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The 1930s car often described as Porsche’s lost 16-cylinder supercar was the Auto Union Type 52, a road-going sports car planned by Auto Union and Ferdinand Porsche’s Stuttgart engineering office. It was never completed in its original era: the project was abandoned in 1935 before a test car was built. Audi later commissioned a reconstruction based on surviving documents, plans, and sketches; that one-off car was completed in 2023 and presented publicly in 2024.
What was the Auto Union Type 52?
The Type 52 was a proposed “Schnellsportwagen”—literally a fast sports car—conceived alongside Auto Union’s Grand Prix racing program. Auto Union AG had been formed in 1932 through the merger of Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. In 1933, it commissioned Ferdinand Porsche’s Stuttgart engineering office to develop a Grand Prix car for the new 750 kg formula. The Type 52 was imagined as a road-going counterpart using technology from that racing effort.
It was intended for customers who might enter long-distance events such as the Mille Miglia, sports-car races at Spa-Francorchamps or Le Mans, and potentially factory competition. The concept papers describe a practical competition car rather than a conventional luxury sedan: it was to have a roof, headlights, luggage space, and two spare tires, while seating three people with the driver in the middle and the other seats offset behind. Audi Tradition’s 2024 account describes the Type 52 as a planned street-legal sports car.
Was Porsche’s 16-cylinder supercar ever built?
No original Type 52 was completed in the 1930s. The earliest sketches date to late 1933, and the concept developed further in 1934. Project managers decided to build a test car, but Audi says that, as far as current knowledge goes, it was never made. The project was abandoned in 1935. Audi’s official release says: “The project was abandoned in 1935, and its trail lost in the archives of Audi and Porsche.”
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The project’s archival trail was later pieced together from documents, plans, and sketches. That is why “rediscovered” can be misleading: no completed original car was found. What exists today is a modern reconstruction of a design that remained on paper in the 1930s.
What did the original design call for?
The planned Type 52 combined a ladder-frame chassis with a mid-mounted, supercharged 16-cylinder engine derived from Auto Union Grand Prix technology. The Type 22 drivetrain was the basis. Engineers planned to lower compression and supercharger gearing so the engine could run on regular gasoline, rather than simply use the race car’s setup unchanged.
Audi Tradition’s 2024 release gives the proposed specifications below. These are design figures and estimates, not measurements from a period test car.
| 1930s Type 52 plan | Planned figure |
|---|---|
| Engine | 4,358 cc supercharged 16-cylinder |
| Output | About 200 PS at 3,650 rpm |
| Top-speed target | 200 km/h |
| Maximum torque | 436 Nm |
| Fuel | Regular gasoline |
| Wheelbase | 3,000 mm |
| Unladen weight | 1,300 kg |
Audi lists the planned maximum torque as 436 Nm, but its release gives a malformed rpm figure for that value, so no torque-speed figure is included here.
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Audi commissioned British historic-vehicle specialists Crosthwaite & Gardiner to build a one-off reconstruction from the surviving material. Completed in 2023 and presented publicly in 2024, it embodies an interpretation of a design whose final hypothetical original configuration cannot be verified from contemporary reports or photographs. Audi notes, for example, that technical reasons required a longer wheelbase than the one in the original design documents.
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The reconstruction’s engine is a 6,005 cc 16-cylinder unit from the Auto Union Type C, not the smaller engine specified for the proposed Type 52. Audi says it produces 520 PS at 4,500 rpm and runs on a special mixture of 50% methanol, 40% super unleaded gasoline, and 10% toluene. The comparison below separates the intended 1930s specifications from data for the modern build; it is not a comparison of historical test results.
| Specification | 1930s Type 52 plan | 2023 reconstruction |
|---|---|---|
| Engine displacement | 4,358 cc | 6,005 cc |
| Engine output | About 200 PS at 3,650 rpm | 520 PS at 4,500 rpm |
| Fuel | Regular gasoline | 50% methanol, 40% super unleaded gasoline, 10% toluene |
| Wheelbase | 3,000 mm | 3,315 mm |
| Unladen weight | 1,300 kg | 1,450 kg |
| Top speed | Target of 200 km/h | Not applicable in Audi’s specifications |
| Color | Not specified in surviving documents | Cellulose Silver |
| Production | No original test car built | One one-off reconstruction |
All figures in this comparison are from Audi Tradition’s 2024 release. Because the original remained unbuilt, the planned performance figures should not be treated as demonstrated capabilities of a 1930s car.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why is the car associated with Porsche?
Ferdinand Porsche’s engineering office designed the Type 52 for Auto Union; it was not a production model from the later Porsche sports-car brand. The association comes from the engineering office’s role in the Auto Union Grand Prix program and the related road-car concept. Porsche Engineering dates the start of Auto Union’s 16-cylinder race-car development to spring 1933 and says the race cars set three world records, won several hillclimbs, and achieved three international Grand Prix victories in their first season, in 1934. Audi identifies the Auto Union Type A as internally called Porsche Type 22 and reports that Hans Stuck set a world record at Berlin’s AVUS circuit in 1934.
Those racing achievements provide context for the Type 52’s proposed technology; they do not show that the Type 52 itself was built. Porsche Engineering says the Porsche sports-car brand began in 1948 with the 356, a later story than this Auto Union project.
What did the people behind the reconstruction say?
Stefan Trauf, Head of Audi Tradition, said: “Our goal with this dream car that remained a dream in its time is to get everyone excited about design and technology.” After his first test drive, Hans-Joachim Stuck said: “The Schnellsportwagen is simply breathtaking: Its sound is incredibly sonorous – like it came from an orchestra.”
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