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05/26/09
Ingolstadt
Company

How the “Silver Arrow” legend was born

First appearance of the Auto Union „Silver Arrow“ on the Avus race track in Berlin 1934: Hans Stuck at the wheel of the Auto Union Typ A race car
  • 75 years ago, the Auto Union Silver Arrows went to the starting grid for the first time on the Avus circuit in Berlin
  • Auto Union and Mercedes Benz dominated international motor racing between 1934 and 1939

75 years ago, one of the most dramatic chapters in the whole of motor sport history began. On May 27, 1934 the German racing cars that were soon to acquire the nickname “Silver Arrow” were entered for their first race, on the Avus racetrack in Berlin. Although neither Auto Union, the company from which Audi in its present-day form developed later, nor Mercedes Benz won that event, it was not long before these two manufacturers began to dominate international Grand Prix racing, a situation that prevailed until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. It seems almost incredible today, but by 1936 the Auto Union racing cars were reaching speeds of up to 380 kilometres an hour on the long straights of the Avus circuit – truly, the birth of a legend.

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