Very rarely were racing cars of the period kept, as components of early cars if required were scavenged for later models and repairs. Secondly, what did remain was often scrapped to provide funds for additional development. During the latter part of
World War II, an estimated eighteen Auto Union team cars were hidden in a
colliery outside
Zwickau, Saxony, where the Auto Union race shop was based. In 1945 the invading
Russian Army discovered the cars, and they were retained as war possessions. As Zwickau post-war was located in Soviet controlled
Communist East Germany, what little of the Auto Union racing cars existed were shipped back to the
Soviet Union, distributed to scientific institutes and motor manufacturers including
NAMI for research. The Auto Union company itself was forced to relocate to
West Germany, where it was re-incorporated in
Ingolstadt in 1949, ultimately evolving into
Audi as it is known today. Today, it is believed that most of the cars were probably reduced to scrap, and that no Type A or Type B cars still exist. Presently it is believed that only one Type C car, three Type D cars, and a Type C/D hill climbing car remain. The sole remaining Type C was originally left to a German museum by Auto Union, after the death of
Bernd Rosemeyer resulted in only two or three of these historic cars running. Damaged by bombing during the war, its body today still shows these marks. In 1979/80,
Audi commissioned restoration of the car, undertaking a preservation-level overhaul to the body, engine and transmission. Another car was taken to Moscow to study its technology. In 1976, it was at the
ZIL factory in Moscow and scheduled to be cut up for scrap metal when Viktors Kulbergs, president of the Antique Automobile Club of Latvia, brought it for the
Riga Motor Museum. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Audi engineers authenticated the car as a 16-cylinder hill-climbing Auto Union that combined types C and D. Audi acquired it in exchange for a replica, on the condition that all non-replaceable parts were kept on the original car and the replica was built with replaceable parts plus one-off made parts that were originally on an Audi-made replica. Purchase/exchange was done for an undisclosed sum of money, and in 1997 British engineering companies
Crostwaite & Gardiner of
Buxted and
Roach Manufacturing of
Ower were commissioned to restore the original and create the replica. The original, which now resides in the Audi Motor Museum, appears at car shows and is also demonstrated at race meetings by long-time Audi racing driver
Hans Stuck Jr., son of the original driver Hans Stuck. The replica, which was unveiled at the 2007
Festival of Speed at
Goodwood House, England, with
Pink Floyd drummer
Nick Mason as driver, is exhibited in
Riga. American car enthusiast Paul Karassik tracked down chassis No.19 in Russia, adding an original engine from a separate D-type carcass and handing it over in 1990 to
Crosthwaite and Gardiner to restore to its original form. In February 2007, it was due to be auctioned by
Christie's in Paris. Although expected to be the most expensive car ever sold at auction at more than $12 million, the car did not find a buyer in the sealed auction. This was because of a discrepancy that was found with the chassis and engine numbers and the fact that they did not correspond with the numbers expected to be found on the car that it was believed to be. The car went on
auction in August 2009, with
Bonhams estimating a sale price of around £5.5million. During Bonhams 2009 Monterey auction, the bidding stalled at $6 million, and the vehicle was not sold.
Replicas For 2000, Audi commissioned a Type C Streamline, which in May 2000 raced around the banked curve of the famous
Montlhéry circuit. This was 63 years after its premier at AVUS in May 1937, when Bernd Rosemeyer took a car of this type to a speed of on the straights. The rebuilt cars also entered the
Liège–Rome–Liège long-distance run 65 years after their original Liège-Rome-Liège runs. Two of the cars, owned by Audi Tradition, went on display in its Museum in Ingolstadt, while the third car is owned by Belgian Audi importer D'Ieteren. ==Auto Union clones==