Wanderlust

Tag: Audi Forum Neckarsulm

  • Color Check: Tau Silver Matte RS 6 Avant at Audi Forum Ingolstadt

    Color Check: Tau Silver Matte RS 6 Avant at Audi Forum Ingolstadt

    There’s no question that Bavaria is rich in destinations for car enthusiasts traveling into the region. You could spend days alone visiting headquarter museums for BMW in Münich, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart and Audi in Ingolstadt… and you still wouldn’t have seen it all. Moving beyond the main HQs of these storied brands, fans of the factory tailors should definitely not miss out on the lesser-known Audi Forum Neckarsulm where you’ll find amazing cars like this Tau Silver Matte RS 6 Avant we encountered during our last visit in 2022.

    Behind the car in many of these photos, you’ll find equally unique cars. Why is that? For many years, Neckarsulm played home to quattro GmbH, the Audi business unit that controls the Audi exclusive tailoring division. So, while the Audi Forum Ingolstadt got the vast museum mobile, the Audi Forum Neckarsulm got a unique second-floor showroom that serves as a revolving exhibition of everything Audi exclusive is capable of.

    This RS 6 may be painted in a neutral tone less eye-catching than some of its more colorful showroom neighbors, but it’s still an extensively unique factory build. The color is known as Tau Silver and is painted in matte effect finish (tausilber, matte effect, X7E, Audi). Inside, the seats are made in black and accented with Karmesin Red leather on the bolsters – subtle but yet again with Audi exclusive’s panel-by-panel customization approach.

    Of course, the color scheme of silver, black and red is also embracing the color way of Audi Sport, which is particularly fitting on a car like the RS 6 Avant.

    The Audi Forum Neckarsulm isn’t as well known as Ingolstadt as it is perhaps less of a grand tourist destination, but it’s a destination nonetheless complete with delivery center, restaurant, Audi collection shop, Audi Tradition exhibit and more. You should consider going.

  • Color Check: Audi exclusive Piemont Red A5 Cabriolet at Audi Forum in 2012

    Color Check: Audi exclusive Piemont Red A5 Cabriolet at Audi Forum in 2012

    Check out the specification sheet of the Audi A5 Cabriolet you see here and you’ll note it is incredibly expensive. That is so because it’s loaded with Audi exclusive paint and a highly tailored interior, which of course makes sense when you consider it was built to showcase customization and presented in the Audi exclusive studio at the brand forum in Neckarsulm.

    The color is Piemont Red (piemontrot; Pearl Effect; Z3H; Audi exclusive), and initially turned up on the 2012 A3 sedan concept earlier that year. And while we’re not sure if the code may have been slightly reformulated from concept to full-on production, it remains an incredible deep and dark red.

    On the stand of the A3 sedan, then member of the Audi design team Stefan Sielaff shared with us that the paint color had been named for the region of Northern Italy where so many Audi staff enjoy vacations. That region is known for its red wine production, and Piemont Red harks that wine and those grapes.

    Shortly after debuting the A3 Sedan concept, this A5 turned up at the Audi Forum Neckarsulm where we were visiting that year and nabbed a few photos. Its Cognac Brown interior is an excellent pairing with Piemont Red, and Cognac remains a popular standard option in cars like the Audi RS 6, RS 7 and RS Q8 today.

    Convertible Audi models are frequently popular at the Audi exclusive studio because, parked as they are with top down, the unique specifications of their interiors are on full display. These photographs are from 2012 and the A5 (B8) had just been updated, which made for an even better opportunity to exhibit all the latest the brand had to offer.

    While not as common as other Audi exclusive colors like Nogaro Blue or Goodwood Green, Piemont Red is appreciated enough that it is seen with some regularity on Audi exclusive builds, and certainly not one of the most obscure colors on the Audi exclusive palette. It’s also got a great history and back story.

  • Color Check: Audi exclusive Berry Pearl at Audi Forum Neckarsulm

    Color Check: Audi exclusive Berry Pearl at Audi Forum Neckarsulm

    For fans of tailored cars, a visit to the Audi Forum Neckarsulm is well worth making your way to Audi’s Heilbronn headquarters. It’s on the second floor of that customer delivery center that Audi exclusive maintains its own showroom where cars built to show off the four rings’ in-house tailoring capabilities are displayed. One of those cars during our visit in October of 2022 was this RS 4 Avant (vin: WUAZZZF44NA901565) in Berry Pearl (beerepearleffekt; pearl effect UNI; Z4W; Audi exclusive).

    The RS 4 Avant isn’t available in all markets. So, for our mainly North American audience, this car would be forbidden fruit even in its most common form. For us though, the truly noteworthy element of this car is the paint color. Berry Pearl is a striking dark pink bordering on purple. Consider it Audi’s Rubystar, though its pearlescent base gives it much more depth than that 90s era pink from the Porsche Cup of that 964 era.

    We typically photograph spec sheets for cars such as this, so we’ve included that also (in German of course) in our photo gallery of the car below.