We take off a huge hat for the car we have here in front of us: what looks like a really flawless Auto Union 1000 Sp. A special piece of German car history.
Try looking as good as this Auto Union 1000 Sp at 58. It is almost inevitable that some ‘botox’ has been used once, but the result is impressive. By definition, the 1000 Sp has already been lucky with its appearance. The Auto Union designers managed to disguise the origin of the 1000 Sp in a spectacular way. Although some seem to think that it closely resembles the first generation Ford Thunderbird, we mainly see a successful design.
You can’t just tell from the 1000 Sp how modest it actually is. For that you should definitely see one in real life, because it is a smaller car than you might expect. It shares the base with the Auto Union 1000, but it is even smaller: 4.17 m long. Perhaps the most surprising aspect is the technology. The sporty appearance of this ‘Spezial’ suggests otherwise than that there is only a 981 cc three-cylinder in the nose. And not just any three-cylinder, but a real two-stroke. They loved that at Auto Union. Only 55 hp power stamps the block out, with which the 1000 Sp climbs from 0 to 100 km/h in roughly 22 seconds and reaches a maximum of 140 km/h. Far from impressive, but nicely faster than all other variants of the 1000.
This copy was spotted by AutoWeek forum member Afentoe and we can only say that it is a very special spot. Only about 5,000 of these 1000 SPs were made. Incidentally, this white can only recently be admired in our country, because it was imported last summer. We’re glad to see that it’s not – like many other 1000 Sp’s, no doubt – kept somewhere behind the scenes.
Incidentally, we also had the successor of the 1000 Sp as a guest in this section not very long ago, the Audi 100 Coupé S. If you had to choose, which one would you go for?
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl