0 to 100

Celebrating a fabulous 50 year anniversary, the Audi 100 was a model that opened up a whole new market for the brand with the four rings. The brand’s first models to be marketed in the upper executive class, the Audi 100 won the ‘Golden’Steering Wheel’ award five times, was crowned ‘Car of the Year’ twice and was also voted "World Car of the Year’ by a panel of motoring journalists. In all, 3.2 million units were sold, demonstrating the success which this model experienced. 

To mark the milestone anniversary of this model, the Audi 100 will be honoured as part of Audi’s ‘From 0 to 100’ special exhibition, with 15 different variants of the car on display between March 28 to June 24 at the Audi Museum Mobile in Ingolstadt.

The premiere of the Audi 100 in 1968 was preceded by a turbulent history because its development was actually started in secret. In the mid-1960s, Volkswagen AG acquired Auto Union GmbH and prevented the company from developing any new models. This stipulation to only look after the existing models was ignored by Ludwig Kraus, then Technical Director at Auto Union GmbH. In 1965, Kraus wanted to expand the range of vehicles which the resuscitated Audi brand offered. He saw adding a model in the executive segment as the only way to keep an independent Auto Union GmbH afloat in a time when the Ingolstadt plant was being used for production of the VW Beetle. Without informing Volkswagen, Kraus developed and subsequently presented the concept before it was eventually given the go-ahead from the team in Wolfsburg. 

Very quickly, the capacity of the Ingolstadt plant was pushed to its limits and thus Auto Union shifted the entire production of the Audi 100 to the Neckarsulm works in 1970. From the first series alone, the company sold 800,000 units.
A car from this model generation is also on show at the ‘From 0 to 100’ exhibition, as are a further 14 variants from the different model series. Among the vehicles exhibited are the Audi 100 Cabrio from 1969, the Audi 100 C1 electric passenger car from 1976 and the Audi research car from 1981. These shed some light on previously little-known facets of the model and demonstrate both a ground-breaking design and a number of technical innovations. Highlights of the Audi 100 include its world-best aerodynamics value, the first fully galvanised body on an executive sedan and the quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. Also on show is the Audi duo, which not only features a 136-hp five-cylinder engine (100kW), but also an electric motor, thus making it the first hybrid vehicle of the Audi brand. 

Vehicles shown from top: Audi 100 Coupe S (1971), Audi 100 LS Automatic (1972), Audi 100 Karmann Cabriolet (1969), Audi 100 duo (1989).