#AUTOMOTIVE FRAME SPECIFICATIONS DRIVER#

With the displacement limited to just three litres, a much higher specific output was required and a somewhat unusual valve train was installed. The engine was again mounted behind the driver, but was of a completely new V12 design. Taking a page out of the Mercedes-Benz book, the rear suspension now featured a DeDion tube with single radius arms. The tubular ladder frame was retained together with the torsion bars fitted inside the frame members. After forfeiting the first three races, the all new Type D made its debut at the French Grand Prix.ДЄt first glance there was a resemblance between the Type C and new Type D, but other than the basic chassis design everything was different. All teams had to start from scratch, but the major personal changes put Auto Union even more behind. Eberan von Eberhorst and later in the season racing legend Tazio Nuvolari. Amazingly two highly capable replacements were found in the form of designer Prof.

#AUTOMOTIVE FRAME SPECIFICATIONS DRIVER#

Especially the death of their star driver hit the small team hard and it has forever left the question unanswered how good the young German really was as the only car he ever raced was the V16 Auto Union. Porsche had left early in 1937 to completely focus on the Fuhrer's Volkswagen and for Rosemeyer tragedy struck on January 28th in 1938 when he lost control of a special Auto Union Type C during a speed record attempt on the Autobahn. If the major rule changes were not enough, the departure of Auto Union's two biggest 'assets' were a blow few manufacturers could have successfully dealt with. The former motorcycle racer, Rosemeyer was the only one capable of really taming the beast, but nevertheless the underdog, Auto Union, took 18 victories against 'only' 22 for the Mercedes-Benz team.

In reality the unpredictable handling was caused by Porsche's typical swing axle rear suspension and also the outdated tires, which were not able to cope with the power and speed. The Auto Union racer quickly built a reputation for being nearly impossible to drive, at the time wrongly attributed to the unconventional location of the engine.

Porsche had come up with a single seater powered by a mid-mounted V16 engine that eventually grew in size to six litres and produced a staggering 520 bhp. While the former could build on some previous racing experience, the success of the Auto Union was, simply put, down to engineering abilities of Ferdinand Porsche and even more so the driving abilities of Bernd Rosemeyer. The 750 kg era was dominated by the two government backed German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams. To set things straight, the AIACR set new rules limiting supercharged engines to three litres and Naturally Aspirated ones to four and a half. Instead of keeping the displacement down, weight was saved by extensive cross drilling the every part of the chassis and suspension, which did not make the cars any safer at all. This was done for safety and economic reasons, but in the following years, the very fast and high tech machines proved them very wrong.

Judging from the Bugattis, Maseratis, Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeos of the day, they believed that with this maximum weight it would be highly unlikely to exceed an engine displacement of three litres. By limiting the maximum weight of Grand Prix cars from the 1934 season onwards to 750 kg, the sport's governing body, the Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), figured the performance of the racing cars would be sufficiently limited.

Automotive frame specifications