'Hitler's' rare race-car set to fetch £6million at auction

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'Hitler's' rare race-car set to fetch Ô�Å¡£6million at auction

This rare German race-car was created when Adolf Hitler demanded designers build a car to rival Britain's Bentley.

The 1939 Auto Union D-Type went on to win the 1934 Belgrade Grand Prix and is set to become the most expensive car ever to be sold at auction.

Hitler, angry that Germany had no decent rival to the Bentley, promised 500,000 reichmarks to the constructor who could build a race car ready for the 1934 season.

The 1939 Auto Union D-Type won the 1939 Belgrade Grand Prix at the hands of driver Nuvolari. It is to be sold by Christies in Paris next February. Experts expect it to fetch in the region of Ô�Å¡£6 million, (US$11.6 million euro8.8 million).

 

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HITLER'S $15M RACE CAR

HITLER'S $15M RACE CAR
ONE-OF-A-KIND SURVIVOR GOING ON AUCTION BLOCK

January 23, 2007 -- The race car Adolf Hitler had built to prove the superiority of the Third Reich is expected to sell for an incredible $15 million at an auction next month.

Bids for the 1939 car - which narrowly escaped being pounded into scrap metal by the Russians after World War II - will open at $13 million at Christie's in Paris on Feb. 17.

The current record for a car sold at auction is $11 million, for a 1931 Bugatti Royale in 1987.

Hitler's car, manufactured by the forerunner of Audi, will be on display in New York Thursday and Friday at Audi's Park Avenue showroom.

Hitler had 18 of the sleek racers created as propaganda tools by the German carmaker Auto Union, which beat out Mercedes-Benz and Porsche for the contract.

The race car set records topping 185 mph and won Grand Prix races in Europe until the war put the brakes on its fame.

Most of the cars were destroyed in the war or melted for scrap.

The car being auctioned is believed to be the only one that has survived. It was found in a Russian factory in the 1970s, already disassembled for copying the technology, before its metal was to be recycled.

After being meticulously restored in England, the car went through new owners, including American collector Paul Karassik.

Christie's would not identify the seller, but the car-buff Web site Grandprix.com identifies him as Karassik.

Its rare design - conceived originally by Porsche - put the driver's cockpit in front of the supercharged V-12, 485-horsepower engine.

Auto Union and other manufacturers were merged after the war to form Audi.

Christie's said the Auto Union Class D racer enjoys a cult-like status among car buffs.

 

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A man peers into the engine compartment of a 1939 Auto Union D-Type Twin Stage Supercharged V-12 Gand Prix race car as it sits on display during a two-day public viewing in New York City, January 25, 2007. The auction of a pre World War Two German racing car expected to become the most expensive car ever sold has been postponed pending an investigation into its track record, auctioneers Christie's said on Wednesday.

Christie's delays auction of "Hitler's racer"

PARIS (Reuters) - The auction of a pre World War Two German racing car expected to become the most expensive car ever sold has been postponed pending an investigation into its track record, auctioneers Christie's said on Wednesday.

The extremely rare 1939 Auto Union D type, a legendary racer built under a development programme backed by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, had been expected to fetch up to 12 million euros (8 million pounds) at auction.

But Christie's said the sale had been postponed "pending further exploration into the car's race history".

According to Christie's sale catalogue, the car, sometimes dubbed "Hitler's racer", won the French Grand Prix at Reims in a 1939 Grand Prix season shortened by the outbreak of World War Two.

Along with other Auto Union racers it was stored in a mineshaft during the war and taken to the Soviet Union after the defeat of Germany.

The auction of other classic cars is still due to go ahead at the Retromobile show in Paris on Friday and Saturday, where the Auto Union car will be on display.