Last year was the most successful in Audi's history. The marque name first seen in 1910 drifted into the Auto Union combine of the Thirties, then disappeared for a couple of decades. It reappeared post-war under Mercedes control, only to be sold on to Volkswagen,

eventually becoming the VW Group's premium line.

While being a major player in the modern European motor industry, Audi likes to remind people of its past glories too. For next month's Festival of Speed at Goodwood, for example, it has entered not only a 520bhp Quattro S1 rally car from the Sixties,

but also two magnificent V12

and V16 rear-engined Grand

Prix cars from the Thirties.

In 1997, for the first time ever, Audi delivered more than 500,000 cars. The UK is its second-best export market, just a few

thousand sales behind the perhaps unexpected No. 1, which is Italy.

The company's south German factories are at Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm - the town from which the old NSU company took its title.

However, Audi has also made a great success of its major

investment in eastern Europe. Its Hungarian engine plant at Gyor boosted output by almost a

quarter compared with the figure achieved in the previous year.

The top-rated executive saloon is the A8, a car which shows the company's pioneering work

in the use of aluminium. Audi was the first European manufacturer to co-operate with Alcoa - the Aluminium Company of America - when US car makers were not interested in hauling down the weight of their own gas-guzzlers.

It makes the A8 available with several different engine options. And this is currently the biggest car in the catalogue to use the company's famous quattro four-wheel drive system.

Audi's one-size down design, the A6, still fits easily into the executive category. It comes with eight individual engine options, petrol and turbo diesel, and in quattro specification if you fancy that.

Now, exactly a year after the introduction of the current A6 saloon, the corresponding estate version has gone on sale. However, Audi still shuns the industry-wide ''estate'' tag and continues with its own model name Avant.

There are nearly a dozen

different versions of the A6 Avant available now, sensibly adapted for estate car use, and well equipped in their different price brackets.They all offer electronic ABS, brake force distribution and

traction control as standard.

Engine choices include a 2.8-litre petrol V6 and a strong-pulling 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo diesel, which comes as

standard with a six-speed manual transmission using a long-legged top gear. The V6 Avant quattro features alloy wheels, lower

profile tyres, a centre differential and lowered suspension all round.

Comprehensive though the

present A6 Avant range may seem, within the next few months it will also include a really high performance version in a specification also to be made available with saloon bodywork.

Decoded, the A6 Avant 2.7 T quattro designation reveals that the new car will have a five-valve 2.7-litre 230bhp engine, an

intercooled twin-turbo arrangement, very strong torque, and the

familiar four-wheel drive system to put all the power on the road.

It will be in the showrooms in the summer, with prices to be announced nearer the time.