When it comes to advertising their latest car, manufacturers have tried all sorts of approaches to make their product stand out. Depending on the type of car they’re selling, manufacturers may choose to shout loud and proud about things like practicality, efficiency or affordability.
With performance cars, emphasis is often (unsurprisingly) focused on promoting how awesome the engine is or how you can have fun on the road. This, however, has to be done in a way which won’t make the Advertisement Standards Agency think your promoting dangerous driving on the road.
Sometimes though, regardless of what type of car is being promoted, a manufacturer’s advertisement team will find a way to sell their product in an exciting way. To do this, the car will be made to pull off a spectacular stunt that has nothing to do with real-life driving, but looks great on camera.
These car stunts are dangerous, costly and don’t really educate you about what’s being promoted, but they’re cool and that, seemingly, is all that matters if it gets people talking about the product.
Here are five of the craziest car stunts manufacturers have pulled off in the name of advertisement.
Audi Quattro climbs up a ski jump
Back in the eighties, Audi introduced its now-famous Quattro four-wheel drive system to the world.
To demonstrate to car buyers worldwide the potential its powertrain had for driving in low-grip conditions, a 1986 Audi 100 CS Quattro was given the task of climbing a ramp traditionally used for ski jumping in Kaipola, Finland.
The 47 metres of incredibly steep, snow-covered ramp are made light work of by the Audi, as you can see in the video below.
In 2005, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Quattro, Audi remade the famous climb using a modern Audi A6 saloon.
Audi even used the exact same ski jump – although because it had actually been closed for a while, extensive repairs had to be made to the ramp first before filming could start.
Jaguar F-PACE performs a vertical loop
As Jaguar’s first model for the popular crossover segment, the F-PACE already had a lot of attention surround it before it set a Guinness World Record. That honour was earned when the production-ready F-PACE marked its public debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show by successfully driving through the world’s largest loop-the-loop.
Driving your new car through a vertical loop that wouldn’t look out of place on a Hot Wheels set is certainly different to just holding a press conference where the car just gets some covers pulled off.
Nissan Juke climbs Goodwood Hill – on two wheels
The Goodwood Hill Climb is a short but challenging circuit which many vehicles traditionally take on during the local Festival of Speed. As you’d expect, it’s usually just the motorbikes that go through the route on two wheels.
But in 2015, Nissan tried something different and daring with a Juke RS Nismo and stunt driver Terry Grant behind the wheel.
With the performance derivative of the compact crossover in his hands, Grant completed the whole Goodwood route using only the wheels on the right-hand side of the car. Just to prove he didn’t fluke the stunt, Grant actually did the route in this manner five times during the Festival of Speed.
In the process, a new record was set for fastest time over one mile by a vehicle on just two of its wheels.
Ford Focus RS gets hooned about by Ken Block
For its upcoming Focus RS hot hatch, Ford has received input from rally/stunt driver Ken Block – famous for his viral ‘Gymkhana’ videos in which he drifts a Ford rally car around in all sorts of eye-popping ways.
For Ford’s public reveal of the new Focus RS, the manufacturer gave Block a prototype of the hot hatch and access to the company’s Cologne-based production plant.
The results were filmed as Block used the four-wheel drive RS to turn the plant into another one of his drifting playgrounds.
Chevrolet Aveo does a kick flip, bungee jump AND a skydive
Chevrolet no longer sells cars in the UK but the American manufacturer deserves some recognition for turning a pretty mundane small car into an all-action stunt hero.
The Aveo supermini (sold as the Chevrolet Sonic in certain markets) became the key player in Chevrolet’s ‘Let’s do this’ campaign. Consequently, it was used to pull off the sorts of activities that adrenaline junkies would normally go for.
The Chevrolet supermini’s list of stunts completed include a Tony Hawks-esque ‘kick-flip’, which was done above a giant skateboard prop. A skydive high above the Arizona desert and a bungee jump off a 100-feet tall platform in California were other tricks the Chevrolet completed, while remaining in one piece.
Chevrolet put together a compilation of all the Aveo’s spectacular stunts for a commercial shown during the 2012 US Super Bowl.
