HI Friends, I am up late and all night with a lot of pain in my foot, and I can't sleep because of the pain. It's a tough night. Been exploring on youtube and saw this on a 3 liter V12 Auto-Union, that Tazio Nuvolari, has driven, and Alain De Cadenet drove, in his show, Victory by Design. Hope it's not out of place here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDkg9lZV3nY Ciao...Paolo
The car was at Monterey if I remember correctly in '99, driven by Albereto. A friend who was the marketing director for Audi at the time, told me when they were restoring the cars. They analyzed the aluminum used and found it was the quality of a modern lawn chair. They leaked fluid all over the place until everything heated up and the metal expanded. Nuvolari drove the car sitting on a pillow to see.
I think it was Emanuele Pirro in the A-U at Monterey. He sure looks like Nuvolari in this shot. Cheers, Kurt O. (photo copyright Kurt Oblinger, all rights reserved) Image Unavailable, Please Login
There were a couple of A-U there that particular year. I don't recall if Pirro was there or not, but Albereto was (one of?) the Drivers for the Audi owned cars. He was killed a few months later testing an Audi in Germany. I have pictures somewhere of Albereto standing next to the car. Hard to tell whose is behind the wheel of the D-type in that shot.
This is the King of all monsters though. The 1935 Bimotore. Two motors. One in the front and one in the back. Total displacement 6.3L and about 530 HP. Nuvolari also drove this thing, and was clocked at over 200 MPH. Men back then were born with some big cajones. I don't think you could get any of the current F1 drivers to drive this thing full blast 'round the Nurburgring. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yeah the Auto Union cars are ABSOLUTELY AWESOME cars! So many technical advancements and innovations. So much power and speed. Even today they are still technically amazing with incredible performance. I have never seen one in person, but I sure hope to some day. That Bimotor is unbelievable, I've never heard of it till recently. I definately have a lot of cool motoring research and reading to do.