Christie’s to sell uber-expensive 1939 Auto Union D-Type

Historic GP Winner To Fetch Record Price

5 February 2007 11:31 GMT / By Jonathan Goddard

Auction house Christie’s reckons it could sell the most expensive car in its history later this month.

Christie’s has estimated the value of the 1939 Auto Union D-Type, one of just two remaining examples of this legendary grand prix racer, at between £5.78-7.88 million, when it goes under the hammer at the international vintage car fair Rétromobile in Paris on February 17.

Formed in the 1930s through the amalgamation of four German automotive marques, Auto Union was a precursor to the modern day Audi brand, and its memory is kept alive by the German prestige manufacturer’s heritage division, Audi Tradition.

This particular car – long with its sister – was taken as war booty by the Russians following the Second World War. American Paul Karassik eventually brought them to the West in the 1980s after searching for them for a decade. He eventually finding them stripped down into individual parts and had them reassembled by East Sussex-based car restoration experts Crosthwaite & Gardiner.