49th, Record-Breaking Avusrennen: Lang's Mercedes Sets Unmatched Speed
Not a Grand Prix, per se, but such was the entry’s quality that it counts in all but name. Hans Stuck was absent – competing in the next weekend’s Rio de Janeiro GP – but Auto Union’s other main drivers were present, as were those from Mercedes.
At the time AVUS was recognised as the world’s fastest circuit, Luigi Fagioli having averaged 148.3mph while winning the corresponding fixture for Mercedes in 1935. The track had since been modified, with a new, steeply banked North Curve that made it potentially brisker still – and the works teams’ multi-faceted approach reflected as much.
Auto Union brought along two streamlined speed-record cars for Bernd Rosemeyer and Luigi Fagioli, plus a brace of standard Type Cs for Ernst von Delius and Rudolf Hasse. Mercedes had a new streamliner for Rudolf Caracciola, while Manfred von Brauchitsch and Goffredo Zehender had V12-engined W25s, the former’s with a streamlined body. Hermann Lang had a stretched 1936 W25 speed-record car with a straight-eight engine and Dick Seaman was entered in a conventional W125 Grand Prix car, slower along AVUS’s long straights, but less likely to overheat its tyres.