Audi 100 Coupé S - the elegant seducer from Ingolstadt
Summary
At the IAA 1969, Audi presented a coupé based on the Audi 100, and a year later the elegant two-door with a fastback body was also available to buy. It was one of the fastest in the fast lane, but also one of the most expensive in the showroom. To this day, the design is considered successful and timeless. This driving report describes the history of the first Audi Coupé and shows it in historical and current pictures.
This article contains the following chapters
- The rescue and the step to the "top"
- A line for dreaming
- Optimized technology
- Family coupé?
- Additional price and added value
- Comfortable or not?
- Evolution and exclusivity
- Timeless elegance
- Further information
Estimated reading time: 8min
Preview (beginning of the article)
Those were the days! In the early seventies, it was enough to say "Audi Coupé" and everyone knew what was meant. Today, if you name a German manufacturer and link it to the vehicle concept coupé, you will usually find a whole range of different models. But back then, Audi had exactly one coupé in its product range and it was based on the Audi 100. The future of the Audi brand was actually hanging by a thread in the late 1960s. VW boss Nordhoff had the DKW/Audi Beetle manufactured in the production facilities and had actually decided to phase out the Audi brand. Dr. Ludwig Kraus, who had joined Auto Union from Mercedes, secretly developed a new model as head of Audi that followed his ideas on lightweight construction and advanced technology. Of course, despite the secrecy, the activities did not remain completely hidden from Wolfsburg and one day Nordhoff arrived in Ingolstadt with his board of management to see what was going on. Kraus, who did not know whether he would still have a job that evening, presented "his" Audi 100 and Nordhoff finally gave the green light. The future of Audi had begun.
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