1930s Grand Prix: The story of Auto Union

Auto Union

Despite having never entered a World Championship event, Auto Union remains one of the most successful and iconic Grand Prix teams of all time. The German squad raced from 1934 to1939 and contributed immensely to the rapid development of new technology in motorsport. The cars Auto Union produced over 70 years ago were seemingly ahead of their time, and had a higher top speed than the F1 machines being raced today.

Auto Union’s rivalry with Mercedes revolutionised the sport, and defined racing in the 1930’s.

The foundation of Auto Union

The Auto Union company was formed in 1932 when four struggling German manufacturers combined resources to create one larger more sustainable business. Those companies were Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer, and each had different strengths that mixed well when combined together. The logo of the new company featured four interlocking rings, representing each of its founding partners, and is retained today by Audi.

Around this time the German government was keen to develop the country’s automotive industry and offered significant funding to Mercedes to develop successful Grand Prix cars. Auto Union representatives approached government officials and convinced them that two competing programmes would drive innovation further than merely supporting one team. This led to the funding that was previously given to Mercedes being split equally between the two companies, with further incentives provided to the more successful team. Understandably, this angered Mercedes and a bitter rivalry was born.

Auto Union secured the services of Ferdinand Porsche to design a new Grand Prix car for the 1934 season. The result was the Auto Union Type A, and it was simply astonishing.

The Type A

New regulations had been introduced for 1934 stipulating that a car’s weight could not exceed 750kg, the complete reverse of today minimum weight restrictions. The idea of this rule was that it limited engine size, and therefore power.

Alfa Romeo, who won more races than anyone else the previous year, responded to this new regulation with a 2.9 litre engine producing over 200 horsepower.

By comparison, Auto Union had built a massive 4.4 litre V16 engine that produced almost 300 horsepower, the first of its kind in Grand Prix racing. The engine was incredible, way ahead of the Alfa Romeo, and it was larger (if not more powerful) than the impressive powerplant Mercedes had also constructed.

The era of German domination had begun.

The Auto Union Type A was extraordinary. It was rear engined car, unlike any of its competitors, and 25 years before Cooper introduced that configuration into the Formula One World Championship. It was also the first Grand Prix car to feature independent suspension on all four wheels, and was the first to feature torsion bars. This is made even more amazing by the fact that it was built by a brand new team. Starting a Grand Prix team from scratch is incredibly difficult, especially when it lacks the funding of more established rivals, so the fact that Auto Union debuted with such an incredible car is a special achievement. In one season, Auto Union and Mercedes lowered laptimes by as much as other cars had managed over the previous five.

The Type A made a very impressive debut in its first Grand Prix, pulling out a massive one minute lead after just the first lap of the long Avus circuit. It would have won the race easily, but reliability prevented it from finishing. The team did win the prestigious German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring later in the year, two minutes ahead of Mercedes.

Auto Union may have entered the sport with the fastest car of the day, but Mercedes still had a better season with the spectacular W25. This was thanks to Mercedes’ reliability, stronger driver line-up, and ability to develop faster than any other team during the season. Auto Union looked to correct this in 1935 by hiring a number of top drivers, including Bernd Rosemeyer, and introduced an updated version of their car which became the Type B.

Auto Union won more races in 1935, but were still outperformed by Mercedes who made use of their greater resources. Both companies were hell bent on beating each other, and together they were now miles ahead of their counterparts from Italy and France. German cars won every European Championship race (except one) for the next four years.

The Type C

In order to beat Mercedes, Auto Union created the legendary Type C, a car that pushed racing technology to the limit at the time and utterly crushed all of its opposition in 1936. The Type C had a 6 litre 520 horsepower engine and a top speed of 340kph. In response, Mercedes built a similarly large engine but found they had compromised handling and engine driveability in doing so, and soon reverted back to a smaller unit.

The Auto Union cars were very difficult to handle because the majority of their weight was taken up by the engine, and with such huge power, they could produce wheelspin at over 100mph. Hans Stuck and Bernd Rosemeyer were talented enough to deal with it, and together they won so many races that Mercedes withdrew partway through the season and started developing the car they would race the following year. Auto Union cruised to their first European Championship.

In 1936 the Type C broke the lap record at the Berne circuit during the Swiss Grand Prix, a record that was never broken in race conditions until the circuit was dropped from the calendar in 1955. It remains the only lap record, on a Grand Prix circuit, to be held today be a pre-war car.

The Type C won more races than any other car over a two year period, and remained highly competitive against new cars built by Mercedes. It’s possible that Bernd Rosemeyer could have won another title with Auto Union in 1937 if he hadn’t made a number of crucial mistakes in the few races that counted towards the European Championship.

The Type D

The final car produced by Auto Union was the Type D, and it was built in response to new regulations in 1938 that set a limit on engine capacity. The car was built during a very difficult time for the team. Bernd Rosemeyer had been killed in a speed record attempt at the start of 1938 and their other lead driver, Hans Stuck, had retired. The team’s lead designer, Ferdinand Porsche, had also left the team to focus on production of the Volkswagen Beetle. Even though the Type D was competitive, the new staff and drivers at Auto Union were not able to deliver strong results until late in its first year.

The 1939 season was interrupted by World War Two and, as such, no European Champion was ever crowned. There was some confusion over which points system would have been used if the war hadn’t stopped racing, and under one such system Auto Union would have been crowned champions. They won the last race they ever entered, held two days after Germany invaded Poland.

Legend of the Silver Arrows

Auto Union’s cars were run in silver, like their rivals Mercedes, giving rise to the term ‘silver arrows’. A popular story is that German cars were always painted white, as it is their national racing colour, but Mercedes scraped the white paint off their cars to reveal bare bodywork when it was found to be slightly overweight. It’s a popular story, and one perpetuated today by the Current Mercedes GP team, but it would appear to be nothing more than a myth. None of Mercedes early cars were ever painted white to start with, and the race where they supposedly removed it did not have any weight restrictions anyway. This story was likely an attempt by early Mercedes team owners to create a bit of mythology around the brand.

The Auto Union company

After the war, Soviets took control of Auto Union’s assets and liquidated the company. It was reborn in 1949 by some former employees, but never re-entered racing and focussed on building some cars under the old DKW brand. The company was taken over by Daimler-Benz before being sold to Volkswagen in 1966 who started making cars under the ‘Audi’ name.

There are some current rumours that when Porsche and Volkswagen complete their corporate merger, the new parent company will be called Auto Union. That would be a nice historical throwback given it was the merger of German manufacturers that formed the company in 1932.

Surviving Grand Prix cars

Very few Auto Union cars survived the war and now only five originals still exist. Of these, only one actually raced. The other four were simply display cars or have since been made up from original spare parts and are not complete as they were 70 years ago.

The single surviving Auto Union car that did race only competed in hillclimb events and not an actual Grand Prix model. The car has a Type D chassis, with the larger Type C engine (that is able to fit thanks to a smaller hillclimb fuel tank). Its value is immense and it currently sits in Audi’s Ingolstadt museum.

A number of other Auto Union cars have been seen, but many of them are replicas or non original cars. This includes the Type C replica owned by Bernie Ecclestone, and the mysterious ‘Type E’ in the Donington museum that is actually just a “Sokol” built by former Auto Union staff (possibly using Auto Union plans).

An original Type D was put up for auction in 2007 and was expected to be the most expensive car ever sold, but was later withdrawn from sale when it was discovered that it was not a complete car and was made of spare parts from other Auto Unions.

There are lots of rumours that an original Auto Union must exists somewhere in Russia given that 18 of them were taken from a mine shaft during the war. Whilst it is believed that most of these were cut up for scrap or pulled apart beyond recognition (the chassis of one was apparently turned into a trailer) there are some enthusiasts who like to believe there must be one hidden somewhere. If any actually do exist they would surely have been unearthed by now, but if one is surprisingly hiding somewhere in a shed in the Eastern Bloc, it would undoubtedly be the most valuable car in the world.

Auto Union’s Legacy

Auto Union only spent six years in Grand Prix racing but during that time they pushed themselves and Mercedes to incredible heights. The two German manufacturers completely dominated motorsport during the late thirties.

The speed and power specifications of the silver arrows were not matched in Formula One until the 1980s, and even today their top end performance is comparable.

There is little doubt that Auto Union were responsible for some of the greatest cars ever built in a very special era of racing.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

Like us on Facebook! »

More F1 Posts »

• 2012 Spanish GP: Hamilton and that 31 lap stint!
• Williams F1 Fire: Photos and video from dramatic post race inferno
• Lewis Hamilton blasts the rest away with pole in Spain
• An absolutely mega F1 prize you can win with the Lotus F1 Team
• Remembering Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna
• 2012 Bahrain GP: Vettel returns to the top, and Rosberg escapes penalties
• Sebastian Vettel takes his first pole since 2011
• 2012 Chinese Grand Prix: Thrilling late overtaking and tyres falling off the cliff
• Nico Rosberg takes his first pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton
• 2012 Malaysia GP: Sergio Perez 2nd in Malaysia – but does the race need to start earlier?

Last Comment Posted »