The Auto Union Lucca is back, and it deserves a little reverence. Audi Tradition has recreated the streamlined Rennlimousine that Hans Stuck drove near Lucca on February 15, 1935, when Auto Union was using speed records to prove the force of its engineering.
This is not a modern concept car wearing old badges. Audi says the recreated Auto Union Lucca was built from historical photographs and archive documents, with British specialists Crosthwaite and Gardiner spending just over three years on the project. The finished car now joins the Silver Arrow family in the AUDI AG historic vehicle collection.
The original car belonged to a fierce period in European motor racing. Auto Union had been formed in 1932 from Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer, then entered Grand Prix racing under the 750 kg formula in 1934. Hans Stuck was already setting records for the company, while Mercedes-Benz and Rudolf Caracciola were chasing the same ground from the other side of Germany’s glorious racing divide.
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ABOVE: Auto Union Lucca recreated by Audi Tradition.
Auto Union’s engineers began with the record car used in 1934, then shaped the new machine through wind tunnel work at the Berlin-Adlershof Aeronautical Research Institute. The closed cockpit, wheel covers, tapered tail and teardrop wheel arches were engineering answers to a brutal question: how do you make a very powerful racing car move through air with less resistance?
Why Lucca Is important
The record attempt did not go straight to Lucca. Hungary was planned first, but weather stopped serious running. South of Milan was next, but unbelievably, snow covered the proposed route. The team then found a stretch of the Florence to Viareggio road between Pescia and Altopascio, close to Lucca. It was level, grippy, eight metres wide and almost straight for about five kilometres, and no damned snow.
On February 15, 1935, Stuck drove the Rennlimousine over two averaged runs to set the flying-start mile record in International Class C at 320.267 km/h. On the return run, the timing equipment recorded 11.01 seconds over one kilometre, equal to 326.975 km/h. Audi Tradition says that made the Auto Union Lucca the fastest road racing car in the world at the time.
Its life after the record was not tidy. A related car was shown at the 1935 International Motor Show in Berlin, and the Lucca car later appeared at the Avus race in May. The heavier Rennlimousinen were fast but fragile. Bernd Rosemeyer’s sister car suffered a burst right rear tyre, while Prince Hermann zu Leiningen retired the Lucca car with a damaged coolant line.
That does not weaken the car’s place in the archive. It makes the achievement more human. The Auto Union Lucca was a working record machine, not a static sculpture. Its shape came from pressure, weather, rivals, testing and the willingness to take a racing idea somewhere faster than was comfortable.
The recreated Auto Union Lucca
Audi Tradition’s recreation uses a 16-cylinder engine from the Auto Union Type C. The 6.0-litre unit is visually close to the 5.0-litre engine used in the period, and it allows the car to run with greater durability. Audi also fitted Avus-style ventilation changes so the car can survive demonstration runs without excessive heat stress.
The recreated Lucca has already been measured in Audi’s wind tunnel, where it recorded a drag coefficient of 0.43. That number reads modest beside modern race and road cars, but for a hand-shaped record car based on 1930s thinking, it tells the right story. This was a machine built when aerodynamics was becoming visible, physical and urgent.
After its unveiling in Lucca, the car is due to make its first public appearance in motion at the Goodwood Festival of Speed from July 9 to 12. It should be a rare sight: a recreated Auto Union streamliner moving again, not as nostalgia alone, but as a reminder that racing history was once written in aluminium, methanol and nerve.
Auto Union Lucca technical data
| Engine | 16-cylinder engine with compressor |
| Displacement | 6,005 cc |
| Power | 520 PS, 382 kW at 4,500 rpm |
| Fuel | 50% methanol, 40% premium unleaded, 10% toluene |
| Length, height, width | 4,570 mm, 1,200 mm, 1,700 mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,800 mm |
| Curb weight | 960 kg |
| Exterior colour | Cellulose silver |
| Production | One-off |
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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