Pretty much everyone (including us) has been blown away by the last couple of Ken Block Gymkhana videos that featured him doing crazy stunt driving stuff in urban areas that were obviously closed off for filming purposes. The thought of, “Wonder what that cost?!” has crossed the mind of every person that has ever seen the videos. Up until seeing the video below we were thinking that it was the craziest location for use in a car film ever. Well, little did we know that back in the 1980s, French car maker Citroen managed to actually get one of their cars launched off an active aircraft carrier and then affixed to an actual nuclear submarine for a commercial. The premise of the ad is great and while it has some 1980s cheese feel to it the consideration that these massive military machines were used in the making of the ad is insane. This isn’t Don Garlits or Al Eckstrand doing burnouts on the deck of an aircraft carrier to entertain the troops of shoot a Navy ad. Nope, this is a full on car commercial where the steam catapult was used to shoot the car (and it is all shown in the commercial!) into the ocean. Imagine what the captains of the carrier and the sub said when first given THESE orders?!
While we do not know what the submarine’s name was the aircraft carrier is reported to be the Clemenceau which was in service from 1961 through 1997, in stark contrast to the car featured in the ad, which is a Citroen Visa GTI that was only in production for a couple years as a sported up version of the Vista hatchback. A 1.6L engine was plugged into the car and it was apparently sprightly enough but suffered the crummy quality that lots of cars did in the 1980s because there are only a handful known to exist anymore. Hell, Citroen thought enough of them to basically shoot two of the suckers into the ocean. Who knows, it could have been more if they didn’t “get the shot” on the first heave, right?
They literally don’t make car commercials like this anymore, anywhere. If they did steal the concept it would be all CGI and faked up anyway. We’re pretty sure in today’s world climate where literally anything could happen at any possible minute, no Navy on Earth (even the French one) would be offering up the use of its war machine for a campy TV commercial. A bygone era but it is fun to watch!
Before lawyers and environmentalists took over the world.