audi recreates a strange and sculptural 1935-era race car
Audi brings the Auto Union Lucca back to Italy
Audi has recreated the Auto Union Lucca, the streamlined record car that reached 326.975 km/h (203 mph) on a road near the Italian city in 1935.
The one-off reconstruction, completed in spring 2026 by Audi Tradition, returns a missing piece of early Grand Prix engineering to the marque’s historic vehicle collection. Known in period language as a Rennlimousine, or racing sedan, the car joins the Silver Arrow family after more than three years of work by British restoration specialists Crosthwaite & Gardiner.
images courtesy Audi
A body shaped by speed
The original Auto Union Lucca came out of a sharp engineering push during the winter of 1934 and 1935, when Auto Union was chasing speed records against Daimler-Benz. The car began with the lessons of an earlier record-attempt vehicle, then moved through wind tunnel studies at the Berlin-Adlershof Aeronautical Research Institute, where engineers tested open and closed-cockpit configurations in search of lower drag.
Its final shape is still striking today. A long silver body stretches over the chassis, with covered spoked wheels, teardrop wheel arches, a tapered rear fin, and two circular air intakes behind the cockpit. The exhausts rise along the sides in grouped outlets, giving the car a technical directness that reads almost architectural. Every surface seems assigned to airflow, heat, and pressure.
Audi Tradition has recreated the Auto Union Lucca for its historic Silver Arrow collection
From Hungary to the road near Lucca
The record attempt was first planned for the highway near Gyón, Hungary, where Mercedes had set a flying-start mile record in late 1934. Weather pushed the team south, first toward Milan, then farther again when snow covered the planned route. A suitable stretch was eventually found between Pescia and Altopascio, close to Lucca.
There, the road was level, grippy, about eight meters (26 feet) wide, and straight for roughly five kilometers (three miles). On February 14th, 1935, the team began trial runs, adjusting the radiator grille, wheel covers, and aerodynamic details. The following morning, Hans Stuck returned to the course, where official timekeepers used electrically triggered photocells to record the runs.
the streamlined car returns to Italy after setting its 1935 speed record near Lucca
A record built through small adjustments
The decisive setup came after the front radiator opening was mostly sealed, leaving only a small aperture for cooling. Across two averaged runs, Stuck set a flying-start mile record in International Class C at 320.267 km/h. During a section of the return run, the instruments recorded 326.975 km/h (203 mph), giving the car its claim as the fastest road racing car in the world.
For Audi and Auto Union Lucca, the figure is only part of the story. The car shows how quickly race engineering was moving in the 1930s, when aerodynamics, engine development, body fabrication, and public image were all tied together. Its beauty comes from that pressure. The Rennlimousine looks elegant because every line had work to do.
the car’s silver body was shaped through wind tunnel studies and aerodynamic testing
Recreated for Audi’s historic collection
Audi Tradition rebuilt the Auto Union Lucca from archival photographs and documents, with the bodywork among the most demanding parts of the project. The cockpit canopy and tapered tail were made by hand, along with the other model-specific components. In the Audi wind tunnel, the recreated car registered a drag coefficient of 0.43.
The reconstruction uses a 16-cylinder engine from the Auto Union Type C, with a 6.0-liter displacement and 520 PS. Audi Tradition selected it because the unit is visually close to the 5.0-liter engine used in the period car, while allowing the vehicle to run within the wider Silver Arrow collection. The recreated Auto Union Lucca also incorporates certain Avus-race modifications, including ventilation updates that help manage heat during future demonstration runs.
the tapered tail and compact cockpit turn the record car into a study of speed
the recreated car carries a 16-cylinder engine from the Auto Union Type C
project info:
name: Audi Tradition Auto Union Lucca
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