Model: Audi Front UW Jaray
Year: 1939
Date: 1939; exact date unknown
Archive Sort Date: January 1, 1939
Type: Aerodynamic experimental vehicle / personal automobile
Designer: Paul Jaray
Chassis: Audi Front Type UW 8/40 PS
Body: Huber & Brühwiler, Lucerne, Switzerland
Engine: 1,950 cc inline six-cylinder
Power: 40 PS
Drivetrain: Front-wheel drive
Owner: Paul Jaray
Registration: LU 3956
Status: Original vehicle no longer extant
BACKGROUND
In 1939, the one-off 1934 Audi Front UW Stromlinienwagen passed into the personal ownership of its designer, aerodynamicist Paul Jaray. Originally completed in 1934 as a demonstration of Jaray’s aerodynamic principles, the Audi had spent the intervening years serving as a promotional and experimental vehicle.
Jaray’s AG für Verkehrspatente (AVP) had acquired the Audi Front chassis at the end of 1933. Jaray designed a streamlined two-seat coupé body for it, constructed in aluminum over a supporting wooden structure by Huber & Brühwiler of Lucerne. The completed car debuted on the AVP stand at the Geneva Motor Show on March 16, 1934.
Following Geneva, Jaray and fellow aerodynamicist Reinhard Freiherr von Koenig-Fachsenfeld used the Audi for demonstration and promotional driving throughout Europe.
By 1939, its role changed. The car became Jaray’s personal property and would remain in his use into the 1950s.
1939 OWNERSHIP
Historical documentation establishes that the Audi passed into Paul Jaray’s private ownership in 1939, although a precise date for the transfer has not presently been established.
For Audi Archives, January 1, 1939 is used solely as an administrative archive sort date. It should not be interpreted as the documented date on which Jaray acquired the vehicle.
More importantly, 1939 marks a useful historical dividing point in the life of the car. The Front UW Jaray transitioned from an experimental and promotional automobile into the personal road car of the engineer responsible for its aerodynamic design.
Historical accounts state that during Jaray’s ownership the Audi was modified slightly on multiple occasions and repainted.
Surviving period photographs support that description. Although the fundamental aerodynamic body remained recognizable, details of the Front UW changed during its life. Later images show exterior features not consistently visible in photographs associated with its earlier demonstration period.
For Audi Archives, this entry therefore represents the second major phase in the history of the original chassis: its evolution from aerodynamic demonstrator into Paul Jaray’s personal automobile.
EVOLVED APPEARANCE
Photographs associated with the later car show an increasingly conventionalized treatment of some exterior details while retaining Jaray’s unmistakable aerodynamic body.
Among the most recognizable features is a bright horizontal molding running along the side of the body. The later appearance also includes a more prominent treatment at the upper radiator opening, including an exposed bright radiator cap or ornament.
These details contrast with some earlier representations of the Front UW, which show considerably cleaner body surfaces and less exterior brightwork.
The changes may reflect the transition from experimental demonstrator to regularly used private automobile. They may also represent repairs and incremental alterations accumulated over the car’s unusually long working life.
Available documentation does not establish exactly when each individual feature was added. The later chrome-trimmed appearance should consequently not be regarded as a precisely documented “1939 specification.”
Instead, it represents the evolved configuration of the Front UW associated with the period surrounding and following Jaray’s acquisition of the car.
CONTINUING DEVELOPMENT
The Front UW had already experienced an active life before Jaray acquired it.
Following its 1934 Geneva debut, Jaray and Koenig-Fachsenfeld used the car for promotional driving across Europe. The Audi was reportedly damaged in Czechoslovakia in 1935 and subsequently repaired by Jawa.
That incident creates an important uncertainty in reconstructing the car’s visual chronology. Some modifications visible in later photographs may have originated during the repair, while others may have been introduced during subsequent development or after Jaray took personal ownership.
No documentation presently identified conclusively associates individual exterior changes — including the bright side molding or exposed radiator-cap treatment — with the 1935 repair.
The safest interpretation is therefore that the Front UW evolved progressively rather than changing from one clearly defined specification to another at a known date.
FROM EXPERIMENT TO ROAD CAR
Jaray’s continued use of the Front UW is particularly significant because many experimental aerodynamic automobiles of the period had relatively short lives.
The Audi was different. Rather than being retired after its demonstration role ended, it became transportation for the engineer responsible for its design.
That gave the car an extended period of real-world use and also helps explain why its appearance was not frozen in its original show configuration.
Practical requirements, maintenance, repairs and Jaray’s own continuing experimentation could all result in alterations to a vehicle that had never been intended for standardized production.
Its changing appearance is therefore part of the history of the car rather than evidence of multiple Front UW Jaray automobiles.
RELATIONSHIP TO THE 1934 CAR
The 1939 Audi Front UW Jaray documented here is the same physical automobile introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1934.
It should not be interpreted as a second Jaray-bodied Audi Front.
The distinction between the two Audi Archives entries is chronological. The 1934 entry documents the car as an AVP aerodynamic demonstrator during its original development and exhibition period. The 1939 entry documents its later life following acquisition by Paul Jaray and the evolved appearance visible in surviving period photographs.
This distinction is particularly useful because photographs of the car in different configurations are frequently reproduced without dates, creating the impression that multiple versions or multiple cars may have existed.
Current evidence instead points to a single original Front UW Jaray that was repeatedly modified and repainted during its long life.
FATE
Jaray continued to use the Audi as his private automobile into the 1950s.
Its survival ultimately came to an end following a carburetor fire. Historical accounts state that the fire destroyed the one-off automobile, although a precise date for its destruction has not been established.
The original Audi Front UW Jaray therefore no longer survives.
A reconstruction was subsequently created by Audi United Kingdom in 2012. That replica represents another interpretation of the Front UW’s appearance and is documented separately in Audi Archives.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Jaray-owned period gives the Audi Front UW an unusual place in the history of aerodynamic experimental automobiles.
It was not simply an aerodynamic study displayed and then discarded. Jaray continued to live with the automobile he had designed, using it as personal transportation for more than a decade.
Its evolving appearance consequently provides evidence of the difference between an experimental design as originally presented and the same automobile adapted through years of actual use.
For Audi history, the car also represents a remarkably long-lived physical connection to one of the pioneers of automotive aerodynamics. The same chassis that demonstrated Jaray’s ideas at Geneva in 1934 remained Jaray’s personal automobile into the postwar era.
PHOTO GALLERY
SOURCES
4Legend – Audi Front Type UW Jaray de 1934, un prototype de véhicule très aérodynamique
The Classic Car Trust – 1921: Paul Jaray and his Airships on Four Wheels
Coachbuild.com – Paul Jaray historical profile
AutoPioneer / AutoCult – 1934 Audi Front UW 8/40 PS Paul Jaray
Audi Tradition / Audi museum mobile – Windschnittig exhibition material
August Horch Museum – Paul Jaray / aerodynamic exhibition material
RESEARCH NOTES
- This is the same physical Audi Front UW Jaray introduced at the Geneva Motor Show on March 16, 1934, not a second vehicle.
- Historical documentation states that the car passed into Paul Jaray’s personal ownership in 1939.
- No reliable source presently identified gives a month or day for Jaray’s acquisition.
- January 1, 1939 is used by Audi Archives solely as an administrative sort date and is not claimed as the historical date of the ownership transfer.
- The 1939 date denotes the change in ownership and historical role, not the reveal of a newly constructed car or documented new body specification.
- Jaray used the Audi as his personal automobile into the 1950s.
- Historical accounts state that the vehicle was modified slightly several times and repainted during Jaray’s ownership.
- Period photographs show differing exterior configurations, supporting the documented history of continuing modification.
- Later photographs include a prominent bright side molding and radiator-cap treatment that are not consistently present in earlier imagery.
- The dates on which these individual details were introduced have not been established.
- The Audi was reportedly damaged in Czechoslovakia in 1935 and repaired by Jawa. It has not been established whether any of the recognizable later exterior changes resulted from that repair.
- Registration LU 3956 appears in photographs of the vehicle in differing configurations, supporting the conclusion that the images depict the same evolving automobile rather than multiple cars.
- The original car was eventually destroyed following a carburetor fire, reportedly during the 1950s.
- The modern 2012 Audi UK reconstruction is documented separately and should not be used as definitive evidence for the appearance of the original at any particular point in its life.
ARCHIVE STATUS
Vehicle Status: Original no longer extant
Original Construction: 1934
Jaray Ownership: 1939–1950s
Exact Ownership Transfer Date: Unknown
Audi Archives Sort Date: January 1, 1939
Owner: Paul Jaray
Registration: LU 3956
Configuration: Evolved through repeated modification and repainting
Fate: Destroyed following a carburetor fire
Exact Destruction Date: Not established
Modern Reconstruction: Audi United Kingdom, 2012; documented separately in Audi Archives
Documentation Status: Period photographs and historical accounts survive; exact chronology of individual exterior modifications remains unresolved