MEGA FACTORIES: AUDI R8

Audi traces its history back to 1899 when August Horch established a brand, Horch, to compete with Benz and Mercedes. Horch had a dispute with his business partners and he left the company. Since he no longer owned the rights to his own name, he started a new company, naming it “Audi,” Latin for horch or “hark.” In 1932, Audi joined forces with three other companies to form Auto Union. The original four companies of Auto Union are represented by the overlapping rings of the Audi logo. Just 120 of the Audi factory’s best employees qualify to work on the prestigious R8 assembly line. More than half of R8 workers are over 40. It is said that the easiest way to spot them is to look for the gray hair. The factory calls them “silverliners.” On an average day, the Audi factory in Neckarsulm, Germany, turns out just 20 R8s. It takes eight days or 70 hours of time on the assembly line to transform the R8 from raw aluminium to one of the fastest cars on the road.