DKW Auto-Union Project: Audi Tradition Museum Mobile Exhibition: Streamlined

After a successful exhibition at the August Horch Museum Zwickau, the “Streamlined – Automobile and Aerodynamics” special exhibit has moved to Audi Tradition Museum Mobile in Ingolstadt.

As early as 1910, astonishing ideas emerged for adapting motor vehicle body shapes to the air flow. The generally growing enthusiasm for aviation had an influence, as did the flight week in Reims in 1909, a major event that attracted worldwide attention. Wing and teardrop shapes became inspiration for technicians and inventors.

At that time, however, the direction of the air flow around the body did not serve to increase speed, but primarily to reduce the turbulence of road dirt from the generally unpaved roads.

In the 1920s, technicians and aircraft engineers recognized aerodynamics as a scientific topic for reducing drag and fuel consumption and improving the long-distance capability of automobiles. However, an effect on series production in automobile construction could only gradually be observed in the second half of the 1930s. In the meantime, other areas of traffic are also relying on aerodynamics and streamlining as arguments for progress and modern mobility. In the 1920s and 1930s, several design engineers set significant impulses in the field of automotive aerodynamics. In addition to Rumpler and Jaray, there are also, for example, Baron Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld, Emil Everling, Wunibald Kamm and Karl Schlör von Westhofen-Dirmstein.

However, it was anything but easy for her to achieve acceptance with her approaches. Their bodies, which were aerodynamically designed according to scientific findings, deviated too much from the then prevailing ideas of customers and manufacturers about the appearance of an automobile. But the rethinking began. New research and construction methods, such as wind tunnel research, contributed to this. In particular, racing should not be missing. As consistently as the research results were successfully implemented there, they were only slowly accepted by buyers when they were transferred to series vehicles. Unique and rare vehicles - also within the spectacular permanent exhibition - illustrate the pursuit of efficiency, sustainability and design in various facets.

And precisely this development, which was promoted by those important personalities of aerodynamic research in automobile construction up to the Second World War.

The special exhibition (originally) in the August Horch Museum in Zwickau and now in the Audi Museum Mobile in Ingolstadt is dedicated to this. 13 large exhibits, 26 models and 6 experimental/media stations document this path, from striving for the ideal form to test objects and pseudo streamlines. In particular, racing should not be missing. As consistently as research results were successfully implemented there, when they were transferred to series production vehicles, they were only slowly accepted by buyers for the reasons mentioned. Unique and rare vehicles - also within the spectacular permanent exhibition - illustrate the combination of efficiency, sustainability and design in various facets.

In times of dwindling resources and the promotion of electromobility, the ideas and considerations of that time are more relevant than ever. As a special offer, a master bodybuilder regularly works live in the exhibition on the creation and completion of a streamlined shape.

The main exhibits: