- The Auto Union designed a 16-cylinder sport sedan that by no means acquired constructed
- Audi, the automaker’s successor, simply constructed it
- The Auto Union Sort 52 debuted on the 2024 Goodwood Competition of Velocity
Within the Nineteen Thirties, Audi predecessor Auto Union designed a 16-cylinder sports activities sedan, however by no means constructed it. Ninety years later, it can lastly make its public debut on the 2024 Goodwood Competition of Velocity.
The Auto Union Sort 52, often known as the Schnellsportwagen, was meant to be a high-performance highway automobile from the agency, which was shaped in 1932 from the merger of Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. It originated Audi’s four-ring brand, which represented the 4 element manufacturers.
Together with Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union dominated (pre-System 1) grand prix racing within the Nineteen Thirties. The 2 German automakers swept the competitors apart with their Silver Arrows, so named as a result of they raced with naked metallic bodywork to avoid wasting weight. Historical past exhibits that she success of the Silver Arrows was a propaganda coup for the Nazi regime—which got here to energy across the identical time—however that it did not translate to highway vehicles.
Auto Union Sort 52 Schnellsportwagen
Issues may have been totally different, although. The Porsche design workplace (Ferdinand Porsche collaborated with Auto Union earlier than beginning his personal automobile firm after World Conflict II) started sketching the Sort 33 in late 1933 with the intention of promoting it to prospects for long-distance highway vehicles just like the Mille Miglia, or endurance races just like the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A prototype was deliberate, however the undertaking was deserted in 1935.
That disadvantaged the world of a very radical machine. Beneath the sedan physique, the Sort 52 encompasses a mid-mounted supercharged V-16 from an Auto Union Sort A race automobile. Displacing 4.3 liters, the engine was meant to run decrease compression (in an effort to use common gasoline) and fewer enhance than the racing model, however nonetheless would have propelled the Sort 52 to a high velocity of 124 mph, Audi estimates.
The design specified a 5-speed transmission additionally taken from the race automobile, however that automobile’s transverse leaf springs and friction dampers have been changed with longitudinal torsion spring suspension and hydraulic dampers.
Auto Union Sort 52 Schnellsportwagen
Audi commissioned U.Ok. agency Crosthwaite & Gardner, which additionally maintains the automaker’s historic fleet of Silver Arrow race vehicles, to construct the trendy duplicate. Some adjustments have been made, together with swapping in a 6.0-liter supercharged V-16 comparable from the 1936 Auto Union Sort C race automobile, and operating it on a mixture of 50% methanol, 40% tremendous unleaded gasoline, and 10% toluene. That enhances output from the unique 197 hp to 512 hp.
Audi additionally specified an extended wheelbase, which turned out to be essential to the drivetrain and suspension. The completed automobile is over 16 ft lengthy, however has area for 3 folks (the driving force sits within the center, McLaren F1-style), two spare tires, and baggage inside its streamlined kind. It will likely be pushed at Goodwood by nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen and racing veteran Hans-Joachim Caught, whose father Hans Caught drove Auto Union grand prix vehicles within the Nineteen Thirties.
