Long before lap records were chased by hybrid hypercars and every manufacturer was shouting about Nürburgring bragging rights, Europe’s biggest automotive names were locked in a very different arms race.

It was all about one thing: outright speed.

And now Audi has reached deep into its archives to resurrect one of the maddest machines from that era — the Auto Union Lucca, a painstaking recreation of the streamlined V16 record-breaker that briefly claimed the title of fastest road racing car in the world.

Unveiled by Audi through its Audi Tradition division in the Italian city of Lucca, the car marks the return of one of the four rings’ most fascinating engineering flexes. Better yet, it will make its first dynamic public appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this July.
And yes, it’s every bit as bonkers as it sounds.

Back in February 1935, with legendary racer Hans Stuck behind the wheel, the original Lucca blasted down a stretch of autostrada near the Tuscan city at a measured top speed of 326.975km/h — or just over 203mph in old money.

That made it the fastest road racing car on the planet.

Which, when you consider this happened at a time when most roads were little more than glorified gravel tracks and seatbelts weren’t even a twinkle in a Swedish engineer’s eye, feels utterly absurd.

The Lucca was born during the fierce speed war between Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz in the mid-1930s, when Germany’s two motorsport giants traded records like Fury and Makhmudov exchanging punches.

Mercedes had laid down the gauntlet when Rudolf Caracciola posted a flying-mile average of 316.5km/h in late 1934. Auto Union’s engineers responded by disappearing into workshops for what must have been one of the most frantic winters in motorsport history. The result was mind-bending.

Using wind tunnel data from Berlin’s Aeronautical Research Institute, they created a sleek aluminium-bodied “Rennlimousine” with a dramatic tapered tail, covered rear wheels and a shape so slippery it still looks futuristic today.

Underneath sat an early version of Auto Union’s supercharged 5.0-litre V16, producing 343hp — enough to turn the streamlined Silver Arrow into a missile.

Audi’s recreated version took more than three years to complete, built by renowned British restoration specialists Crosthwaite & Gardiner using historical photos, archive material and a frankly obsessive level of craftsmanship.

Every component has been hand-built, from the flowing body panels to the canopy-like cockpit, while modern wind tunnel testing revealed a drag coefficient of just 0.43.

That’s deeply impressive for a car conceived when aerodynamics was still more dark art than science.

There are a few subtle tweaks beneath the skin to ensure it survives modern demonstration runs — including cooling updates and the use of a 6.0-litre Type C V16 that visually matches the original unit — but Audi says authenticity was paramount throughout.

It’s a reminder that Audi’s obsession with engineering innovation didn’t begin with quattro or electric platforms. It was already there in the 1930s, when its predecessors were chasing 200mph with little more than aluminium, bravery and some gloriously ambitious maths.

We can’t wait to see — and hear — it tearing up the hill at Goodwood.