Audi has brought one of its wildest pre-war machines back to life, recreating the Auto Union ‘Lucca’ streamliner that once held speed records in the 1930s. And yes, it still looks like something imagined by an engineer who had clearly stopped worrying about practicality.
The original car was built by Auto Union, the company that eventually evolved into modern-day Audi. Back in 1935, the streamlined racer set a flying mile record, averaging 320 kmph and reaching 327 kmph. Which was utterly outrageous, considering this happened nearly a century ago.
More remarkably, the record was not set on a race track. Instead, Auto Union used a stretch of Italian autostrada near Lucca after poor weather ruined plans elsewhere. Apparently, the solution to bad conditions in the 1930s was simply “find a long enough road and go flat out”.
Driven by Hans Stuck, the car quickly became famous as the world's fastest race car. It also intensified Auto Union’s rivalry with Mercedes-Benz, whose own speed record had only recently been broken by the Lucca.
Unfortunately, like many racing cars from that era, the original disappeared over time. Which meant Audi had to recreate the entire thing from scratch. The company handed the project to British restoration specialists Crosthwaite and Gardiner, who spent more than three years rebuilding the car using old photographs, archive documents and an extraordinary amount of patience.
Every component had to be handmade because spare parts for a 1935 V16 streamliner are, unsurprisingly, difficult to source online.
The slippery aluminium body was among the toughest elements to recreate, though the final shape still achieves a drag coefficient of 0.43. Not bad for a car designed before television became common.
Power comes from a supercharged 6.0 litre V16 engine sourced from a later 1936 Auto Union Type C racer. Output stands at a frankly absurd 512 bhp at 4,500 rpm. The engine runs on a cocktail of methanol, petrol and toluene, which sounds less like fuel and more like something stored in a chemistry lab.
Audi has not confirmed whether the recreated Lucca can still crack 320 kmph, but honestly, just hearing a supercharged V16 from the 1930s fire back to life feels dramatic enough.
The recreated streamliner will make its public dynamic debut at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed before joining Audi’s historic collection. In an era obsessed with software updates and touchscreens, this feels like a rather wonderful reminder that speed records once involved giant engines, handmade metal and an alarming amount of bravery.
