BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show podcast

Racing Against Time: The Untold Story of Germany's 1939 Motorsport Triumph

0:00
22:40
15 Sekunden vorwärts
15 Sekunden vorwärts

Nazi Germany turned the automobile’s high speed into a propaganda tool for its technical and industrial supremacy. With its domestic motor industry having fallen behind the US and France, the political establishment pushed for dominance in Grand Prix racing, launched an automobile for the masses, and developed a wide network of motorways. Connecting racing cars, high speed, and the motorways was the Rekordwoche, an annual event launched in 1936 to conquer the highest speeds on a motorway.

The last edition in 1939 was a relatively low-key event, shadowed by the prior year’s sensational Mercedes-Benz speed record and Bernd Rosemeyer’s death. Nevertheless, the propaganda machine aptly broadcast the speeds reached on an arrow-straight, level and wide 10 km motorway stretch north of Leipzig, purpose-built for the Rekordwochen and the conquest of the World Land Speed Record by a German driver on a German car on German soil.

Aldo Zana is an Italian motor historian and journalist. He started writing articles for motor magazines in the mid-sixties as a freelance editor of Autosprint and Rombo weeklies, developing an inclination towards history and historic cars and races. Since the late Eighties, he has become a regular contributor to Italian and foreign historic car magazines; his recent automotive books include a history of the Sports-Prototype FIA World Championship; the lives and races of Italian drivers; the motor racing scenario of the Fifties; and the story of the forgotten Milano car shows 1901-1947. Zana is a long-time member of SAH and Aisa (Italian Association of Motor Historians), former member of the History and Museum Commission of ASI (Italian National Historic Car and Bike Association) and Ugis, the Italian guild of science journalists.

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00:00 Nazi Germany's Speed Propaganda 01:17 Overview of Record Weeks (1936-1938) 03:04 The 1939 Record Week 04:50 Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Rivalry 06:14 The Final Record Week 15:07 Mysteries and Technical Details 19:46 Conclusion and Q&A; Closing Remarks and Credits

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The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net

This episode is part of our HISTORY OF MOTORSPORTS SERIES and is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family. 

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