Audi AG is pleased to announce that they have managed to aquire the final Auto Union Type D ever made which was developed in the age of the “Silver Arrows” in 1939.
The ‘supercharger era’ was halted by World War II and after being occupied by the Soviet Army, Auto Union was pillaged. Russian occupying forces found the cars and they were carried back to the Soviet Union as part of German reparation payments, resulting in the loss of the cars.
In 1970, American classic car collector Paul Karassik began his search across Europe and finally managed to uncover remains of two dismantled Auto Union cars before successfully buying them. With the help of English company Crosthwaite & Gardiner, a single supercharger and twin supercharger cars were rebuilt to original spec. While Audi bought the 1938 single-supercharger machine, the 1939 twin was sold to a classic car collector.
The Auto Union car was the first manufacturer to place the engine behind the driver, apparently they was notoriously difficult to drive with its 6 litre v16 engine produced well over 500 bhp.
This fetched them a total of nine Grand Prix Race wins in 1935 and 1937.
The legend of the “Silver Arrows” actually began with the Mercedes-Benz W25 car at the the 1934 EifelRennen at the Nürburgring, it weighed in at 751kg which was 1kg to heavy.
Overnight the team manager Alfred Neubauer and driver Manfred von Brauchitsch, came up with a scheme of scraping all the white paint of the bodywork.
So back at the workshop of the Altes Forsthaus Hubertus the team removed all the paint and revealed the gleaming aluminium panels and passed the scrutineers weigh in for the race.
After a successful race where Manfred von Brauchitsch won the Eifelrennen, the car was dubbed by the media as a “silver Arrow”. So the Era of the silver arrows was born.
Mercedes-Benz & Audi AG have already confirmed that W25, W125, W154 will be present alongside Auto Union Type C and Type Ds at the Goodwood Revival on the 14-16 th September.
And of course you can always visit the Nurburgring Nordschleife Guest House and Garage where the Silver Arrows were born Altes Forsthaus Guesthouse
Ringhaus (Altes Forsthaus St Hubertus), Hauptstrasse 1, 53520 Nurburg. Tel: (+49) 2691 935390.
Auto Union
Mercedes-Benz W125
