In 1935, Hans Stuck set a memorable speed record on the Italian Autostrada in the Auto Union Type C “Lucca” prototype. This week, Classic Driver’s J.P. Rathgen travelled to Italy and took a seat inside the mythical Silver Arrow record car.
Nearly a century after it thundered down an Italian autostrada at more than 326 km/h, Audi has revived one of the most extraordinary machines of the pre-war era: the Auto Union Type C “Lucca” streamliner. Originally built in 1935 as part of the escalating battle for speed supremacy between Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, the aerodynamic V16-powered racer became a symbol of the company’s technological ambition when Hans Stuck used it to set a flying-kilometre record near Lucca. The original car vanished in the turmoil of the Second World War, but Audi Tradition has now painstakingly recreated it with the help of British restoration specialists Crosthwaite & Gardiner.
Drawing from archival photographs, engineering documents, and surviving Auto Union expertise, the team spent more than three years reconstructing the car’s teardrop-shaped aluminium body, enclosed cockpit, and dramatic Silver Arrow proportions. Though subtly updated for reliability and demonstration use, the reborn Lucca remains remarkably faithful to the machine that once represented the cutting edge of speed and aerodynamic experimentation. You can read the fascinating story of the Auto Union Lucca and its return in our latest magazine feature.
For the unveiling of the freshly completed Auto Union Lucca, J.P. Rathgen travelled to Tuscany to experience the otherworldly machine in the flesh — and even squeeze into its claustrophobic cockpit before the first test drive. Despite his best efforts to convince the team otherwise, he ultimately had to leave the actual driving to the experienced Audi Tradition pilot, a decision he accepted with only minor protest. What does it feel like to sit in an aircraft-style cabin between massive fuel tanks, at the heart of a machine built for one purpose alone: to go as fast as humanly possible? Watch our feature film on You Tube to find out.
