Audi is again on the high tier of motorsport. Components 1 didn’t exist but within the celebrated, if more and more war-shadowed, Nineteen Thirties, however the Auto Union race automobiles of that period can nonetheless be seen as the game’s forebears. Considered one of them fused engineering ambition and driver bravery right into a machine that redefined what physics appeared to permit: the Auto Union Lucca.
Now, Audi Custom has rebuilt this spectacular document automobile. And fittingly for a legend, it’s making its comeback within the very place the place its story as soon as reached its brightest peak: Lucca, Italy—a Tuscan metropolis of just below 90,000 individuals. It’s additionally the birthplace of composer Giacomo Puccini and, in its personal manner, a stage for a really completely different sort of efficiency.
Flashback: It’s February 15, 1935. On a dead-straight part of the autostrada close to Lucca, there’s a tense quiet, till the roar of a 16-cylinder engine tears by the air. Hans Caught on the wheel, the “King of the Mountains,” hurls the streamlined racer by the measured mile. The consequence sends shockwaves by the skilled group. With a flying-start common of 199 mph (320.267 km/h), Auto Union obliterates the standing marks. A peak velocity of 203.2 mph (326.975 km/h) is recorded, making it the quickest road-racing automobile on the planet on the time.
Three Years Of Reconstruction
That we will take on this sight once more right now is because of a three-year reconstruction effort by specialists at Crosthwaite & Gardiner in England. Accomplished in time for spring 2026, this Silver Arrow fills a painful hole within the historic assortment of Audi AG.
Photograph by: Audi Custom
The Nineteen Thirties have been an period of obsession. Pace wasn’t only a quantity—it was a sort of substitute faith. And never solely in Germany. There, the (state-subsidized) duel was Star versus Rings, Caracciola versus Caught. When Daimler-Benz posted 196.4 mph (316 km/h) on the finish of 1934, drafting boards in Zwickau ran scorching. A “heated” winter adopted.
For the primary time in European race-car development, findings from the wind tunnel on the German Analysis Institute for Aviation in Berlin-Adlershof flowed immediately into the physique form. The consequence was an aerodynamic sculpture: finely completed light-alloy panels, clearcoat, totally lined wheels, and a fin-like tail that might nonetheless carry a designer to tears right now.
Photograph by: Audi Custom
Below the hood of the unique Lucca automobile labored an early model of the 16-cylinder engine, drawing 343 hp from roughly 5.0 liters of displacement. However expertise alone doesn’t set data, as Timo Witt, head of Audi Custom’s historic car assortment since 2015, emphasizes:
“What evokes me is the momentum and velocity with which they reacted to the competitors even again then—technically in car growth, but additionally organizationally: the climate turns and the entire workforce shortly strikes on at quick discover. With out that flexibility and the power to adapt extraordinarily quick to new conditions, the document run in Lucca finally wouldn’t have been potential.”
Timo Witt and Motor1 Deutschland Editor-in-Chief Roland Hildebrandt with the Lucca automobile
Photograph by: Audi Custom
Throughout Europe to Tuscany
Certainly: the street to success was an odyssey from Hungary to Milan and on to the sunny south close to Lucca—at all times staying one step forward of snow and unhealthy climate. In the long run, it was the right stretch between Pescia and Altopascio that made the triumph potential.
However so as: After just a few weeks of growth work, the completed automobile is already within the Auto Union racing division’s workshop in Zwickau in December 1934. On December 17, the primary take a look at runs comply with on Berlin’s AVUS, and by late January 1935, the choice is made: the document try will happen in Hungary—on the precise street close to Gyón the place Caracciola had set the category document over the flying-start mile the earlier 12 months in a Mercedes.
Auto Union makes all preparations with the Hungarian car membership; the high-powered document contender arrives in Budapest on February 4, 1935. The subsequent day, the workforce heads to the course about 25 miles(40 km) to the south; the climate deteriorates quickly. Even so, two take a look at runs are accomplished on February 5. On the second run, the exhaust burns by, and the exams need to be halted.
Auto Union Lucca automobile in 1935
Photograph by: AUDI AG company archive
The race administration decides to proceed the document makes an attempt south of Milan because of the climate swings. However situations there aren’t supreme both: the deliberate stretch is roofed in snow, so Auto Union pushes farther south. On the Florence–Viareggio street, an appropriate part is lastly discovered between Pescia and Altopascio close to the town of Lucca.
This piece of autostrada is right for document runs—effectively graded, with good grip, 26 ft (8 meters) broad, and virtually arrow-straight for about 3.1 miles (5 km). The primary take a look at runs start on February 14, 1935. Completely different car configurations are tried, particulars just like the radiator opening and wheel covers are diverse, and knowledge is evaluated. The subsequent morning at 9 a.m., the automobile rolls onto the course close to Lucca once more—Hans Caught on the wheel.
A Model Constructed For The Auto Present Crowd
Nearly concurrently with the profitable document run in Lucca, a virtually equivalent model of the document automobile is offered on the Worldwide Vehicle and Motorbike Exhibition in Berlin (February 14–24). The putting distinction versus the Lucca automobile is the bigger radiator grille.
As a result of the mile document had not but been formally acknowledged at the moment, the promotional poster made for the present presents the Lucca automobile because the “quickest road-racing automobile on the planet,” alongside a listing of all Auto Union world and sophistication data achieved as much as that time—full with the highest velocity of 203.2 mph (326.975 km/h).
Photograph by: Company Archives of AUDI AG
However the automobile’s story doesn’t finish with the document runs. Just some months later, in Might 1935, the Lucca automobile appeared along with a virtually equivalent sister mannequin on the legendary AVUS race in Berlin. As a result of the occasion is formula-free, the heavy “racing sedans” (2,271 lb / 1,030 kg beginning weight) are allowed to line up in opposition to slimmer Grand Prix automobiles. It’s the debut of a younger expertise named Bernd Rosemeyer, however luck isn’t on Auto Union’s aspect that day: tire failures and cooling-water issues drive the workforce to retire.
Genuine, However Additionally Optimized
As we speak, we have a look at the reborn Lucca automobile with a mixture of reverence and nostalgia. Timo Witt walks me by the car and removes the cover over the motive force’s place—plane associations aren’t precisely unintentional. I look into the cockpit with its enormous steering wheel. It’s lovely, nevertheless it calls for severe work. The five-speed gearbox is unsynchronized, so clear shifts with a throttle blip are obligatory. And at 6 ft 2 inches (1.88 meters), I wouldn’t slot in there anyway.
Authenticity was the highest precedence within the rebuild, however there was additionally sensible judgment. Timo Witt explains: “In fact, we recreated the automobile as authentically as potential, however on the identical time, points just like the car’s longevity and implementing the undertaking as effectively as potential have been essential to us.”
Photograph by: Audi Custom
Inside is the 6.0-liter coronary heart of the Kind C, externally equivalent however making components provide inside the Silver Arrow household simpler. Cooling has additionally been improved to arrange the automobile for the longer term. As well as, the Auto Union Lucca carries various modifications, a few of which had already been carried out for the AVUS race in Might 1935 in Berlin, comparable to air flow.
Witt provides: “We adopted these adjustments on the Auto Union Lucca as a result of in any other case the car could be below an excessive amount of thermal stress throughout our upcoming demonstration runs.” With minor modifications to the radiator and bodywork, the Auto Union Lucca might be transformed into the AVUS configuration.
With a wind-tunnel-confirmed drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.43, the automobile is prepared for its subsequent main stage. After its premiere in Italy, it is going to mild up the asphalt on the Goodwood Competition of Pace from July 9 to 12, 2026—full with 16-cylinder thunder.
