The Audi Rosemeyer is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

built by

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

, shown initially at

Autostadt The Autostadt ( German for ''Automobile City'') is a visitor attraction adjacent to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, with a prime focus on automobiles. The complex was designed by Henn GmbH. It features a museum, feature pavilio ...

and at various auto shows throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

during 2000. Although it was never intended for production, its striking design and highly sporting nature drew considerable attention to the brand, and many potential buyers highly anticipated a production version, to no avail.

Information

The vehicle was designed to evoke emotion and garner attention, and was unique in that it combined elements of modern design with styling strongly resembling the former

Auto Union Auto Union AG, was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today. As well as acting as an umbrella firm fo ...

s "

Silver Arrows Silver Arrows (german: link=no, Silberpfeil) was the nickname given by the press to Germany's dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix motor racing cars between 1934 and 1939. The name was later applied to the Mercedes-Benz Formula ...

" Grand Prix racers, namely their 16-cylinder car driven by

Bernd Rosemeyer Bernd Rosemeyer (14 October 1909 – 28 January 1938) was a German racing driver and speed record holder. He is considered one of the greatest racing drivers of all time. Though he was not a member of the Nazi party, he was made a member of the ...

, after which the car is named. The Rosemeyer concept is also highly reminiscent of the "Type 52" design study penned by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and Dr. Erwin Komenda in the 1930s as a possible road going version of the Silver Arrows, which never saw production. Powered by a large

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

, mid-mounted

W16 engine A W16 engine is a sixteen-cylinder piston engine with four banks of four cylinders in a W configuration. W16 engines are rarely produced, with the notable exception of the Volkswagen Group 8.0 WR16 engine, which has been used since 2005 in the ...

, which develops and featuring Audi's quattro permanent

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer cas ...

system, the vehicle promised high performance to match its appearance. It was ultimately deemed unfit for production, both because of extremely high projected production costs, and Audi's unwillingness to create in-house competition with Lamborghini, which Audi had purchased during the 1990s. In some ways, Audi's Gallardo-based R8 could be considered the Rosemeyer's successor, as it was derived from Audi's next

supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

concept, the Le Mans quattro. In other ways, the

Bugatti Veyron The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine sports car, designed and developed in Germany by the Volkswagen Group and Bugatti and manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti. It was named after the racing driver P ...

could be seen as the Rosemeyer's successor, drawing many design elements and the W16 engine from the Rosemeyer.

Specifications

* W16 5 valves/cyl

mid-mounted engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

* * @ 9,000 rpm *Top speed: (projected, it couldn't be tested as the car wasn't functional)

Images

File:Audi Rosemeyer 1.jpg File:Audi Rosemeyer 3.jpg

References

External links

Audi.com
Rosemeyer Sports cars 2000s cars Coupés Rear mid-engine, all-wheel-drive vehicles Retro-style automobiles {{Modern-auto-stub