Start with what the Audi 920 is: a car with 3,281 cc straight-6, built from 1938 to 1940, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer. 1,281 were built.
The story
The Audi 920 is a car introduced in 1938 by the Audi division of Auto Union to replace the Audi Front UW 225. Its engine was a shortened version of the eight-cylinder in-line engine used by sister company Horch. The car was planned to occupy a niche in the Auto Union range between the large Horch products and the middle market cars produced by Wanderer. Audi had no stand-alone production facilities at that time and the car was produced, like its predecessor, at the Horch plant. The 920 featured a front-mounted six-cylinder in-line engine with a displacement of 3,281 cc. A maximum output of 75 PS (55 kW; 74 hp) at 3,000 rpm was claimed along with a maximum speed of 130 km/h (81 mph).
A floor-mounted lever controlled the four-speed gearbox: this delivered power to the rear wheels, which represented a technological retreat from the innovative front-wheel drive configuration of the 920's predecessor. The box-section chassis featured semi-independent suspension at the front and a swing-axle arrangement at the rear. The Audi 920 and the British Austin 16 were the only European cars to incorporate design cues from the 1937 Buicks for their front end grille treatment. Production of almost all passenger cars came to an end in Germany as European war intensified. By the time production of the last pre-war Audi came to an end in 1940, 1,281 of the cars had been produced. The Audi/Horch factories in Zwickau were badly damaged during the war and were seized by the East German government following the partition of Germany - forcing parent company Auto Union to relocate to Ingolstadt, B
What is underneath
The engine is 3,281 cc straight-6. On the scales it comes to 1640 kg. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 3100-3290 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Audi line-up the Audi 920 has a clear place: it replaced the Audi Front UW 225; it handed the line to the Audi 100; the factory was Zwickau, German Reich (Horch plant). The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the Toyota Toyota. Nearby in the Audi catalogue sit the Audi 200 and the Audi 225.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Audi 920 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.