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June 16, 2009
This Week:
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Audi marks brand centenary with big
showing at Donau Classic 2009
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Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer driving the "Altmühl
Valley Hop Garden Run" on the Friday in the Horch 830 BL
Sedan Cabriolet from 1939 |
Audi Tradition is marking the centenary
of the Audi brand by participating in the Donau Classic with a
dozen classic cars and inviting various VIP guests. Bavarian
Prime Minister Horst Seehofer and Audi Board of Management
Chairman Rupert Stadler will also be competing. They will be
joined by Olympic biathlon winner Sven Fischer and German
rally-driving legend Harald Demuth. Around 200 classic and newer
models will be taking to the roads around Ingolstadt between
June 18 and 20, 2009. Audi Tradition is again the event's
principal sponsor this year.
The centenary of the Audi brand is in
the spotlight in 2009. To mark the occasion, Audi Tradition is
bringing a number of very special cars out of storage for this
year's Donau Classic: three Audi Sport quattro models dating
from 1984, as well as the first Audi to be built in Ingolstadt –
the Audi 72 from 1965 – are among the starters. |
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The Audi 80 Rallye from 1979 and the
"Audi 200 James Bond" from 1986, in which Timothy Dalton chased
the Russian agent in the film "The Living Daylights", are
putting in an appearance, too. Two specimens of the Audi 100
Coupé S – the sportiest Audi model of the early 1970s – and the
Audi Urquattro are of course also in the line-up. Those car
enthusiasts with a particular sense of nostalgia will look
forward to seeing a 1956 DKW 3=6. But the undisputed highlights
for spectators along the route will be the exclusive Horch 930 V
and Horch 830 BL, both built in 1939.
Audi Tradition will be receiving
high-ranking backing, with Bavarian Prime Minister Horst
Seehofer driving the "Altmühl Valley Hop Garden Run" on the
Friday in the Horch 830 BL. On the Saturday, Audi Board of
Management Chairman Rupert Stadler will then be taking the same
car on the "Donaumoos-Hallertau Run". |
Twice German Rally Champion Harald Demuth will
be in action on all three days of the event in the Audi 80 Rallye. On
the Friday, four-time Olympic biathlon winner and seven-time biathlon
world champion Sven Fischer will be getting behind the wheel of the Audi
200 that featured in the James Bond film. On the Friday and Saturday,
the field of around 200 participants from Germany and abroad will be
starting and finishing on the Piazza in front of the Audi Forum
Ingolstadt.
A total distance of around 470 kilometres will
be covered over the rally event's three days. The routes pass through
charming countryside around Ingolstadt and in the Altmühl Valley Nature
Park. The "Urdonau Valley Prologue" on Thursday, June 18 explores part
of the original course of the Danube, past precipitous cliffs and ruins
steeped in legend, via the Renaissance jewel Neuburg an der Donau, to
the Piazza at the Audi Forum Ingolstadt. That will then be the start and
finish for the next two days' runs. The "Altmühl Valley Hop Garden Run"
on Friday, June 19 will take the drivers and their classic vehicles
through the idyllic Schambach Valley, past former Roman settlements and
prehistoric remains, such as the Schamhaupten fossil location. The final
circuit, the "Donaumoos-Hallertau" stretch on Saturday, June 20, passes
via Pfaffenhofen through the hop gardens to Hohenkammer Castle, taking
in the asparagus-growing region of Schrobenhausen on the way back to
Ingolstadt.
Photo: Audi
(June 10, 2009)
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