Conversation with man who was driving
The older readers can relate the TV commercial in which an Audi drove into a ski jump probably still remember. Was it all real, or did they cheat? Rarely have car experts discussed so much about a thirty-second video as about the Audi advertisement from 1986, featuring the quattro all-wheel drive. The question remains: did the car drive up the Finnish ski jump all by itself, or did it get a little help? Our colleagues from AutoBild spoke to the man who drove the car at the time.
At the event in honor of forty years of Audi Sport Quattro, we can ask Harald Demuth (73) for clarification. The two-time German rally champion and ski jump winner drove the car at the time.
After 38 years you can honestly admit it: was there cheating?
“No. We only replaced the tires. They were commercially available spiked tires from Finland. We wouldn’t have gotten far with conventional winter tires.”
How did the Audi 100 actually get onto the ski jump?
“With the help of a crane. Our red Audi 100 CS had to be lifted 19 meters and it had to climb a total of 47 meters on a slope of 37.5 degrees, which is more than 80 percent.”
Were you afraid?
“Not afraid, but I did respect the ramp. Before we went to Finland with the team, I made a test attempt on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, where it is about as steep as the ski jump.”
We briefly see a cable in the advertisement. Was the Audi really not pulled up?
“No, that really wasn’t the case. The cable was only there for safety. We had three emergency systems installed. First, there was the cable. If the Audi were to slide down, it would be caught by the cable. In case the cable were frozen, I and Audi mechanic Florian von Schmidt-Pauli had devised a kind of fork under the car that would grip the ice if the car were to slide down. And there was also a safety net placed at the bottom of the ski jump, which was covered with some snow for the video recording.”
So safety was OK?
“Well, yeah, sort of. Ingolstadt had sent two identical red Audi 100 CS quattros in case one of the cars crashed. (Laughing) But then they should have sent another driver.”
How many times have you driven up the hill?
“From what I can remember, it was thirteen attempts. The first time I stopped the Audi halfway up the ski jump, because you have to get used to it first. The cameramen also had to experiment with different settings. For example, there was one brave cameraman who filmed me from the helicopter, no more than two meters from the ramp. If there had been a gust of wind, it could have ended dramatically.”
How did you know when you would reach the top?
“That was difficult, you look at the sky all the time. But I had a small mark placed on the left side of the stair railing in the form of a piece of tape.”
So it was a fun adventure?
“No, it was more of an honor to do it. With an adventure you never know how it will end. The stunt scenes for the film ‘Manta, Manta’, which I shot five years after the Audi commercial, were rather adventurous.”
Harald Demuth (2 July 1950) was a factory and test driver at Audi from 1979 and won the German rally championship in an Audi Quattro in 1982 and 1984. In 1986 he drove a tornado red Audi 100 CS quattro (license plate: IN-T 335) with a 2.3-liter five-cylinder engine, 136 hp and a 5-speed gearbox up the 37.5 degree steep Pitkävuori ski jump in Kaipola (Finland) thirteen times. The commercial for cinemas was 66 seconds long, but for TV it was shortened to 30 seconds. Demuth still sits behind the wheel for Audi Tradition today
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl