Fastest Car Ever On The AutoBahn!

hello and welcome to formula Phil hello everyone hope you're all doing well and I'm just gonna belt into this the thirties the thirties was a decade of speed between 1929 and the start of World War two the outright land speed record increased a whopping 11 times speeds were upped relentlessly from 231 mile an hour or 371 kilometers to a crazy 369 mile an hour or 593 kilometers these records were mostly captured and broken by the British on American soil with the likes of Malcolm Campbell with Bluebird and George Easton with Thunderbolt at such venues as Daytona Beach and of course the Bonneville Salt Flats which mightily upset the dark undercurrent of the story the Nazis Hitler was obsessed with establishing a resurgent Germany as a scientific engineering and sporting might and the Nazis thought that the newly constructed auto bands could be used for a huge PR coup if Germany couldn't match the likes of Campbell and build the fastest automobile on earth it would showcase its peerless motorway network by creating the undisputed fastest road car and today I'm going to focus on one driver of this epic battle for speed and victory and that is Bernd Rosemeyer yes I know earned was in the SS but all racing drivers were given honorary membership to the SS you didn't have much of a choice but look this is about top speed attempts Bernd won five f1 Grand Prix's between 1935 and 1937 he was an extremely talented driver and was one of the few that could tame the auto unions 540 brake horsepower six point five liter v16 powered strong lean and bagging or streamline and it is in this incredible car that Rosemeyer went head-to-head against the Mercedes of Rudolf Caracciola in 1937 and 1938 and these two daring men began trading speed records throughout what is now known as record vaca or record week the Auto Union was essentially an f1 car wearing a streamlined dress it wasn't entirely designed just for clan speed records and as Bernd strove harder and harder for new records the runs were becoming more and more dangerous and on the 16th of June in 1937 a crosswind and wayward steering pushed his car onto the grass in excess of 200 mile an hour after barely escaping with his life from that attempt and on the 26th of October he smashed through the 400 kilometres an hour barrier or 248 miles an hour to become the fastest man ever on public roads on the 27th a hose failure caused fumes to fill a cup it had over 240 miles an hour around 386 kilometers or somehow kept the oho Union on the road and brought it to a stop safely but he was lifted unconscious from the carpet once recovered while the car was being repaired he jumped into an open more yield 4.9 liter car and he went out and set flying start records over 5 kilometers and ten mile distances yep merely hours after nearly being suffocated at velocities only pilots knew about Rosemeyer got three more world records fearless is not the word as the national record week drew to a close he was the fastest man on public roads and a German hero Mercedes were furious so angry at its failure to overthrow ROS Myers auto union during an event of national pride Mercedes reworked the aerodynamics of Rudolph's car over the Christmas and they did away with drag creating radiators and they installed a state-of-the-art ice tank to cool that w12 five record wagons 725 bhp supercharged v12 by the turn of 1938 Mercedes were chomping at the bit to race again but Auto Union had a problem they did not have the finances to match Mercedes they hadn't even the money to close the road in fact during 1937 they only had enough resources to close the auto ban in one direction so Bernd made the odd practice speed run through traffic which is just unbelievable and though Rudolf unburned were fierce rivals pitted against one another it is said that Rudolf brokered a deal that Mercedes and Auto Union kept a gentleman's agreement to split the cost and share the empty straights Rudolf later citing I wanted to beat him fair and square it was almost a matter of honour or her union with limited finances basically rebuilt their streamliner with deeper side skirts and they brought their own eye system that brought them only 90 seconds of running time before the engine overheated the completely courageous Rosemeyer would be bolted under a streamline shroud and if the b16 detonated this time he would have no escape the ice tank upset the car center of gravity and the skirting made strim lean and wagon super slippery but dramatically unstable in fact hasty Windtunnel testing showed that the slight to six degree of crosswind would make the Kyurem recoverable but with Mercedes waiting there was no time for redesign on the 28th of January 1938 the road from Frankfurt to Darmstadt was closed for a dramatic showdown it was by all accounts bitingly cold so cold in fact ROS Myers mechanics didn't add ice to the cooling tanks they pumped in water at the ambient temperature and at 8:00 a.m. on the first run carriage SOLAS Mercedes ran through the flying kilometre in a mere 8.4 seconds and on the second pass he averaged it out at 200 and sixty-eight point eight miles an hour Oh 430 2.75 km/h Mercedes were ecstatic ROS Myers response was 266 point five miles an hour or 428 kilometers an hour and after that run burned exclaimed while passing under bridges the driver receives a terrific blow to the chest because the car is pushing the air trapped under the bridge aside when you go under a bridge for a split second the engine noise disappears and then returns like a thunderclap and then you're through he quietly told a mechanic but when he went over 250 mile an hour the car was making an odd cracking sound and following the road was becoming extremely difficult due to heavy vibration and in fact he was closing one eye to help steady his vision what he couldn't see from his cramped cockpit was the buckled panels along the car's flanks warped by the monumental ground effect the car was generating at top speed nearly 40 years before Lotus Auto Union had inadvertently created the first downforce critical-care but the force is inflicted on this infant technology were not understood and before the mechanic investigated properly Barron shouted I'll only try once more and accelerate itself his previous pass had been 0.02 seconds faster than the Mercedes which would be 269 miles an hour or 430 2.91 kilometers an hour repeating that would seal a higher average and they would steal victory you needed two runs to make the average Bernd Rosemeyer never came back the official explanation of what happened next was a gust of wind in a clearing unsettling the car it is also possible that the body works simply just disintegrated under what was massive aerodynamic stress after the windshield was found intact away from the wreck it was suggested that it had attached speed knocking Rosemeyer out and causing him to lose control sneaking tire tracks betrayed that because that even over 260 miles an hour the 28 year old fought to save is swerving car left him right before it hit at Grass Bank somersaulting twice slicing through some trees and a solid stone miter post burned was found over 20 metres from the road not a visible mark on him his arms lay resolutely by his sights and when the team physician dr. Glazer reached him he found a faint pulse which quickly ceased Auto Union never attempted a top speed record again the death through Germany into a national mourning and Hitler turned his funeral into a political rally ROS Myers death affected his great rival Rudolf Caracciola greatly he was angered at what he saw as unnecessary risks in the pursuit of speed and he remarked afterwards Bernd literally did not know any fear and somehow I never thought a long life was on the cards for him what's mental about this story is that even now in 2019 the speeds that these lads were cracking are ludicrous 260 hot miles an hour or 418 kilometers in the 30s on public roads is just incredible these men were truly driving into the unknown into the great beyond there were so many unknowns and even now there hasn't been many people have even attempted it and to put a small bit of perspective on the record was only officially broken on November 5th 2017 when Koenigsegg wished their Agera RS clock 276 miles an hour or 445 kilometers an hour on a closed highway in Nevada but no one has officially gone faster on the Autobahn and I guess I did this video and told the story because everyone kind of Revere's the campbells and the Easton's etc for their great exploits in the pursuit of speed and perhaps forgets burned rose Meyer and Rudolf Caracciola perhaps because you know their ties to the Nazi Party but either way their absolute fearlessness and dedication to push the envelope should be known and spoken with the same love and revere as the other land-speed record holders Rosemeyer paid the ultimate price for his pursuit of speed and that should not be forgotten and that's it that's all we have time for today I really hope you enjoyed this epic story in fact I had great from researching it I put a list of my sources in the description below and you can check out some figures and details of the cars and the men involved big shout out to my Austrian friend who helped me pronounce the German words or perhaps I still butchered them and shoutout to all you folks who still are listening and watching please like and subscribe if you haven't already much love and good look crazy that's fast

Channel: Formula Phil

Views: 370,493

Keywords: Grandprix, F1, Formula 1, Vintage racers, classic f1, formula one, Drivers, Formula phil, motorsport, Bernd Rosemeyer, Germany, Nazi, Land Speed Record, Fastest car ever, Autobahn, Audi, Auto Union, Mercedes w154, Mercedes, WW2, Speed, Top speed, fast, Crash, Fatal, Hitler, Stromlinienwagen, Rudolf Caracciola

Id: R63-hAOdeUw

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019