The Future Needs Cars Like the Audi Rosemeyer

25 January 2023 Redazione News, Supercars Lounge

By Marco Mancino / Photos Audi Press

This is one of those examples where forms inspired by immortality stand the test of time. The Rosemeyer was in fact presented 23 years ago – it was 2000 – and drew strong inspiration from the Auto Union racing cars of the 1930s, but despite having trod the stages of various international shows and given only a few small ideas for models that then saw mass production, still represents an approach to automotive design that has never been revived. The time has come to ask ourselves why and perhaps look at this unusual shape, wondering if it might be time to draw more from the past in order to create a better future.

Let’s talk about the car for a moment. The Rosemeyer is as impressive as few other cars and it doesn’t matter if this is also the result of the freedom granted to concept cars. The large front grille which guides the eye towards a cockpit characterized by an extremely low beltline and shifted towards the front clearly accentuates the rear portion, which houses a generous 8-litre W16, for a declared power of 630 horsepower and 1,032 Nm of torque. It’s not important to talk about power, given that it wasn’t intended to be used on road, but imagining it hurtling through the curves of Bavaria allows us to give shape to that dive into the past that it intends to elevate.

A tribute to a legendary driver, to an iconic car and above all to an aesthetic concept that has now disappeared, in which the laws of aerodynamics were challenged by a driver’s seat pushed close to the front axle, creating an unmistakable and vision-distorting profile of automobile as we intend it today. After all, the 1930s were still a period of great inspiration, innovation and above all they did not have to deal with today’s regulations in terms of safety and efficiency. Maybe this is exactly why such an unconventional shape is able to arouse something in the soul of enthusiasts, allowing them to travel in time to where a car had to be first of all fast and therefore competitive in racing.

The contemporary panorama is child – and sometimes slave – of evolution and maximum research, now largely pursued thanks to the help of artificial intelligence and simulators. What computer would ever design such a disproportionate car? No one would dream of similar solutions, but I think it is exactly what we need in order to emerge from anonymity and make cars exciting even just looking at them. The Rosemeyer is not to blame, the world no longer had room for visions of this kind and with the exception of a few details later brought by the Bugatti Veyron, we just have to admire it and hear the roar of the Auto Unions of 90 years ago fill our melancholic hearts with passion.