Thanks to Ayrton Senna; Audi Started Producing $58,000 Car in Brazil and Continues To Expand Operations

Tanish Chachra | 28/01/2023
Thanks to Ayrton Senna; Audi Started Producing $58,000 Car in Brazil and Continues To Expand Operations

Ayrton Senna is probably the biggest Formula 1 name coming out of South America. Despite having other world champions from Brazil before, Senna, with his mystique and raw pace, took the whole craze of people towards him.

His unfortunate death embarked a prolonged mourning by Brazil. Many even claim that the entire nation fell out of love with motor racing after his tragic demise and still hasn’t revived that love that they earlier used to have.

Surely, Senna has immortalized Brazil’s involvement in F1 forever. Anytime F1 goes there, prominent drivers always do something to remember the three-time world champion.

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Thanks to Ayrton Senna, Audi brought A3 to Brazil

Audi is a luxury car line, especially in Brazil. Only a privileged section of society can buy and drive them. It’s unknown whether he had a certain interest in Audi A3, but before his death, he flew to Germany to sign a deal with Audi to import them to Brazil.

Subsequently, the deal was transformed into Ayrton Senna Ltd. starting an Audi factory in Brazil, which manufactured A3 and VW Golf, a product by Audi’s parent company.

The original price of the Audi A3 from that year is approximately $58,000. Thanks to Senna, Brazil got A3 into his nation and got his compatriots to have this luxury with them. Though, now, the factory is fully under the dominion of Audi.

His love for luxury cars

Like any other F1 driver, Senna was a car enthusiast. Even he had some impressive cars in his garage to boast about. Though in 1994, normal road cars didn’t have the sports mode, and the concept of hypercars was still on paper.

So, even the best cars at best would be a level below the cars the current F1 drivers own. The most impressive car in his arsenal was easily Honda NSX.

He also reportedly owned Porsche Cabriolet, which in no way gave a sports car look, but it looked a part of luxury. His Alfa Romeo Alfasud, hands down, gave a Hollywood look.

McLaren, in his tribute, produced its Senna series. Had he been alive today, he would have been owning a couple of those. But fate on that day was cruel to the F1 fans.

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Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Ayrton Senna

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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