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Auto Union Type D racing car on the block
24th January, 2007 | ||||
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Perhaps the most expensive car ever to be sold in the history of the
auction house Christie's is due to go under the hammer on 17th February
at the international vintage car fair Rétromobile in Paris. The example
on offer is one of two remaining original Type D racing cars from Auto
Union dating from 1939. Christie's has estimated the value of the car
at 8.8 to 12 million euros. That would be a new record in the British
auction house's long history. Audi France will be exhibiting an original
Auto Union Type D from Audi Tradition to mark the auction in Paris. Auto Union is one of the brands that later jointly became AUDI AG.
Audi Tradition keeps alive the memory of the legendary Auto Union Grand
Prix racing cars. While the vehicle on auction will be on display in the
Audi Forum New York (250 Park Avenue) on 25th January, the so-called
sister car – the Auto Union Type D racing car from 1938 – will be making
an appearance on 12th February in Paris (Bauer Saint Honoré, 48 Place du
Marché Saint Honoré). Both of these Grand Prix cars made the journey
from the former Soviet Union, having been transported there from Zwickau
in eastern Germany after World War II by the Soviet occupation forces as
spoils of war. In the 1980s the American Paul Karassik eventually brought them to
the West having searched for over ten years and eventually finding the
cars stripped down into individual parts in the former USSR. He then
had them reassembled by specialists in Britain with technical support
from AUDI AG. Subsequently AUDI AG acquired the 1938 car from Paul
Karassik. The 1939 D Type passed into private ownership. The Auto Union engineers, headed by Robert Eberan-Eberhorst,
developed the 12-cylinder Type D racing car for the 1938 racing season,
in which new international Grand Prix regulations were introduced,
limiting engine capacity to three litres. The fundamental technical
design of the car – mid-mounted engine, torsion bar suspension,
supercharged engine – essentially followed the model of its Type C
predecessor, developed by Ferdinand Porsche for Auto Union with a
16-cylinder V-engine. In 1938 Auto Union won the Italian and British
Grand Prix with the Type D racing car. The car was modified in 1939 with the addition of a twin compressor,
which increased its engine power output from 420 to 460 bhp. Its top
speed was 330 km/h and it was driven to victory at the Grand Prix in
France and Yugoslavia. The top drivers of the Auto Union Type D racing
car were Tazio Nuvolari, H.P. Müller, Hans Stuck, Rudolf Hasse and
Georg Meier. Audi Tradition today once again owns four Auto Union Silver Arrows – the
original Type D and Type C/D hill-climbing car and replicas of the original Type
C Grand Prix car and the Type C Avus Streamline racing car. A further replica is
still to be produced this year – a Auto Union Type D racing car of the 1939
generation with twin compressor. The four rings of the Audi badge symbolise the brands Audi, DKW, Horch and
Wanderer, which were later combined under the umbrella of Auto Union. Auto Union
and NSU, which merged in 1969, made many significant contributions towards the
development of the car. AUDI AG was formed from Audi NSU Auto Union AG in 1985.
Together with the two traditional companies Auto Union GmbH and NSU GmbH, Audi
Tradition nurtures and presents the deep and diverse history of Audi. | |||||
ABN 47106248033 |
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