The Audi Ski Jump Commercial From 1986 With The 100 CS Quattro

Audi 100 CS Ski Jump Commercial

The original Audi 100 CS ski jump commercial from 1986 is a bit of an advertising legend.

Driving a standard production car, on snow tyres of course, up the Pitkävuori ski jump in Kaipola, Finland demonstrated the ability of Audi’s Quattro system. The 47 metre high snow covered ski jump is incredibly steep, 80 percent or 37.5 degrees.

The car was driven by professional rally driver Harald Demuth. Harald was two times German rally champion in 1982 and 1984, both in an Audi Quattro. So, a natural choice for going the wrong way up the slope. This was not an easy task in a manual car with no electronic aids and a clutch pedal.


Walter Treser – The Man Behind The Audi Quattro


The car had a sort of fork mounted beneath, so when the handbrake was applied it dug into the ice. Holding the car up the top of the slope wasn’t going to be an option on the brakes. Demuth performed the stunt 13 times for the film crew.

See for yourself in the video below.

Audi recreated the ski jump commercial stunt in 2005 with the A6 4.2 V8 quattro. An automatic transmission in the car locked in first making the task easier.

The old wooden frame of the jump needed extensive repairs. Disused since 1994 there had been no need to maintain it. Uwe Bleck did the driving that time for the filming.

Poor Harald who’d done all the driving in setup slipped on the ice and broke his right hand. Therefore, he couldn’t pull on the handbrake.

You can see the repeated stunt below. The A6 from 2005 is going to become a classic soon too.

Those Quattro’s owe a lot to that original concept which is now over 40 years old.

 

40 Years Of The Audi Quattro

Audi A6 Quattro 2005 Ski Jump Remake

Thanks to Audi AG for letting Jalopy use the videos.

Simon

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