Racing The Silver Arrows Part 1

in 1932 for German car manufacturers OD dkw Porsche and bandura were merged into one the new company was called Auto Union but each mark retained its original name auto unions headquarters were located in Chemnitz some 120 miles south of Berlin but most of the cars were built 25 miles away in three cow late in 1932 the brilliant engineer dr. Ferdinand Porsche designed a racing car for the forthcoming 750 kilogram Grand Prix formula and early in 1933 sold the design to Auto Union in May dr. Porsche had a meeting with Germany's new Chancellor Adolf Hitler who two weeks before had given a subsidy of five hundred thousand rush marks to mercedes-benz for their 1934 racing program porsche persuaded him that two teams racing for germany would be better than one and so hitler divided the subsidy equally porsche designed a large capacity low revving v16 engine supplemented by a supercharger here the first car takes shape at stake out front suspension was by torsion bars and trailing links with swing axles and transverse leaf springs at the rear a central camshaft controlled one Inlet and one exhaust valve per cylinder initially a single-piece crankshaft was used but when vibration problems could not be solved it was decided to gear the individual crankshaft segments and screw them together dr. Porsche placed the fuel tank behind the driver and the engine behind that taking his cue from the Benz droppin bargain of 1923 the supercharged 4.4 liter v-6 teen produced 295 brake horsepower a racing Department for Auto Union was established in the horse Factory it's free cow where the workers were experienced in high quality engineering 20 mechanics were responsible for the engine 6 for the gearbox and axles and 12 for the chassis 20 metalsmiths were required for the aluminium bodywork all parts including cylinder liners the engine block and the main cylinder bearings were machined at the horse factory in particular the roots-type supercharger required a great deal of attention here a final drive is being checked professor robert a baja never hosts scene here in the dark coat was the development engineer in charge of this remarkable car he gives one of the first auto unions a run on a rolling road according to the professor it was never intended that the auto union racing program should contribute to the development of the horses outies DK W's and Wanderers on the contrary it was the high quality of the production cars which found its way into the racing cars on March the 6th 1934 just one year after Auto Union had bought Porsches designed the first racing car was taken to the arbors track in Berlin for a key test it had already been driven on the Nurburgring the previous autumn but dr. Porsches contract stipulated that the new racing car complete 10 laps at Arvest and reach at least 155 miles per hour on the straights before it was accepted driven by the doctors old friend racing driver hunch took the Auto Union not only completed the required 10 laps in style but also set three new world speed records averaging almost a hundred and 35 mph for one hour a hundred miles and 200 kilometers auto unions drivers for the team's first season were hunts took August mom Becca and Prince su Lonnegan in January Mercedes technical director punch kneeble had shown their new car to Adolphe Hitler team manager Alfred Nobel is on the right the W 25 was a conventional front engine design with all independent suspension and interestingly it bore a striking resemblance to the car dr. Porsche had drawn for Mercedes shortly before he left the company in 1928 it was powered by a straight-8 supercharged 3.4 liter engine producing 314 bhp to drive it Mercedes signed up their former star Rudolf Caracciola with manfred von Brauchitsch and Steny and the Italian ace Luigi fagioli the first meeting between the two teams came in the Eifel Grand Prix in June at the weigh-in Mercedes were surprised to find that their cars were just one kilogram over the 750 limit the W 25 s were white Germany's national color and so team manager Novara ordered the paint and filler to be stripped from the cars which were then covered with a thin coat of aluminium paint next morning they were under the weight limit the auto unions had always been in aluminium so the German press was quick to call both cars Zilber filer or Silver Arrows a name that was to become legend the Eifel GP was won by manfred von Brauchitsch in his Mercedes and hunch duke was second for Auto Union in the German Grand Prix in July punched up got his revenge the auto union number one scored a superb victory beating the Mercedes of Luigi fagioli by over two minutes in the 500 kilometer race after a four and a half hour drive strip came home to a hero's welcome seen here with Team Manager vide bulb on the left and dr. Porsche stuck won three Grand Prix's and four mountain climbs for auto union in 1934 becoming both German road and Mountain champion for 1935 Auto Union signed a young man named Bernd Rosemeyer he'd made a name for himself on motorbikes but had never raced a car this did not stop him from winning his first Grand Prix in Bruno than here punch truck kept his place of course and the team was greatly strengthened by the arrival of the brilliant Italian Achille Varzi during 1934 Mercedes had increased the power of their engine to 398 horsepower so dr. Porsche now pushed the v16 up to four point nine liters and 375 horsepower he also swapped the transverse leaf spring at the rear for torsion bars however when the latest Mercedes first appeared at Monaco its engine had been enlarged to 4.3 litres producing 445 bhp in the coming season it dominated the Battle of the Silver Arrows winning nine races to its rivals for that year a European drivers championship was inaugurated and it was won by Rudolf Caracciola he made a stunning comeback after his terrible crash at Monaco in 1933 which coupled with the tragic death of his wife Charlie in a skiing accident almost a year later nearly ended his career after a cautious return in 1934 Caracciola was back with a vengeance in 1935 he's seen here on his way to victory in the French Grand Prix one of six races he won for Mercedes that year flushed with their success Mercedes unveiled a new 4.7 liter 490 horsepower version of the W 25 for 1936 stung by their defeats Auto Union produced the C type now with a six liter engine delivering a remarkable 520 horsepower 1936 was to be a triumphant year for the Silver Arrows from three cow and an appropriate starting point for the Auto Union Film Archive as the astonishing bount Rosemeyer seen here at Tripoli swept all before him in only his second season to become the Golden Boy of the Golden Age of motor racing early one morning the trucks carrying the Auto Union racing team set out from three cows for Minako and the first Grand Prix of 1936 the only available film of this event was taken during practice here's hunch took that the gasworks helping Achille Varzi follows Rudolf Caracciola this is Luigi fagioli and bound rose Maya Caracciola again Louis Sheeran and Stroke once more into the happened Oh Batsy Rose Maya and Caracciola the race is one of the wettest on record and on the second lap there's a pileup at the chicane which eliminates the Mercedes of Sheeran and Fon brauch Karina's Alfa Romeo and trois EES Maserati Rosemeyer spins into the wall at the top of the hill but rain master Karachi Ola sails through the atrocious conditions to victory van Seon struck our second and third and Nuvolari fourth in his Alfa Romeo from Minako the team heads for North Africa and the Grand Prix of Tripoli which means a relaxed voyage across the Mediterranean Sea the trucks are loaded at Naples once the ship is underway a game of drafts gets going between some of the Auto Union team members unloading a Tripoli wheels by the Dozen and the racing cars are lifted carefully from the hole the melaka circuit has the most magnificent grandstands and pits to be seen anywhere the english driver dick seaman calls it the a skirt of motor racing circuits during practice Auto Union team manager dr. Cal fire Ison talks with Achille Varzi who puffs an ever-present cigarette a cheery band rows my adopts his hat for the camera while hunched stuck points out his lucky tortoise emblem still smoking VAT see sets off for a practice run and Rosemeyer gets ready unfortunately there's no film of this year's Triple E grand prix which part c1 for auto union but later the camera catches some of the drivers relaxing by swapping horsepower for camel power watched by his wife Paula Hunt stuck gets aboard as does band Rosemeyer and reserve driver Rudolph hasser you

Channel: Wiperm11

Views: 72,152

Keywords: Silver, Arrows, Auto, Union, Mercedes, Porsche, Racing, Autosport

Id: m27sQeX3c5g

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 29 2011