The Real Story Behind the 1939 Auto Union Type D

Thursday, January 25, Christie’s pulled the wraps off the Auto Union Type D grand prix which they will offer at their auction at Retromobile in Paris on February 17. The event took place at the Audi Forum on Park Avenue (at 47th Street) in New York.

There was a bit of annoying background noise on account of an article written in the New York Post earlier in the week by an ignorant reporter for a careless editor who didn’t bother to fact check. Apparently based upon an earlier, equally uninformed, article by a CNNMoney.com reporter, the Post piece headlined “Hitler’s $15M Race Car”, paralleling the CNNMoney headline, “Hitler race car could fetch $12 million”. The sensationalist press treatment seeded ever-present clouds of misunderstanding and caused something of a shit-storm to descend upon Audi.

CNNMoney described the Auto Union Type D as “commissioned by Adolf Hitler.” The Post avoided outright plagiarism of CNNMoney by describing it as “The race car Adolf Hitler had built to prove the superiority of the Third Reich…”

Neither description is even close to accurate.

The original design was created independently by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s design bureau in 1931 as the “P-wagen.”

Wanderer, then an independent manufacturer, acquired the rights to the P-wagen design and signed a development contract with the Porsche design bureau in 1932.

Auto Union was formed by the Saxon State Bank in 1932 to combine three struggling auto manufacturers in which it had major investments: Horch, Audi and DKW. Wanderer was later added to the company – the fourth ring in Audi’s Vier-Ringe-Logo – and brought both the P-wagen design and the Porsche contract with it.

Auto Union continued development of the P-wagen design to promote the new company and its name.

Adolf Hitler didn’t become Chancellor of Germany until January 30, 1933 and didn’t offer his subsidy for racing car performance – along with plans for building the autobahns – until the Berlin Motor Show in March.

The Auto Union Type D was developed years later, after four seasons of successful grand prix competition by Auto Union’s Silver Arrows.

The German government offered a subsidy for performance by German racing teams. Originally intended for Mercedes-Benz, Auto Union succeeded in getting half of it (250,000 reichmarks, about $10,500 in 1932 US dollars) when driver Hans Stuck and Dr. Porsche interceded directly with Hitler. Over the life of the Auto Union grand prix program government incentives added up to 18.8% of Auto Union’s total racing costs.

From both the timeline and the known facts there is simply no way that anyone could reach a reasonable conclusion that: a) The Auto Union Type D was “commissioned by Hitler”; or b) that “Adolf Hitler had [it] built.”

The Auto Union Type D is a great race car. Built by a small group of craftsmen, engineers, mechanics, fabricators and technicians that never numbered more than a hundred at the Horch factory in Zwickau, Dr. Porsche’s P-wagen design was the first successful race car to have the engine located between the driver and rear wheels. The supercharged V16 and V12 engines were marvels of efficiency and performance. The Auto Union Silver Arrows won – that’s “WON” – 42 of the 83 races and hillclimbs they entered, a success ratio of better than 50% over six consecutive seasons and two very different sets of regulations, the 750kg maximum weight formula of 1934-37 and the 3-liter formula of 1938-39.

Christie’s, Audi and the record of the gifted team who created the Auto Union Type D deserved better.

Rick Carey
January 28, 2007