Audi recreates the 1935 Auto Union Lucca record car
Audi Tradition rebuilt the Auto Union Lucca record car, the machine in which Hans Stuck reached 326.975 km/h near the Italian city of Lucca in 1935. The recreated Rennlimousine was completed by British specialists Crosthwaite and Gardiner, and will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.
Audi commissioned the car using historic photographs and archive documents, bringing back one of Germany’s most famous speed record machines of the 1930s. The project took just over three years and was completed in spring 2026. Every detail was made by hand, with particular effort going into the streamlined body, cockpit canopy and tapering tail.
This is not a restoration of a surviving original. It is a newly built reconstruction. That makes the project less a museum repair job and more a technical act of recreation. Audi wanted to restore the car’s appearance and period character, while adapting it just enough to cope with modern demonstration runs.
Auto Union originally planned the 1935 record attempt near Gyón in Hungary, on the same stretch of road where Mercedes had previously improved its own results. Weather forced a change of plan. The team eventually found a suitable straight in Italy, near Lucca, on the Florence to Viareggio road between Pescia and Altopascio. Audi describes the section as roughly five kilometres long, flat and almost arrow straight.
On 15 February 1935, Hans Stuck drove the Auto Union Lucca to an average speed of 320.267 km/h over the flying mile. Timing equipment registered a top speed of 326.975 km/h on one section of the return run. On the strength of that result, Auto Union described the car at the time as the fastest road racing car in the world.
Grand Prix engineering in a smoother suit
The record car drew on Auto Union’s Grand Prix engineering of the period, but received a longer and more aerodynamic body. The surface was smoothed, covered in clear lacquer and the wire wheels disappeared behind aerodynamic covers. The original V16 engine grew to around five litres and produced 343 hp in its early form, later rising to 375 hp.
The recreated car uses the six litre supercharged 16 cylinder engine from the 1936 Auto Union Type C. Audi says the six litre unit is almost visually indistinguishable from the five litre engine and better suits the needs of its historic car collection and demonstration use. In the new reconstruction, it produces 520 hp, or 382 kW.
Audi also notes that the Lucca recreation received several later Avus racing modifications, including changes related to cooling and ventilation. The reason is practical enough. Without them, modern demonstration runs would place too much thermal strain on the car. That detail matters, because this project does not pretend to be a sealed museum time capsule. It is a driveable interpretation of a historic record car.
The figures still look serious today. The car is 4570 mm long, 1200 mm high and 1700 mm wide, with a wheelbase of 2800 mm. Kerb weight stands at 960 kg, while wind tunnel testing gave the reconstruction a drag coefficient of 0.43.
A reminder of where Audi’s engineering story began
The Auto Union Lucca will not bring Audi any sales figures, but it strengthens the brand’s sense of technological continuity. In the 1930s, Auto Union brought together Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer, and the four rings were born from that structure. The Lucca record car shows that Audi’s engineering story did not begin with quattro or the electric age. It started much earlier, and in rather more dangerous clothing.
Audi will show the rebuilt Lucca first in Italy, then at the Goodwood Festival of Speed from 9 to 12 July, where the car is expected to make its first public moving appearance. That is the right setting for it. Not as a static museum object, but as part of a living motorsport memory.
