Auto Union Type C

(from Audi Press Release)  The legendary Auto Union Silver Arrows dominated the major races of the 1930s, winning 32 of 54 races up to the end of 1937. The battles fought out between the Auto Union race cars and the Mercedes single-seaters are unforgotten. Names such as Hans Stuck, Bernd Rosemeyer and Tazio Nuvolari are inseparably linked with the Auto Union Silver Arrows. The famous photographer Peter Vann has now paid tribute to these impressive racers in his fascinating illustrative book “Auto Union GP. Race and Record Cars”. Due to be published in October, his book illustrates the restoration of these unique vehicles and the exciting search for clues to the whereabouts of those race cars that had been lost without trace. Elaborate photo stories show the timeless beauty of the Silver Arrows with the four rings. A historical outline with plenty of background information, plus details about the technology and design of these legendary race cars round off this photographic volume.

Detailed and meticulously documented reproductions of these “silver” Auto Union racers are the result of an obligation undertaken by Audi to remain faithful to its own history.

Most of the Auto Union Grand Prix race cars built in the German town of Zwickau in Saxony went missing after the Second World War. All that remained were photos, documents and five originals worldwide, including three 12-cylinder Type D, a 16-cylinder Type C and a single 16-cylinder Type C hillclimb racing car. AUDI AG acquired the latter in Riga, Latvia in 1995. It can now be admired in Audi's museum mobile in Ingolstadt.

The 16-cylinder Type C that returned home via Riga served Crosthwaite & Gardiner, the British restoration specialists commissioned by Audi Tradition, as a model for an exact reproduction which was sent to the museum in Riga in return.

In the meantime several lost Auto Union racing cars have been faithfully reproduced and are used, for example, for demonstrations at historic races. Not only is the above-mentioned hillclimb racing car used but also a 12-cylinder Type D and the 16-cylinder AVUS Type C Streamliner racing car which is particularly spectacular. The fascination of this vehicle is undiminished: in May 2000 this terrific Streamliner race car tore around the banked curve of the famous French circuit at Montlhéry. This was exactly 63 years after its premiere at the Avus circuit in Berlin in May 1937, when Bernd Rosemeyer took a car of this type to a speed of 380 km/h on the straights. This unique race car now also has a place of honour in the museum mobile.