When it comes to automotive tuning fewer companies have been around longer than renowned tuner ABT.

In fact, ABT is celebrating their 120th year in business this year. ABT is the world’s largest tuner of cars produced by the Volkswagen Group and has been around for over four generations.

Back in 1896 by the company’s namesake Johann Abt who first started working on automobiles when he developed a device to turn a coach into a sledge and vice versa during a particularly harsh winter.

In 1920 Abt had to choose a brand in which to specialize his services and he chose Audi (Horch and Audi back then). Since then, Abt and the ABT brand has never looked back.

The brand became a well known tuning company in the 1970s thanks in part to their work on the VW Golf and Scirocco as well as the Audi 80 and 100. Thanks in part to their tuning work and the high technical demands of customers, ABT became ABT Sportline in 1990.

Since then, the company has continued to tune Volkswagen Group cars as well as branch out into racing. Currently, the company has seen success campaigning in the new Formula E championship.

In order to celebrate 120 years of business, ABT has also released three celebratory models. The models include a TTS, QS3 and T6.

The TTS get’s a performance upgrade that raises the output from 310 hp (228 kW) to 370 hp (272 kW) in the ABT TTS. The torque is up from 380 Nm to 460 Nm, and the car’s top speed is now limited at 265 km/h.

Next in line is ABT’s 120 Years Edition of the Audi Q3. Similar to the TTS’ livery, the compact premium 4WD ABT QS3 is available in Daytona-grey and silver wraps with the characteristic red accents all-around. The compact SUV’s performance has been altered to produce 210 hp (154 kW) up from the standard 184 hp (135 kW). The ABT QS3 tops out at 224 km/h.

Lastly, ABT has also tuned the Volkswagen T6 van. The van’s 2.0 TDI engine get’s an impulse from ABT, now producing 180 hp (132 kW) and 420 Nm of torque compared to the standard 150 hp (110 kW).

Check out the galleries we’ve put together to get a sense of how much history there is in the ABT name.

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