CarBrandLogos archive · Audi · 1968

Audi100

Developed in secret, because the parent company had forbidden it.

Photo: OSX · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Audi history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Audi 100, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Volkswagen's leadership had bought Auto Union to make Beetles, and had no intention of funding a rival range of cars inside its own group. Ludwig Kraus, Audi's chief engineer, developed a larger saloon anyway, working quietly at Ingolstadt until there was enough of a car to show. The story that Heinrich Nordhoff was presented with a finished prototype and approved it on the spot has been told many ways, but the outcome is not in dispute: the 100 was launched in 1968 and sold immediately.

1989 Audi 200 Quattro Trans Am · Stephen Foskett (Wikipedia User: sfoskett) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

Its success settled Audi's future as an independent marque rather than a contract assembly plant, and it gave Volkswagen something it badly needed as the Beetle aged: proven expertise in water-cooled, front-wheel-drive cars with the engine mounted longitudinally. Much of what VW did in the 1970s ran on that foundation.

Audi 100 2 door Belgian Coast · Charles01 · Public domain

In production

The name lasted twenty-six years across four generations. The 1976 car introduced Audi's five-cylinder engines; the 1982 C3, with flush-mounted glazing and a drag coefficient of 0.30, made aerodynamics a mainstream selling point and offered quattro drive and a fully galvanised body. The last generation arrived in 1990 and was renamed A6 in 1994, when Audi switched to its alphanumeric naming. Ninety-nine percent of what Audi is today is downstream of a car its owner did not want built.

1973 Audi 100 Coupe S pic1 · Alf van Beem · CC0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1968–1994

Technical specification

The 100, in detail.

Production: 1968–1994
Class: Mid-size luxury / Executive car (E)
Layout: Longitudinal front engine,; front-wheel drive or quattro four-wheel-drive
Manufacturer: Auto Union GmbH (1968–1969); Audi NSU Auto Union AG (1969–1985); Audi AG (1985–1994)

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