In case you missed it, @AudiTradition collaborated with @AudiSport and @Audi on Instagram this morning in the sharing of a teaser video (found here). The video is clearly a teaser, showing quick shots of men dressed in an Auto Union racing suit or silhouettes of others appearing to mill about or work on a car of the pre-war variety.
The video doesn’t show much. There’s an Audi Tradition logo – slightly updated branding with the “Audi Tradition” name centered beneath the rings. There’s a date – 06 May 2026 – and a brief visual statement that reads “The beauty of speed.”
That’s it.
Are you curious? I know I am.
Historians will note that most of Auto Union’s pre-war Auto Union “Silver Arrow” race cars were lost to time. Following the fall of Germany after World War 2, most of the cars remained in portions of Germany that fell behind the Iron Curtain. Over the years, a precious few were saved from the scrap heap while Audi has worked with British restorations specialists Crosthwaite & Gardiner to meticulously craft exacting replicas of others from blueprints and known components of the few survivors. This includes largely Grand Prix-spec cars with open wheels, plus the occasional hillclimb car (four tires in back) and the polished Type C Streamliner with its swooping bodywork.
More recently, Audi Tradition surprised crowds at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed by bringing to life a mid-engine V16 road car design based on the Auto Unions as imagined in period by Ferdinand Porsche. That car, known as the Type 52, was never actually built but armed with the original blueprints, the resources of Audi AG and the know-how of Crosthwaite & Gardiner, the car finally came to life and joined the Audi Tradition collection.
That all seems relative to this teaser. Why? Watching the clip over and over, it seems pretty obvious that the car being teased is a Rekordwagen design. Before the Type C Streamliner (already recreated) dropped at the “Rekord Weeks” high speed attempts held by the Germans, Audi experimented with various predecessors. Unlike the Streamliner with its enclosed bodywork also covering the wheels, these versions all seemed to work in varying degrees with closing off of the spoked wheels, the brakes and ultimately large pontoon-like fenders. Most also had a closed cockpit – a feature that details prominently in the teaser video. This is also relevant because that closed cockpit definitely creates an enclosed look that has inspired Audi concept cars over the years – the TT Coupé Concept (1995), Project Rosemeyer (2000) and to the much more recent Concept C (2025).
From a design standpoint, and a rounding out of Audi Tradition’s Silver Arrows collection, the Rekordwagen makes a lot of sense. From a timing one, it’s harder to lock down. The Rekordwagen designs were used largely in 1934 and 1935. This being 2026, the anniversaries to celebrate would be 1936 however the only records that year were performed by Hans Stuck and don’t appear to be the car seen in the teaser video.
Another puzzle is the date. Looking at the event calendar, May 6 is a Wednesday. That following weekend doesn’t include an F1 round. There also aren’t any major historic events that weekend other than the Jim Clark Revival at the Hockenheimring. The Mille Miglia is also relatively close (May 13-17), though there are no plans we know of for them to be there. The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is closer to the end of the month and could be another possibility, though Audi Tradition typically doesn’t display there and has made no mention of it on their calendar.
I guess we’ll know more on May 6. Until then, keep on guessing.