1930s Grand Prix: The 1937 Avusrennen - The greatest race of all time?

The 1937 Avusrennen

In 1937 the German national sporting authority wanted to capitalise on the dominance of their racing teams and arranged a special event in addition to the German Grand Prix. The one-off “no rules” race (rennen) they organised ended up taking place on the fastest circuit of all time and featured some of the fastest Grand Prix cars of all time. This, combined with a number of other factors, resulted in one of the most spectacular events in motorsport history.

An incredible season

1937 was already a fantastic year of Grand Prix racing. It was the final year of the ‘750kg formula’ which meant it was the last season of almost unrestricted regulations. At the start of 1934 it was decided the only major rule impacting a Grand Prix car’s design would be a maximum weight of 750kg. This was intended to limit the size of the engines that teams could produce, but over a four year period the German manufacturers had mastered the use of lightweight materials to such a point that engines had completely doubled in size. Auto Union and Mercedes were racing with V16 engines in excess of 6 litres that produced well over 500hp.

In 1938 new regulations were introduced that restricted engine capacity and since then Grand prix racing has always been governed by increasingly stricter rules. 1937 was the last free-for-all season making the cars raced that year are the favourites of many historians.

Not only was 1937 huge year from a technical point of view, but it was also special from a sporting perspective. Auto Union had started racing three years earlier and established themselves as the team to beat in 1936 by totally annihilating Mercedes. Deeply embarrassed, Mercedes responded with the fantastic W25 car and the races between the two teams were so close they were often decided on things like pitstops. This was made even more exciting by the likes of Bernd Rosemeyer and Rudolf Caracciola, the two most successful drivers of the time.

With such a special year, any bonus event was always going to be a great race, but this particular one-off event was epic for a number of additional reasons.

The Avus circuit

The German officials wanted to hold the race at a circuit close to a major population centre to ensure the biggest possible crowd. They used the Avus racetrack in Berlin, which had been used for the German Grand Prix prior to the Nurburgring, and the result was that over 400,000 spectators came to watch the race. This easily exceeds the modern record of 250,000 at Indianapolis in 2000 and it made for a cracking atmosphere.

The Avus circuit was also in its quickest configuration in 1937 making it the fastest racing circuit of all time. It was the most basic of layouts imaginable. Drivers would thrash down a stretch of freeway that was almost 10km long before turning around and heading back. At the end of each straight was a long fast hairpin with a wide radius and slight banking, kind of similar to Turn 8 in Turkey today.

In 1937, one of those hairpins – the Nordkurve near the start/finish line – was redeveloped and featured insane 43 degree banking. This made it one of the fastest corners in the world, but also one of the most dangerous. It had no lip or barrier at the top so was dubbed “the wall of death” because it would simply act like a ramp into the scenery for anyone who made a mistake.

The following year, Avus was shortened and the second hairpin became much tighter and slower. The circuit was at its prime in 1937.

Formula Libre rules

However, what made this one-off race a truly special event is that organisers declared it wasn’t an official Grand Prix. As such, the 750kg rule need not apply. That was the only rule that restricted car performance and now it was being removed so teams were free to bring whatever car they could dream of.

This was especially exciting because it came at a time when Mercedes and Auto Union were pushing the limits of racing technology. They had completely revolutionised the Grand Prix car and their creations produced more top speed than those raced today. Their drivers were only defeated in one single European Championship race over an entire four year period.

Both Auto Union and Mercedes were also competing with each other for various land speed records. Both companies had built cars with conventional petrol engines that were capable of pushing 400kph.

Now these two bitter rivals, who were already ahead of their time, were being told they could race against each other with whatever they dared to bring. The modern equivalent would be telling Red Bull they could join a one-off race against Ferrari with the prototype X10 that Adrian Newey designed for Gran Turismo 5.

All of the ingredients were set for a special race. Two the most dominant teams of the day with some of the best drivers of all time were given free reign to build special cars on the fastest circuit in the world in front 400,000 of their home fans. It didn’t disappoint.

The machinery

Both teams arrived with a mix of machinery. Auto Union used two standard Grand prix cars and another two that were modified versions of their speed record cars. Mercedes used a similar strategy with four slightly different models. Only one of them was a regular Grand Prix car, whilst the others shared features (mainly aerodynamics) with the speed record streamliners.

In practice it became clear this was going to be an event like no other. The cars went close to reaching 400kp, and one of the Mercedes drivers had a scary moment when air pockets gathered near his front wheels and actually lifted the front of the car off the ground. He was able to get off the throttle and wait for the wheels to touch back down, but realised that he came within an inch of his life given the lack of protection available. A cloth helmet won’t save you when you fly into the trees at that sort of speed.

The racing

The format of the meeting was that eleven drivers would be split into two heats, with the top four finishers going through to the final. Rosemeyer and Caracciola were drawn against each other in heat one.

The conventional Grand Prix cars were able to lead during the first lap of heat one thanks to slipstreaming and their superior handling around the long hairpins. However, once the two streamliners of Rosemeyer and Caracciola hit the front they gradually pulled away from the pack.

What started was an epic slipstreaming battle that lasted 15 minutes. Both drivers would pass and repass each other around the 19km lap, and would attack the final banked hairpin with slightly different lines in order to get an edge. During this time, Rosemeyer’s Auto Union clocked a laptime of 276kph, a sensational average speed that has never been seen in any Formula One race since (not even at Hockenheim or Monza before chicanes) and was only matched at Indianappolis in 1971, 34 years later! That sort of speed in a race held more then seven decades ago is just insane.

The two cars were separated by nothing heading into the final lap, but it was Caracciola in the Mercedes who won by just four tenths of a second. Amazing - two of the greatest drivers of all time, in two of the greatest cars of all time, on the fastest circuit of all time, separated by just four tenths of a second. What a finish!

Heat two and the final

The second heat was a more comfortable win for Mercedes, despite a close battle for second place, but all eyes were on the final. One Maserati reached the third race courtesy of a few mechanical failures in heat two and lined up against a field of German cars.

Mercedes took a different strategy heading into the longer final and told two their four drivers to make a pitstop halfway through the race for tyres. As it turned out several drivers had to pit for tyres anyway due to the high speeds but the podium consisted of three drivers who had made it non-stop.

Rosemeyer’s charge in the final was blunted when his V16 dropped three cylinders, but his fourth place made him the highest finishing driver who made a stop. Caracciola also suffered mechanical gremlins and retired when his car became so hot that solder around the gearbox began to melt.

The race was won by Mercedes driver Hermann Lang who finished two seconds ahead of Ernst Von Delius in the Auto Union Type C Grand Prix car.

A truly unique event

Mercedes left the 1937 Avusrennen with national pride, and 400,000 fans left having witnessed something very special. Two racing teams with two of the best drivers in history were given total freedom in the regulations on the fastest circuit the sport had ever seen.

They would have had reason to feel they had seen the greatest race of all time.

Posted by James Wilson. - Follow him on twitter @enterf1.

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