based in Germany, but also with rounds elsewhere in Europe....
. The new Abt-
Audi TTThe Audi TT is a sports car manufactured by German automaker Audi AG since 1998 in Győr, Hungary. It is now in its second generation — and available as a 2+2 coupé or two-seater roadster.-Origins:...
-R initially showed their lack of development time, but in 2002 the team celebrated the biggest success in the company’s history with
Laurent AïelloLaurent Aïello is a retired race car driver.He has won four touring car championships during his career – French Supertouring Championship in 1994, followed by the German Super Tourenwagen Cup in 1997. In his debut and only year in the British Touring Car Championship in 1999, he won the...
’s title in the DTM.
In the 2003 DTM season, Abt Sportsline gave their 19-year-old apprentice
Peter TertingPeter Terting is a German auto racing driver, born on February 19 1984 in Kempten. He won the Volkswagen Lupo Cup in 2002, earning him a DTM drive for Abt Sportsline in 2003, although this proved to be too big a step up, and the teenager struggled to be competitive.After winning the 2004 German...
the opportunity to drive one of their cars, after the
rookieRookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport and has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...
had won the
ADACThe ADAC is Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club, with 16,070,180 members in December 2007 . It was founded on May 24, 1903 as "Deutsche Motorradfahrer-Vereinigung" and was renamed in 1911...
VW LupoThe Volkswagen Lupo is a city car manufactured by German automaker Volkswagen from 1998 to 2005.It was introduced in 1998 to fill a gap at the bottom of the VW model range caused by the increasing size and weight of the VW Polo. Rivals included the Ford Ka, the Opel Agila and the Fiat Seicento...
Cup series title in 2002. The young man could not really cope with the pressure in the professional competitions, though, but the move by Abt is remarkable anyway.
Aftermarket
Abt has taken much of their racing knowledge and adapted it for the street, making the company a successful tuner for the full
Volkswagen GroupVolkswagen Group is a German automobile manufacturing group, currently the third largest automobile maker in the world, and the largest in Europe...
line of products (including Audi and SEAT).
Notable cars
- AS4-R - A highly modified B7 A4
The Audi A4 is a compact executive car produced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG since late 1994. The initial generation A4 succeeded the four previous generations of the Audi 80...
Avant, the ASR-R makes use of the bi-turboTwin-turbo refers to a turbocharged engine on which two turbochargers compress the intake charge. There are two commonly used twin turbo configurations; parallel twin-turbo, and sequential twin-turbo...
2.7L V6A V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
to produce at 6800 rpm, and of torque at 3300 rpm! Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine called the AS4-R, "a grocery getter that delivers," and said it, "handles like a toy..."
- TT-R - A supercharged second generation V6 Audi TT
The Audi TT is a sports car manufactured by German automaker Audi AG since 1998 in Győr, Hungary. It is now in its second generation — and available as a 2+2 coupé or two-seater roadster.-Origins:...
.
- R8-R - Not yet released ABT's R8 will feature a supercharger
A supercharger is an air compressor used for forced induction of an internal combustion engine. The greater mass flow-rate provides more oxygen to support combustion than would be available in a naturally-aspirated engine, which allows more fuel to be provided and more work to be done per cycle,...
mated to Audi's incredible 4.2L V8A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
for a total horsepower output of .
External links