Answering the call to Audi

REGARDING YOUR interview with Audi designer Hartmut Warkuss in Octane 221, back in 1978 Peter Birtwhistle and I were a pair of very frustrated designers at the Vauxhall styling department in Luton. Although we had a legendary design boss in Wayne Cherry, we were not getting enough meaningful projects from GM central: Opel had been chosen to be the leading European facility for all car programmes.

Martin Smith had already been hired by Audi-NSU (as it was then titled) and offered to introduce us to Mr Warkuss in London. We were then interviewed in Ingolstadt and offered positions in the ambitious company. Back then, Audi design was a small department so there were no superflous design jobs; everything was a real project.

The English and German team bonded at work and socially – I had never seen Bavarian beer drunk at the morning break before! Apart from that, Peter and Martin worked on the forthcoming Audi 100/200 exteriors while I was given the 100 interior to tackle. I lost out