History of Auto Union D at Auction
Christie's, Audi: Chassis 19 in 1939 French GP and Eifelrennen
The Auto Union Type D Christie's sought to sell at auction early this year is actually the car that in 1939 finished sixth in the French GP and fifth in the Eifelrennen.
Doing the research needed to write the Suite101 article, “Nuvolari Wins 1939 Belgrade GP,” brought back to mind a particular news article for the first time in many months.
In winning the race in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the only grand prix that took place in Europe during World War 2, Nuvolari drove an Auto Union Type D. Two days before the race -- September 1, 1939, the war started with Germany’s invasion of Poland.
The main headline of the news article, posted on CNN’s Web site on December 6, 2006, was, “Hitler Race Car Could Fetch $12 Million."
The CNN article stated that a Type D was to be auctioned by Christie’s and that a new record price for a car sold at auction could be set -- $12 million (US). In addition to locating the article in question, an Internet search revealed a strange turn of events.
The car was scheduled to be part of Christie’s “Retromobile” auction of antique automobiles in Paris in February 2007. But controversy arose as to whether the car was the Type D being advertised. Christie’s removed the car from the auction to conduct additional research about its heritage.
Christie’s conducted the research in conjunction with Audi Tradition, a division of Audi AG charged with exemplifying, maintaining and communicating the rich heritage of Audi AG and its predecessor companies.
Audi was one of the four member companies of Auto Union, along with DKW, Wanderer and Horch. They formed the foundation of the company that today is Audi AG. The same four-ring logo that was used on Auto Union race cars is used today on cars produced by Audi AG.
Auto Union raced the mid-engine Type D in 1938 and 1939, the last two grand prix seasons before WW 2. The car was powered by a 3.0-liter, V12 engine. The location of the engine and fuel tank -- behind the driver -- was unique for its time and has beeen, since the 1960s, the norm for single-seat, open-wheel race cars and sports cars.
Now the good news about the car in question. It is a genuine Auto Union Type D. But the research concluded that it was not the car initially advertised -- chassis 21, engine 37 – that won the 1939 French and Belgrade Grands Prix.
Hermann Muller drove a Type D to victory in the 1939 French GP, the second of four races in the European Championship. That victory at Reims-Gueux along with a second-place finish at the German GP (Nurburgring) and a fourth-place finish at the Swiss GP (Bremgarten) had Muller leading in the standings for the European Championship. But due to the outbreak of the war, AICAR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus) did not declare a champion driver for 1939. AICAR was the forerunner of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile), the worldwide governing body of motorsport.
As mentioned above, Nuvolari drove a Type D to victory in the 1939 Belgrade GP. It was the 43rd and penultimate “major” victory of his great career that included the 1932 European Championship.
For more information on the Type D's brief but successful racing history, please see the Suite101 article, "Grand Prix History of Auto Union D."
Chassis 19, Not Chassis 21
On March 1, 2007, Christie’s announced in a press release that the car in question is chassis 19. It was driven to a sixth-place finish by Hans Stuck in the 1939 French GP and by Rudolf Hasse to a fifth-place finish in the 1939 Eifelrennen, a non-championship race at the Nurburgring.
The following is from the Web site FORIX (Formula One Results and Information Explorer).
“Controversy arose when it turned out that Peter Kirchberg, Audi Tradition’s chief expert on the Auto Unions, had said something quite different in his 2004 book Dem Silber auf der Spur. On page 14, he assigned French GP winner Muller to car 76010, with chassis 11 and engine 37. In Belgrade, Nuvolari had driven 76010 with chassis 22 and engine 29.
"Some experts then added to the controversy. They showed that, in the early 1990s, C&G (Crosthwaite & Gardiner of England) rebuilt the two-stage blown engine 37 in the Karassik/Kogan/Christie’s car by converting a single-stage blown engine, which has different parts. Meaning: current engine 37 cannot be the same engine 37 as was used in the 1939 French GP. It also has a new cylinder head, built from scratch, since the old one had corroded badly.
"It should also be noted that Belgrade winner Nuvolari actually drove car 76011, which had chassis number 26 and engine number 26, according to the Auto Union archives. A copy of this archived document can also be found in Kirchberg’s older book Grand Prix Report Auto Union 1934-1939. Car 76010 had originally been assigned to Nuvolari, but since he did not show up at the practice days and his arrival was not assured, 76010 was given to Muller.”
Christie’s sought to sell the car in a closed-bid auction in March 2007. But it did not change hands.
Christie’s will put the car back up for auction in the future. The current record price fetched by a car at auction is nearly $11 million (US) -- paid for a Bugatti Type 41 Royale Sports Coupe auctioned by Christie’s in 1987.
Christie’s does not believe the change in racing heritage will negatively impact the price the car will fetch at auction. That’s because of the Type D’s ultra-rarity. The car now known as chassis 19 was re-discovered in the Ukraine in the late 1980s – in pieces but undamaged.
Another Type D is in the Riga Motor Museum in Riga, Latvia. The car was re-discovered in Moscow in 1976 by Viktors Kulbergs, president of the Antique Automobile Club of Latvia. He saved the car from being cut up for scrap metal. It was then fully restored and rebuilt by Crosthwaite & Gardiner.
Why were the Type Ds in the former USSR? The Auto Union factory was in Zwickau, Saxony in eastern Germany. As WW 2 in Europe wound down, Soviet armed forces advanced on Germany from the east. They took the cars back to the Soviet Union for study.
