- The Auto Union designed a 16-cylinder sport sedan that by no means received constructed
- Audi, the automaker’s successor, simply constructed it
- The Auto Union Kind 52 debuted on the 2024 Goodwood Competition of Pace
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’ll lastly make its public debut on the 2024 Goodwood Competition of Pace.
The Auto Union Kind 52, often known as the Schnellsportwagen, was supposed to be a high-performance highway automobile from the agency, which was fashioned 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-Method 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 steel bodywork to save lots of weight. Historical past reveals 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 Kind 52 Schnellsportwagen
Issues might have been completely different, although. The Porsche design workplace (Ferdinand Porsche collaborated with Auto Union earlier than beginning his personal automobile firm after World Struggle II) started sketching the Kind 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 Kind 52 incorporates a mid-mounted supercharged V-16 from an Auto Union Kind A race automobile. Displacing 4.3 liters, the engine was supposed to run decrease compression (with a view to use common gasoline) and fewer increase than the racing model, however nonetheless would have propelled the Kind 52 to a high pace 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 had been changed with longitudinal torsion spring suspension and hydraulic dampers.
Auto Union Kind 52 Schnellsportwagen
Audi commissioned U.Okay. agency Crosthwaite & Gardner, which additionally maintains the automaker’s historic fleet of Silver Arrow race vehicles, to construct the trendy duplicate. Some adjustments had been made, together with swapping in a 6.0-liter supercharged V-16 comparable from the 1936 Auto Union Kind 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 toes lengthy, however has house for 3 individuals (the motive force sits within the center, McLaren F1-style), two spare tires, and baggage inside its streamlined kind. It is going to 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.
