The Auto Union Type C: A True Champion’s Car With A V16

The Auto Union was established by Audi, Wanderer, Horch, and DKW to make passenger vehicles. However, their secondary goal was to compete in the grand prix, and entered the sport in 1934. After several years of development, Ferdinand Porsche, who helped put together Auto Union initially, got his designs right and introduced the Type A, a mid-engined race car. Soon, Type B and Type C followed, but the restriction of motors within 3 liters abruptly stopped the car’s glory.

After its launch, the Type C went up against the race cars from Mercedes-Benz, the 12C-36 from Alfa Romeo, the V8RI from Maserati, and the Bugatti 59/50. Driven multiple times by Bernt Rosermeyer, the Type C won 6 times in 1936, making it and Bernt a world champion.

Does it carry any racing history and wartime fate?

The Auto Union Type C has had both an excellent and doomed fate after its production. Initially, it won six titles in 1936 with Bernt behind the wheel. Due to its development time falling within the WW2 era, most of the sanctions and development agreements were done after Hitler’s authorizations. The predecessor of the Type C racing car was developed using clockwork mechanisms since Auto Union did not have a driver to test the car, unlike Benz.

Even with the hurdles, the Type C eventually became successful at a majority of grand prix races as well as hill-climb races. Unfortunately, racing cars from back in the day were hardly retained, even for museum purposes, and were used as parts cars after the races. Moreover, several cars were scrapped to raise funds for further development of the successor cars as well. Given the circumstances, only 18 Auto Union cars including the Type C were preserved by hiding them. However, post-war situations and multiple shipping to overseas destinations led to the destruction of the remaining cars. To this date, only one original Type C remains along with three Type D cars.

What is the heart of the Type C?

At the time of the development of the Type C, its layout was rare, to begin with. Coming to the powertrain, all the heavyweights such as Benz, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo used supercharged I-8 motors in racing but Auto Union, especially Ferdinand Porsche, was determined to do something different. With that mindset, Porsche practically revolutionized the racing world with an all-new V16 motor design even though the layout wasn’t uncommon at that time due to its application in big luxury cars. With the Auto Union’s application, it became the first V16 to be used in motorsports.

Doubling the number of cylinders as compared to the norm and a unique 45-degree V angle for the cylinders, allowed Auto Union to extract more torque by keeping the rpm lower than average, thereby increasing the life of the motor as well. The development went on at a steady pace and the engine eventually became a star by allowing the later model, Type D, to hit close to 260 mph. The V16 in the Type C developed a solid 520 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque while being fed through a root-type supercharger.

What about its performance?

In a time when all the grand prix dominators were using front-engine layouts with rear-wheel drive, Auto Union came up with the then-rare mid-engine rear-wheel drive layout. The primary issue with the layout was oversteer and Ferdinand Porsche’s efforts to counter it with a swing-axle suspension didn’t help either. However, with that setup, the Type C was victorious.

During that time, Mercedes-Benz gave out fierce competition to the Auto Union and took advantage of its better resources to upgrade its race cars every year. As such, Ferdinand Porsche never held back and eventually put the Type C and its successors in the glorious history of the grand prix.