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ABT Sportsline recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The most amazing thing is that the company modifying famous cars was born even before the latter were designed. Although the family business began with horses, it was not mechanical at all, but real ones. In 1896, a forge was built in the suburbs, the small town of Kempton, which was engaged in shoeing horses.
But technology did not stand still, and gradually horse power was replaced by machine power, and shod hooves replaced rubber wheels. In the early 20s of the last century, the forge was retrained into an auto repair shop, and then everything went according to the knurled scenario, according to which the entire European engineering industry of the early twentieth century developed. 
In the 1930s, a store was built near the workshop, where the manufactured products were immediately sold. There was no talk of tuning in those days, however, in the assortment of the store there were cars from well-known manufacturers, but not original ones, but slightly corrected by mechanics from a car repair shop. Some models have been improved running gear, and some acquired more powerful engines. All this was purely symbolic and did not claim to be modified cars. 
1935 was also an important year in the development of the auto repair shop in the small town of Kempton. It was this year that became the year of birth of Johan Abt - a man who will play an important role in the development of the family business. But it will be a little later, in the early 60s, during the dawn of post-war Germany. 
And so, in 1939, the auto repair shop suffered a fate that befell the entire technical industry of Germany in those years - it was partially privatized by the state and completely directed to military production. 
Already in the early 1950s, young Johan began to take part in races. He becomes the winner in several races in his native Bavaria. Along with gold medals come fame and recognition. 
Young Abt understood that in order to constantly win in such a sport as racing, you must constantly keep up with the times and have the perfect car. It was then that Johan was very interested in mechanics and engineering, sometimes applying the acquired knowledge, sitting for hours in the garage before important competitions. 
In the 1960s, the young racer-mechanic Johan received an offer to head the sports division of the famous German company Karl Abarth, he will spend the entire period from 1967 to 1070 in his new position, simultaneously participating both in the development of new components and spare parts, and in a number of important races already on machines from Abarth. 
In the automotive business in Germany in the 60s, everything happened very quickly and quickly. Johan Abt is invited to head one of the sports divisions of Audi, to which he agrees. In 1975, he took the place of the head of the racing team of this company and part-time the place of the first pilot. Over the next two years, he will manage his own team and will successfully take part in a number of very important competitions. In addition, his family business, the Auto-Abt auto repair shop, passes into the hands of Johan by inheritance, which he promptly hurried to rename to Abt tuning GmbH. 
After devoting more than 25 years of his life to motor sports, in 1977 Johan Abt decides to turn off his engine forever and focus on running his company. For all the time he participated in the race, he won more than 300 victories in various races. 
In 1980, the racing team of the car dealership run by Johan successfully drives the Volkswagen Golf GTI. The result of these performances was the retention of the first place for 3 years and the title of champions of the International Golf Cup. 
At the end of the 80s, Johan's two sons, Christian Abt and Gnas-Jürgen Abt, took their first steps as racers. In the early nineties they will head the tuning division, which will be called Abt tuning GmbH. A branch of the tuning salon is located in the same Kempton, where a forge was opened a century ago by their great-grandfather. At the moment, the area allocated for a family car dealership is 12,000 square meters. By the end of the 90s, Abt tuning GmbH annually releases up to 2000 completely or partially modified cars from their garages. Its products are represented by more than 50 sales offices around the world. 
In the early 2000s, the Abt brothers are tempted by a new idea. They begin to develop a series of gas engines. The company is marked by the release of 400 vehicles specially tailored for this type of fuel.
At present, the company continues its development. In the mid-2000s, another division of the company was created in Switzerland, which is called Abt Sportsline Schweiz AG.
If you are the owner of such prestigious cars as Audi, Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda and you want to tune your "favorite", ABT Sportsline's unique projects and tuning programs are at your service. . The company's specialization is currently aimed at fine-tuning Skoda, Audi, Volkswagen, Seat. To this amount of work is added the preparation of cars for the race.
This company has vast experience since 1970. Offers motorists an optimal range of improvements, including, in addition to interior and exterior changes, a significant refinement of the engine, due to which its power will increase significantly.
Tuning studio ABT Sportsline considered the "oldest" tuner. Its development history began back in 1896 in the Abt family, which was engaged in Kuznetsk craftsmanship. With the advent of the first cars, the company's activities went to work with auto mechanics and after 1920, the blacksmith's workshop turned into a car workshop. Ten years later, the family opens its own car dealership.
Johan Abt has been taking part in various car races since 1950, victories in which bring glory to the small company and at the same time orders for car pumping. A little later, Johan heads the company's sports division and produces sports cars. The father's career was continued by his sons, who have been managing AbttuningGmbH since 1990. A year later, the company was renamed AbtSportslineGmbH. In 1998, thanks to a joint project with VolkswagenAg, preparatory work began on the VWLupoCup car.
The company reached scale in the late 90s. The scope of work started from automotive design, order taking, to market research and marketing. Particular attention was paid to the AbtSportslineGmbH sports team, which turned out to be the winner in STW.
The studio achieved success in the modernization of gas engines in 2000.
Exclusive ABT Sportsline wheels
| ABT - DR-SPORT ALLOY WHEEL | ABT - ER-C SPORT ALLOY WHEEL |
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Tuning studio ABT Sportsline is a family business of Hans-Jürgen and Christian Abtov, started in 1970. However, the tuners themselves consider 1896 to be the founding date of the company, when the ancestor of the current owners, Johan Abt, founded a blacksmithing company. In fact, also tuning, but for horses.
Today, ABT Sportsline is a major player in the field of tuning cars of the Volkswagen Group (Audi, Skoda, SEAT and Volkswagen). About 160 people work at the headquarters in Kempten, Bavaria. In addition, on the basis of the tuning studio, there are several racing teams participating in the DTM and Formula E series.
Cars subject to tuning get to the masters in two ways - either customers bring their cars "for pumping" themselves, or specifically for the needs of the customer, ABT buys the right model for revision directly from the manufacturer.
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ABT Sportsline deals with almost every possible type of car modifications. For example, engines are being modified, not limited to just “flashing the brains”, but installing their own intake and exhaust parts, including their turbochargers. ABT also develops and manufactures body parts, produces its own line of rims and redoes the interiors with its own hands, pulling the interior with leather or Alcantara and even introducing its own multimedia.
It takes about three months to fully develop the entire set of tuning solutions for a particular model. But when the project is over and it's just a matter of putting it into practice, the guys from Kempten need no more than three days to turn an ordinary car into an "ABT Car".
There are three official dealers of ABT Sportsline in Russia, and there is no car dealer among them. ABT told Wheels that they sell 99% of their products with installation on a car, but Russia clearly spoils this statistics - the company's products in our country are promoted and sold by two online stores and only one studio selling and installing components from various manufacturers.
In other words, our people prefer to buy a car separately, a tuning kit separately, and then install it on their own or by handicraft workshop.
Volkswagen Golf GTi and Audi RS6 before and after tuning at ABT Sportsline
The site correspondent spoke with Hans-Jurgen Abt, the boss of the ABT Sportsline tuning studio, asking about his own tuning addictions, the future without internal combustion engines and which cars in the "processing" ABT prefer customers from Russia.
- Hans-Jürgen, what is your company working on now?
As always, over new cars from Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT and Skoda. The new Audi TT and the A6/RS6 Facelift, Volkswagen Passat and other VW models are currently in production. Of course, we are already making plans for the models that are about to arrive this year - we want to be the first to introduce great tuning products when new cars hit the market!
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In the photo: ABT Volkswagen Golf GTI 3-door
- Please describe your typical client? Why does he need tuning his car?
It is important for all our clients to have "individuality on wheels", and this is exactly what we offer. I'm talking about refining engines, cool wheels, body painting, or even a completely redesigned interior to suit any whim of the customer. Almost everything is real!
- Do you have many clients in Russia? How important is this market for ABT Sportsline?
Russia? Of course, this is an important market for us! For example, our customers in Russia really like what we do with big SUVs like the Audi Q7! In general, we are always glad to find ABT friends in Russia, and throughout the world.
- Can we say that you admire one of your business competitors?
No. I don't feel the same way about any of our competitors. But it is always important to be aware and see what they are creating and working on. Sometimes I'm under the impression that what a great idea they came up with, but we - no. And that's okay, it's business!
-What about other brands, would you like to work with some other brand?
No. The portfolios of Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT and Skoda all have great models to spare. Thus, at this point, I would say that we are satisfied and do not have the need to expand our range of interests to other manufacturers that are part of the Volkswagen Group ( Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, - approx. website). However, you never know what the future holds for us!
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- Speaking of the future. When gasoline engines die and the world only needs electric cars that drive themselves, what will your company do?
You know, we are already well prepared for this! For several years, in addition to building conventional fuel vehicles, we have been hard at work on the creation of fully electric cars, for example, for the German postal service. In addition, ABT Sportsline is the only German team that participates in Formula E. This is a championship in which single-seater all-electric cars participate, and races are held all over the world (by the way, the race will be held in Moscow on June 6, 2015 - approx. site).
- What kind of personal car do you have?
At the moment I drive "our" RS6-R (a tuning project based on the new Audi RS6, - approx. Kolesa.Ru). By the way, 730 hp! I love the combination of station wagon practicality and sports car power. RS6-R shoots from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds! It's always impressive when you can feel that kind of power behind the steering wheel of your car.
