Re: factory radio

[harrison <hsapir@multiverse.com>]

These Blaupunkt units are the very source of my displeasure.

harrison

Phil Payne wrote:

> An Audi cock-up.  It's called "not having the courage of their
> convictions".
>
> When Audi was designing the ur-quattro and the Audi 80 quattro, they
> had a whole raft full of good intentions.  I seriously believe they
> wanted to build what WMB now advertises that it has: "The Ultimate
> Driving Machine".  Part of this was intended to be the radio.
>
> Audi, being utilitarian and aligned strongly to the domestic market, had
> other priorities to those that many people have today.  As engineers
> (and they've said this to me) they maintained that a car is not an ideal
> place to listen to high quality sound systems - if you have them loud
> enough to mask the inherent noise of the vehicle, then you can't hear
> what's going on outside and you're not a good _driver_.
>
> The quattro feature was supposed to expand the envelope within which a
> normal driver could drive safely.  The same was expected of every other
> feature.  The radio was to be an ergonomic miracle, and the design brief
> was heavily influenced by a study done at Munich University on the
> sources of distraction to car drivers and their influence on accident
> rates.
>
> The radio originally selected for the ur-quattro, where one was fitted,
> was the Philips MCC.  Even within Germany, Philips (not the Dutch
> company, but a subsidiary based in Wetzlar) was not a very well
> respected manufacturer of car radios, and most buyers wanted a
> better-known name such as Blaupunkt.
>
> So Audi capitulated.
>
> But I know where at least _ONE_ of the original radios is.  Guess.
>
> --
>  Phil Payne
>  Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
>  (The contents of this post will _NOT_ appear in the UK Newsletter.)