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The sky's the limit: Audi breaks ski jump record again

Posted on Tuesday, March 08, 2005 @ 20:09:52 GMT by audioc

Kaipola, Finland, 24 January 2005, 1.27 p.m: the expression on Uwe Bleck's face is probably much the same as when he is putting his car into the garage at home or driving to the shops. He is sitting behind the wheel and looks calm and relaxed. It is hard to believe that, after quite literally scaling new heights, he has just parked his Atlas Grey Audi A6 4.2 quattro 47 metres off the ground at an angle of 37.5 degrees - and that is approximately equivalent to an 80 percent gradient. On a ski jump!

- This time the Audi A6 conquered the jump in the remake of the ad
- Up an 80 percent gradient, 47 metres in the air with quattro drive
- Audi returned to the scene of the 1986 ad, to Kaipola in FinlandThe Audi engineer has repeated a feat that only rally driver Harald Demuth had achieved before him, in 1986. Back then, Demuth had climbed the Pitkävuori ski jump in Kaipola, Finland in a Audi 100 CS quattro for what has become an almost legendary quattro commercial. In doing so he set a record that had stood until Uwe Bleck got behind the wheel. To mark its "25 years of quattro" anniversary, Audi has now filmed a sequel to this ad on the same jump. The 45-second film "Ski Jump 2005" will be broadcast on television from 5 March.

Hans-Christian Schwingen, Head of Marketing Communication at AUDI AG, explains something else that is special about this film production: "This was the first time that we had made such a complex film production without an agency. Everything was managed internally by Audi. A fact that we are particularly proud of!" Project manager Silke Mathews and Gerhard Kiefer, responsible for advertising film productions at Audi, coordinated nearly all the tasks that are otherwise performed by an advertising agency. Kiefer also acted as the film's director: "It was a great experience. It's not often you get the chance in your job to work on a project like this."

Kiefer produced a 45-second film which will be broadcast on television from 5 March. The dramatic effect of this remake is naturally based very closely on the 1986 original. And this was also the director's problem: "The difficult thing for me was to make a film which everyone already knows the end of, but still to maintain the tension," explained Kiefer. He solved the problem quite brilliantly and devised the ad as a kind of duel between the ski jump and the Audi A6 as the challenger.

The original story is repeated in cool colours, which almost look like black and white shots. The film begins with a full shot of the ski jump, acoustically accompanied by the whistling of the ice-cold wind. Kiefer: "These pictures are supposed to make the viewer shiver slightly with the cold." This feeling of goose bumps is joined a short time later by a tingling sensation in the stomach when the challenger makes its entrance. The A6's climb up the hill is shown in a series of dynamic shots from a wide variety of perspectives. Finally the entire climb is shown again, filmed from a helicopter flying parallel to the jump.

The music for the film was specially composed by Robert Pabst and performed by the choir and orchestra of the "Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz" in Munich with an ensemble of some 80 musicians. The plan at the moment is to broadcast the film on television; its showing as a cinema commercial is, however, being considered. The ad is again designed so that it can be shown in as many markets around the world as possible. It will definitely be broadcast in Germany, Austria and Sweden; markets such as the USA and Australia are already thinking strongly about showing this spectacular commercial.

To make the commercial, the 40-strong production team was present on the set for at least a week in January 2005. But first of all the ski jump, which is located around 300 kilometres north of Helsinki, had to be brought out of hibernation. Previously, the Pitkävuori jump had not seen any action since 1994 when it was closed down. Repair work had started three weeks before the actual start of filming.

The sleepy village of Kaipola suddenly came to life. At the back of beyond, in extreme minus temperatures between snow-covered forests and frozen lakes, the technicians set to work at a dizzy height, sawing, hammering and tightening the screws on the jump's timberwork. The ravages of time had noticeably taken their toll. The planks of the entire wooden ramp, for example, had to be completely renewed.

A mechanics' and a rest tent were erected directly on the premises and Audi flags bearing the "25 years of quattro" were hoisted. A provisional helicopter landing place was set up and a heavy truck crane brought to the ski jump. Incidentally, this was the same truck crane that had been used 19 years before to hoist the red Audi 100 CS quattro (136 bhp) on to the bottom of the jump. This time it had to bear the load of an Audi A6 4.2 quattro (335 bhp). And including the additional safety system on the bottom of the A6, this was considerable: around 1.9 tonnes.

Uwe Bleck, whose regular job is heading the Driving Dynamics department at Audi, only got the chance to make this spectacular drive because of Harald Demuth's slight accident. Just before filming started, the rally driver, who was also supposed to drive the car in the second ski jump ad, had fallen while jogging on the snow-covered tracks around Kaipola, and injured his right wrist. With his right hand damaged, Demuth understandably did not want to risk the challenging climb in the A6. "It's not the end of the world, but I would have liked to have done it again," said Demuth after the event. But he remained on site throughout the entire project and acted as advisor, giving his successor behind the wheel a few valuable tips from the vast experience he had acquired in 1986.

Bleck, who had originally only travelled with the crew to Finland to lend his technical support, appeared greatly impressed by the route after looking down from the ski jump tower: "It's only when you see the ski jump itself that you realise how steep the climb is. It's hard to imagine when you only see it on television." But he never doubted the technology. Even before the first drive he said: "With quattro drive, the A6 won't have any trouble making it."

This bold yet matter-of-fact statement gave rise to slight doubts among some observers, especially considering that the car was going to have to climb up a 100-metre-long, snow-covered hill with a gradient of 80 percent.

To reassure the "sceptics", the engineer quickly scribbled a calculation on a piece of paper: the length of the jump's inrun, ground conditions and gradient on one side as opposed to the tyres' friction coefficient and the car's power-to-weight ratio on the other. Bleck's conclusion based on this calculation was unequivocal: "You see, we're going to make it. Driving up is actually quite easy. Just make sure the safety systems work." Bleck had another calculation up his sleeve: if you let the A6 roll down from the top, it would reach a speed of 110 kilometres per hour by the time it reached the takeoff point.

Keeping the car in the steeply angled position at the top of the jump, however, is rather less easy. As soon as it stopped it would immediately slide back down again. The A6 therefore had to be "held on to" at the top. "Safety first" was the underlying principle. To solve the problem, an ingenious system was fixed to the ski jump and to the bottom of the car. This "roll-back safety device" was fitted with three independent systems comprising an electromechanical brake circuit and two mechanical brakes (a rope clamp and two symmetrically positioned arrester hooks). The entire system was located on a steel baseplate and weighed around 65 kilograms. This "sled" was installed to the underbody of the Audi A6.

The Audi A6 4.2 quattro with 6-speed tiptronic that drove up the ski jump was otherwise a perfectly normal production version. Two minor exceptions: the automatic transmission was kept in first gear - the slight power loss that occurs when changing gear would have made it impossible to climb such a steep gradient - and the tyres' six-millimetre spikes. Tyres of this kind are also used in rallying.

The first two attempts were made using 2.5-millimetre spikes on the tyres. These tyres are approved for road traffic in Scandinavia and are just as common there as winter tyres are in Germany.

The first attempt ended after a good half the distance. The wheels had already started to spin at the start because too much snow had ac*****ulated on the takeoff platform. On its second attempt, the A6 managed to climb almost two thirds of the jump. No mean achievement considering that it was fitted with commercially available tyres. The decision was then taken to switch to tyres with six-millimetre-long rally spikes.

On 24 January 2005 at 1.27 p.m. the time had finally come: the atmosphere was electric, an unbelievable tension could be felt. The production manager starts the countdown over his walkie-talkie, the helicopter carrying the cameraman is in position, the members of the Audi team are standing around the jump and waiting, a number of inquisitive spectators have gathered down in the valley and are looking up, some of them through binoculars. And then the command comes over the walkie-talkie: "Audi go!"

This is the signal for Bleck to start his breathtaking ascent into the sky. In first gear, at 4,200 revs per minute and at about 60 kilometres per hour, the A6 storms up the jump, taking the 80 percent gradient with incredible ease. Later Bleck was to say: "I could have gone faster, even at the steepest point." Nine seconds later, Bleck arrives at the starting gate, 47 metres off the ground. He takes his foot off the accelerator and the car pitches forward like when braking hard. You can feel how the entire tower of the ski jump is vibrating. And the most important thing: the safety system takes effect immediately, the A6 is held safely in place on the steel cable.

The onlookers erupt in cheer, there is applause, the thumbs-up sign, people hug each other and shout out enthusiastically - for everyone involved in the ski jump project this was a drive with a tremendous spine-tingling factor. After all, it was not only the technology that made this drive possible, but also the perfect teamwork between all those involved. Here, in the remote village of Kaipola, a highly motivated team - from cameraman to crane operator - had bonded in just a short time.

And emotions soared as high as the A6. For example, Peter von Horsetzky-Hornthal, Head of Technical Press Support/Exhibits at Audi and responsible in Kaipola for vehicle technology, said: "I've been with this company for a number of years, but from a professional point of view, this is one of the best moments of my life." Michael von Schmidt-Pauli, coordinator of the film production company, went even further: "This was a project for eternity."

The driver himself was somewhat more relaxed about the whole thing: "I was rather nervous just before the start. But then the actual drive up the jump wasn't really that difficult. It did feel strange though at the moment when I arrived at the top. All I could do was wait. I couldn't do anything and was dependent on the others to come to my assistance. It was a feeling of helpnessness." Bleck had to wait until his car had been additionally secured and was then let down again slowly with the aid of an electric winch.

This was a process that the driver and the A6 had to "endure" a total of eleven times - the number of times that the Audi drove all the way up the ski jump in Kaipola, thus reconfirming the technical superiority of quattro drive after a gap of 19 years. Michael von Schmift-Pauli was probably right: this was a project for eternity.

Safety first - the safety system

Safety was the number one priority throughout the entire project. To this end, an ingenious system was fixed to the ski jump and to the bottom of the car.

Necessary safety feature - not a trick

The basic technology of the roll-back safety device, which uses a cable fixed rigidly to the ski jump, was also used in the first commercial back in 1986. This necessary safety feature gave rise to rumours time and again that the Audi 100 was pulled up by this cable and did not manage to climb the ski jump under its own power. But back then and this time, both Audi models drove up the ski jump under their own power; they were not pulled.

And this is how it works: a 20-millimetre-thick steel cable is stretched along the length of the ski jump and fixed to the top and bottom. When the A6 sets off, the cable runs through a lug into the roll-back safety device on the bottom of the vehicle and is fed through the cable guide, which is fitted with a brake system, before it emerges on the ski jump again at the back. Once the car arrives at the top, it would immediately slide back down the slope again if it were not secured - it would be impossible to hold a car on an 80 percent gradient. As soon as the A6 stops and starts to move backwards, the clamp closes on the cable and the electromechanical brake engages, also encompassing the cable, thus keeping the car in place. The car is then additionally secured by a second cable and slowly let down the ski jump again using the electric winch.

The technical details

The electromechanical brake circuit consists of two disc brake callipers fixed to the baseplate one behind the other. These brake callipers are electrically connected to the car's parking brake and are also activated by it. The brake callipers used are the kind also installed as standard in the A6 or A8.

The second safety system, the parallelogram cable clamp, is connected to this. This system consists of long clamping jaws made of hardened high-strength steel and in a parallel arrangement and enables non-slip gripping of the steel cable even if subjected to extremely high tensile forces. If the vehicle moves backwards, the parallelogram is displaced and the cable running through it is trapped. The weight of the vehicle triggers this self-locking mechanism. Safety systems of this kind are also used on cable cars.

If the cable snaps, then the third brake system - the arrester hooks - is activated. The two hooks that are also attached to the baseplate scrape the ground during the climb. In the event of an uncontrolled backward motion, the hooks would grip into one of the lateral cables which are stretched across the ski jump every five metres and stop the car. A similar system is used on aircraft carriers to brake landing aircraft.

The ski jump

Pitkävuori is the name of the ski jump in Kaipola (around 300 kilometres north of Helsinki). Situated on high ground, it towers into the sky and can be seen from some considerable distance. This sports facility was set up in 1964 by the "United Paper Mills" in the neighbouring town of Jämsä; the first competition was held in 1965.

In the 1980s, the great Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykänen won six World Cup ski jumping competitions and Finnish Championship titles there. In 1994, the Finn Toni Nieminen won the last competition to be held there. On the very last jump, he smashed the hill record with a leap of 111 metres (the critical point is at 100 metres) - what a great way to end! After this the ski jump was closed down, mainly because of the unpredictable wind conditions. It is now owned by the town of Jämsä.

The ski jump tower is 57 metres high and is now only used as an observation tower. The starting gate for the ski jumpers is located at 47 metres. The wooden inrun is around 100 metres long and rests on four mighty concrete pillars. The ski jump has a gradient of 37.5 degrees which is equivalent to about 80 percent. Another special feature at Pitkävuori is the landing hill which is also made of wood and rests on pillars.

Audi deliberately chose this ski jump for both commercials because, unlike other jumps, it is not built directly on a slope or mountain, but stands alone in an open space. This emphasises the particular architectural character of the structure on the one had, and also means that it was possible to take spectacular shots from all sides from the helicopter.

Before making the new commercial, however, it was necessary to check whether, after around eleven years of disuse, the static structure of the jump would actually be able to bear the weight of a 1.8 tonne car. Shortly before Christmas 2004, the civil engineer Rudi Macht travelled to Finland to look into the matter. He came to the conclusion that with a few major improvements, repairs and reinforcements, it would be no problem at all.

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