AUDI 100 (C1) 1968-1976 Photos, engines & full specs

The 1968 Audi 100 was the beginning of a beautiful story of luxurious and fast sedans built by the German car-maker. It was the first vehicle built together with Volkswagen.

The Audi 100 was developed on the Volkswagen C1 platform. There was a strange history behind the car, with a complex plot organized by Audi management to convince the Volkswagen Board to let them build an executive sedan. The four-round headlights, the slightly curved lines of the bodywork, and the spacious cabin rolled off the factory lane in 1968. It was a huge success and it was sold in almost 900.000 units until 1976 when it was replaced. The 100 name came from the power output of its top version.

Inside, the spacious 100 offered room for five adult passengers and ensured a comfortable ride. Unlike most of the other car-makers from that era, it featured a front-wheel-drive architecture. It meant that there was no transmission tunnel inside the vehicle. In the U.S. it was advertised as offering “just about the same headroom and legroom as the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow”.

The engine range featured a 1.8- and 1.9-liter units. Most of them were feed via a carburetor, but in 1975 there was a fuel-injection system added to the lineup. The standard transmission was a 4-speed manual, with a 3-speed automatic joining the range later on. The in-board disc-brake system was another novelty, a technology inspired by the Porsche 917 race-car.