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AVUS.
The FIRST and the FASTEST
The
famous Nurburgring was Germany's first permanent race
track, but it wasn't the country's first motorsport
venue. Before the 'Ring, there was AVUS. It was step
one in Germany's quest to be a world engineering superpower.
AVUS
(Automobil-Verkehrs und Übungsstraße, which basically
means Vehicle Traffic and Practice Road) was conceived
in around 1907 as a test road for the emerging powerhouse
that was the German automobile industry. The location
was the Grünewald forest area to the southwest of Berlin.
Progress was stifled by the small matter of WW1 although
some construction did take place during, with the help
of Russian slaves, before it was finally completed in
1921.
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The
Sudschleife
"south curve" |
As
the name implies it was not a full time race circuit,
it was also the public road joining the greater Berlin
regions of Charlottenburg and Nikolassee, and in fact
was Germany's first autobahn. However, it has a history
which puts it right in the middle of motor racing folklore.
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Technically,
it was actually the antithesis of a real driver's
circuit, being nothing more than two long straights
joined together at each end by flat hairpins.
The total length was around 20km. One gets the
impression that the designers were interested
in nothing more than outright average speed.
In
1926 it hosted the first German Grand Prix for
sportscars. It was won by Rudolf Caracciola in
a Mercedes. Ignore the surname, he was a German-born
driver, but he was one of two German legends of
the day. He and the great Bernd Rosemeyer had
many epic battle in the prewar era- The most memorable
was at AVUS.
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In
that 1926 event, run in wet conditions, around 4 people
(that we know of) lost their lives, including two track
marshals. In 1933 German Otto Merz was killed in a Mercedes
Benz SSKL. Spectating at that race was Adolf Hitler.
Perhaps, it gave him a taste: As part of the preparations
for the famous 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and the Motor
Show in Germany that same year, AVUS got a brand new
North Curve...funded by the Nazis.
And, there was a little bit of Hitler in the new section:
Construction
of the infamous nordschleife banking in 1936. The round
tower and adjacent building is still there today.
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It
was a 45 degree banked curve made from red brick
paving. It would ensure massive average high speeds.
It was, naturally, a masterpiece of German engineering.
It would also earn the title "the Wall of Death".
With no barrier protection on the high side, if
you didn't stick, you would be assured of a long
flight.
(I'm unsure of the exact subject of this photo,
but it is possibly the accident that claimed the
life of Jean Behra, as mentioned later in this
story. The car involved appears to be a Porsche
RSK, the type of car in which Behra died- in the
sports car race prior to the 1959 Grand Prix)
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In
testing on the new facility in April of 1937,
even the popular Bernd Rosemeyer himself, in only
his second year as a race car driver for the newly-formed
Auto Union, had a moment where both wheels of
his Auto Union almost slipped off the top edge.
The organisers responded by painting white "warning"
lines.
The 1937 Avus GP was a slipstreaming duel between
Carraciola and Rosemeyer, Mercedes v Auto Union.
The cars reached 380km/h on the straights and
180km/h on the banked section. The average speed
was 275km/h, set by Rosemeyer. Carraciola, however,
won the race.
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Think
about those speeds. It was 1937. No modern GP has ever
reached those average speeds, and the high speed Indy
500 didn't see them until the 1970's. Nothing wrong
with the toys, of course. It's the playgrounds that
are the problem.
Rosemeyer
was killed the following year attempting a speed record
on a Frankfurt Autobahn.
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After
WW2, the track changed again. It is a common misconception
that it was shortened due to the Cold war East/
West border going through the middle, but this
isn't true. The nearest border between communist
East Germany and West Berlin was Checkpoint Bravo,
about a mile away. The circuit was cut in half,
with the South Loop (Sudschleife) moved north,
probably more for maintenance reasons. The
World Championship F1 Grand Prix of 1959 was held
there. Most of the promotional material, with
the exception of the one pictured, specifically
called it the Grand Prix of WEST Berlin...
The
race was won by Englishman Tony Brooks, driving
for Ferrari. The track was now 8km long, but still
had the infamous banking. It claimed the life
of Brooks' former teammate Jean Behra, who flew
off the top of the banking in his Porsche RSK
(see earlier).
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,%20masten%20gregory%20(cooper-climax).jpg)
Tony Brooks chased by Masten Gregory
in the Cooper Climax around the banking in 1959
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BRM's
Hans Herrmann had a brake failure heading into the
south curve at 300kmh in the 1959 GP. This was the
result. Herrmann can be seen on the ground to the
right of the marshal. Amazingly, he suffered only
bruising |
Finally,
sense and safety prevailed and in 1967 the north curve
banking was dismantled and no doubt some lucky German
homeowners got a couple of million paving bricks. A
flattened north curve continued in basically the same
radius.
When
the Berlin wall fell in 1989, the subsequent reunification
of East and West increased the traffic flow on the AVUS
section and it became more difficult to close it for
motorsport events. Also, racing on two joined straights
was already a long-since antiquated idea, so chicanes
were installed. DTM (German Touring Car Champs) and
F3 were staged there as late as late as 1998. Even Australia's
Russel Ingall raced there in a F3 race in the early
90's.
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From
2000, motorsport in the region had a new home-
the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, halfway between Dresden
and Berlin. Despite the modern safety standards,
it's already infamous for the death of ex F1 driver
Michele Alboreto, and the serious accident of
Alex Zanardi's, which cost him his legs. But that's
another story or two.
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So
AVUS died quietly in its sleep, after a long, rich,
and notorious life. The flat north curve is still there,
as is an old grandstand. The original Nordschleife control
tower built in 1936- complete with Mercedes-Benz and
Bosch signage, is now a restaurant and motel. The rooms
are quite nice, too.
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you drive into Berlin on the A115, stop and reminisce.
You're on hallowed turf. Even with an ultramodern
German sports sedan, on an unimited autobahn, with
no Polizei and tonnes of nerve, you still wouldn't
get anywhere near the speeds at which Caracciola
and Rosemeyer battled it out in 1937. |
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