A one-of-a-kind Nazi-era vehicle found concealed from the German mine shaft during the World War II is currently on display at Audi’s showroom on Park Avenue. The auction of the silver D-Type from Auto Union will commence on February 17 in Paris as part of Christie’s Retromobile auto sale. The auction price for the said vehicle will start at ￡8 million but expected to go higher than that.

According to Christie’s International Motor Cars, “While Adolph Hitler gave about 500,000 reichsmarks to Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz to promote racing and technology, the car is not specifically affiliated with the Third Reich.”

The D-Type is considered to be the grandfather of modern race cars and the one of the only two in existence. The said vehicle was also said to revolutionize automotive racing by positioning the driver in front of the engine instead of behind it. The D-Type is capable of 185 miles per hour.

Rupert Banner head of Christie’s International Motor Cars division commented, “This car was really quite ahead of its time. It was revolutionary. It changed the face of racing.” Between the year 1933 and 1939 over twenty Auto Union series cars were manufactured. The D-Type that was designed by Ferdinand Porsche has a body shaped that is similar to an airplane fuselage. The driver is positioned in such a way that he is sunken into the body of the metal, and the wheels,nike shox. The latter appears like an oversized bicycle tires with independent suspension.

Automakers at present are improving their line of race cars taking inspiration from the D-Type. Some of the latest and greatest formulations for fast-street or light track vehicles having EBC Redstuff are inspired by race cars such as the D-Type. According to Thomas Erdmann Audi historian,nike shox torch 2, “There was a kind of memory loss after the war. It took really until the early 1960s and later on to the 1980s for car design to catch up to these cars.”

A part of the D-Type history includes a 1929 French Grand Prix Award which was won before the World War II. There was also a car called the Silver Arrow that was filmed rambling through country roads and was used in newsreels across Europe which according to Erdmann, “They vanished, lost behind the Iron Curtain.”

When it comes to racing, German cars were always using the color silver, French use blue while green is for the British. The colors in time became their trademarks. This also explains why the D-Type is painted silver. During the peak of World War II, Auto Union workers concealed the cars in a mine shaft located in eastern Germany to keep them from being used as a scrap metal. After World War II, the Russians discovered the cars and brought them to their own country to recreate motorsports. In short, the cars were taken apart.

Fortunately an American car collector happened to come across some of the scrap heap in Ukraine and took them back to England where it was restored by Crosthwaite & Gardiner’s auto experts. The name of the seller was not revealed by Christie’s.

Audi, the Company
Audi of America is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan and a subsidiary company of Europe’s largest automaker, Volkswagen. Audi lines of luxury cars are built in plants like Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, Germany, Bratislava, Slovakia, Gyor, Hungary, and Changchun, China (local market only). Volkswagen is renowned for its top-of-the-line vehicles and auto parts like Volkswagen Distributor Rotor.




The current trend in the auto industry is the development and production of environment friendly vehicles. This trend is the result of increasing prices of petroleum fuel and the increasing awareness concerning global warming. Different alternative technologies are already being use by car manufacturers to reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumed by vehicles thus reducing greenhouse gas emission which contributes heavily to global warming.

In the United States, hybrid technology is favored and it is evident in the fact that even celebrities are known to drive gas-electric hybrid cars. While hybrid vehicles reduce the amount of fossil fuel burned, it is not the most promising clean vehicle technology. That distinction belongs to fuel-cell technology which uses hydrogen as fuel and eliminates the use of petroleum fuel and greenhouse gas emission. BMW is aware of this fact that is why they have developed a car based on the 7 series but it can run on both gasoline and hydrogen fuel.

The Hydrogen 7 as the vehicle is called will make its appearance next week on the roads of the United Kingdom. The vehicle is the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan in the world. Initially, BMW will deliver eight of these cars in the UK as part of their Clean Energy program. The said environment-friendly initiative involves production of 100 units of the Hydrogen 7. According to Jim O??Donnell, BMW UK??s Managing Director: ??The arrival of our Hydrogen 7 cars could not have come at a better time. Politicians, business leaders, the media and consumers are engaged in healthy debate on the future of energy supply and use. Meanwhile, the automotive industry is committed to cleaner motoring, with a host of possible solutions available today and being developed for the mid- and long-term. BMW is at the core of the future of motoring with tremendous developments in petrol and diesel engines, hybrid powertrains and hydrogen technologies.??

O??Donnell added that: ??Our EfficientDynamics programme has introduced energy-saving technologies that break through the 60 miles per gallon and one hundred and twenty grams per kilometer CO2 barriers, our new diesels are cleaner and greener than many of today??s hybrids, yet power and performance in all of our cars has improved. Clean, green motoring can also be engaging and dynamic, and the new BMW Hydrogen 7 models epitomize that philosophy.?? The vehicles that will be delivered by BMW will be used on high profile events to promote the technology.

While fuel-cell is the most environment friendly alternative fuel technology, its use is hampered by different problems. One of these is the cost of production. Since fuel-cell technology uses advanced components, the cost of these materials makes hydrogen-fueled vehicles impractical for most car buyers. Ongoing research and development though is expected to reduce the production cost of these green cars.

Another problem faced by the use of hydrogen-powered vehicles is the availability of refilling stations offering hydrogen fuel. Uwe Ellinghaus has this to say about that issue: ??The age-old chicken-and-egg debate has now been resolved. BMW can produce hydrogen-powered cars on the production line and the time is right to engage with business leaders and politicians in order to progress the development of a hydrogen highway - the fuelling and infrastructure requirements that make hydrogen a viable fuel for the consumer,nike shox torch. We hope that experiencing these cars in normal driving situations will encourage people to join the debate. Without doubt, it will take many years for a suitable infrastructure to develop that makes hydrogen power an easy option for the consumer,nike shox clearance, but all indications are hydrogen is the only genuine long-term sustainable power source for cars. Public hydrogen filling stations have been developed in Germany and California, and the presence of BMW Hydrogen 7 cars in the UK will undoubtedly bring the future closer for British drivers.??

The BMW Hydrogen 7 is equipped with an internal combustion engine engineered to run on both gasoline and hydrogen fuel. Switching between gasoline and hydrogen is as easy as pushing a button. When one decides to change from gasoline to hydrogen, the power output and performance is not affected making the car one of the most convenient flex-fuel vehicles. To enable the car to run on both fuel, BMW equipped the Hydrogen with two fuel tanks. The use of these two fuels gives the Hydrogen a cruising range of more than 425 miles. With the hydrogen fuel, the car is expected to run for 125 miles while for the gasoline, it can get 300 miles on a full tank.

In terms of performance, the Hydrogen 7 is true to its lineage as a BMW. It also uses the same BMW components for its chassis and other systems like BMW brake calipers, shock absorbers, and the steering system assembly.