All language subtitles for Hitlers Supercars 2020 540p HDTV x264 TVC_track3_eng

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During the rise of the Third Reich,
two German car manufacturers

were ordered to build the most
high-performance vehicles the world

had ever seen.

What followed was a rivalry that
would reap Grand Prix victories...

...international domination
that was a propaganda coup...

...and provide world fame to its
drivers who risked their lives

smashing speed records
that would stand for 79 years.

All under the direct orders
of the Fuhrer himself.

This is the story
behind Hitler's Supercars.

1939 and the Nazification
of Germany is complete.

Sieg heil!

Hitler's Third Reich are armed
and ready to rampage across Europe.

But just ten years earlier,
it was a completely different story.

The Great Depression is absolutely
catastrophic for Germany,

it's just starting to pick itself
up after terrible years

following the end of the
First World War, and it's working

as a democracy, it's working
as a liberal society.

Then suddenly comes a Wall Street
crash followed

by the Great Depression. Germany
gets embroiled in all of that.

And it's just economic disaster
and it's disaster as well

for the German car industry.

Germany in 1928,

there were still 64
car manufacturers.

Four years later, 1932,

only 26 did survive.

Labourer's lost their work.
You had, four years before in 1932,

around 84,000 people working
in the automotive industry and

four years later, only 35,000
people were still working there.

It was disastrous.

Whenever you have a serious
financial crisis, you always, always

have political upheaval.

And it's this upheaval that allows
the Nazis to take hold.

But with Hitler comes ideals
of nationalism, of a return

to this kind of, sort of,
the Aryan ideal.

And with that comes sporting
prowess.

And the most modern and exciting
area of modern prowess

and nationalism in sport is,
of course, motor racing.

All of the national motor racing
superpowers had their brand,

had their diamond team.
Italy, Alfa Romeo.

France, Bugatti. England, ERA.

English Racing Automobiles.

Couldn't be more transparent,
what it was all about.

About the flag, about the nation,
about the characters

and who they were.

And one of the greatest exponents
of that real national pride

was the Germans.

AVUS. Now an unspectacular
corner of Berlin.

But 90 years ago,
it was at the epicentre

of international motor racing.

It was really a kind of temple
of the modern world.

It was an extraordinary
configuration.

Really, it was just one dual
carriageway six miles each way

with two bends, one at either end
the south curve and the north curve.

The circuit was very close
to the buildings where the

Berlin Motor Show would be held,
which was a very,

very significant event.

It was all a big kind of complex
of modernity.

There wasn't another purpose-built
racing gladiatorial auditorium

in any other European capital city.

Not in Turin, not in Paris, not
in London, but there was in Berlin.

What singles the AVUS ring out
from many of the other long, fast

circuits of the period,

was 'Rs danger.

It was very fast,

it was very challenging
and it could kill you.

At that stage in the life of the
motorcar,

people were just thrilled
by the spectacle

of cars going at 100mph, 150mph.

You know, this was like watching
space travel.

The 1932 German Grand Prix
at the AVUS circuit

was a very significant event indeed.

Rudolf Caracciola, who had been
Germany's number one racing ace,

turned up at the wheel of
an Alfa Romeo painted white

in German national colours.

But still he got booed, because
he was driving an Italian car.

And there were lots of other big
cars,

5L Bugattis, V16 Maseratis. Very
exciting things.

But the most interesting car
was a Mercedes driven by

Manfred von Brauchitsch.

Mercedes Benz did not really
have a Grand Prix product

they could put on a track and take
on the likes of Bugatti

and Mia Romeo...
Uni“ they're on home turf.

Because AVUS was such
a high speed circuit,

the Mercedes was modified
with a streamlined body,

which was a pretty new thing
at the time.

It just had kind of new body panels,
but it looked very space age.

It just looked completely different
and wild.

It was just about one
big thing - Teutonic power.

And that they had and they had a lot
of it.

And you put that old technology
in a streamlined coach work body

and on the AVUS ring...

...you've got a winner.

People will get excited
if the outsider is winning

and Manfred von Brauchitsch
which was the absolute outsider.

A young driver against the most
famous German racing driver,

Rudolf Caracciola in his Alfa Romeo,
and then this Mercedes Benz...

\ ..on the road. I

The radio reporter Dr Paul Laven
was inventing the name,

"The Silver Arrow."

Der Silberpfeil kommt.

300,000 people
in the amphitheatre of speed.

And sure enough, it was a
head-to-head between Caracciola

and Von Brauchitsch.

Caracciola leads, but
with all his skill

on the corners, he can't get
away from the streamlined car.

And Von Brauchitsch won. Right
at the end,

the big Mercedes goes ahead.

The 32 win at the AVUS ring
can't really be underestimated, not

just in terms of motorsport history,

but in terms of world history.

The shock victory of 1932 is picked
up on Hitler for a number

of reasons, but one of them, I think
is because it's the underdog winning.

And the National Socialists,

I mean, you know, they're dead and
buried in the middle of the 19205

and then suddenly they come
from the back of the race.

And by 1932, they're kind
of positioning themselves

where they might actually get
into power for the first time,

against all the odds.

So there is this kind of weird
synergy going on between the rise

of German performance in Grand
Prix and the rise of Hitler

and the National Socialists.

On January 30th, 1933, seven months

after Von Brauchitsch's AVUS
victory,

Hitler takes power of Germany

after being elected Reich
Chancellor.

Within hours of being sworn in,
he would set about motions

that just six months later
would see him elevated to dictator.

In February 1933, Hitler opened

the Berlin International Car
And Motorcycle Exhibition,

announcing to the world

his national motorisation programme.

This included state support for road
building and motor sport.

Motor cars were very important
to Hitler.

You know, he always had a nice
Mercedes himself, but he was keen

to motorize Germany by building...

You know, the plans were to build
22,000kms of autobahns

and the Grand Prix team,
with the idea of demonstrating

to the world what German
technology could do.

In his mind being the thought
that if we show them what we can do

with our Grand Prix cars, you know,
they might start wondering

what we can do with other kinds
of advanced technology.

Mercedes wasted no time pursuing
this new source of money

for a new Grand Prix car.

They had always represented Germany
in motor racing, so assumed

they would get all the money
for the new national racing car.

However, there was a rival.
Auto Union.

Auto Union came about when four
German road car manufacturers -

Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer
joined forces.

But it was obviously an attempt
to get together and fight

the power of Mercedes.

And they presented Hitler
their plans for a second German

national racing car.

And Hitler did approve
and they split the money.

500,000 bucks for Mercedes Benz,
300,000 for Auto Union.

And so the duel was on.

That was National Socialism.

Anyone was allowed, ultimately. And,
you know, Adolf Hitler

and what he did with Auto Union...

And he just stood up to Mercedes
Benz and he said, "Well, these guys

"are playing, too. What you got?"

And for the guys on the board
at Mercedes Benz that day...

Utter shock.

If you want to hear the reaction
of the director of the Mercedes-Benz

company in 1933, I'll read it.

"We are the oldest car manufacturer
in the world.

"It will, therefore, in our view,
violate the sense of justice

"of every German

"if the funds which the Reich
is willing to provide

"were to be allocated to a company
that has not so far been engaged

"in building cars."

What Hitler wants
is to make sure that Germany

dominates motor racing in the 1930s.

For seven months, the hand-picked
crews of technicians at Mercedes

and Auto Union toiled and tested
the very latest in lightweight

materials, aerodynamic thinking
and supercharged engines.

After developing their designs
in time for the 1934 Grand Prix

season, the first generation
of Hitler's supercars had arrived.

The Auto Union Type A, nicknamed
the P-Wagen - P standing

for Porsche after its designer,
Dr Ferdinand Porsche -

was revolutionary with its mid
engine design.

Now the norm in motor racing,

but back in 1934, this was
unheard of.

Porsche's streamlined body
was powered by a 4.4 litre

supercharged V16 engine, producing
280bhp, comprising

of 1622 individual component parts.

This was engineering on a whole
new plain.

The Mercedes Benz W25 followed
a more conventional route

with a front engine concept,
but using the latest lightweight

materials shaped for aerodynamic
efficiency. Power came from a 3.4l

straight-eight cylinder engine
fitted with a soon-to-be infamous

howling supercharger that delivered
a massive 325bhp, some

110 more than the class-leading
Alfa Romeo of the time.

On January 4th, 1934, Hitler
and Propaganda Minister

Joseph Goebbels got their first
glimpse of the W25 in a Mercedes

showroom in Munich.

Goebbels's diary notes: "lnspected
the new racing car at Mercedes.

"A fantastic job, first class."

The first of Hitler's supercars
to break cover was the Auto Union

on January 12th 1934 at the AVUS
circuit

to fulfil their contractual
obligations to the Third Reich.

Mercedes and Auto Union
prepared their cars

in great secrecy, keeping their
technical secrets from each other.

But the great surprise was
that when they appeared, Auto Union

got the jump on Mercedes.

That was the Nazi deal.

We'll give you the bucks,
but you've got to produce

what we expect you to produce.

So Auto Union, it came with
a very high bar, which was ten

consecutive laps of the AVUS ring
in excess of 150mph.

Well, guess what?

They walked it. And set some records
straight away with this amazing

rear engine car.

And that was a point for
Auto Union against Mercedes Benz.

The Nazis can't make aircraft, you know,
that is part of the Versailles treaty.

They can't do it. They can have
glider clubs in secret.

They can be preparing
for the Luftwaffe in secret,

but they don't have to be secret
about motor racing.

What that's saying is, "Glamour,
style.

"Elite. Modern technology,
superb engineering."

It just folds in so many
things that the Nazis love.

I mean, there's lots of things
that the Nazis do really badly,

but one area where they are
absolutely stupendously

good is in propaganda and PR.

They just nail it.

The Reich Ministry of Transport
insisted that the new German

national racing cars make
their public debut on home soil

at the Berlin Grand Prix at AVUS.

These cars were like nothing
anybody had ever seen before.

Imagine what the German motor
racing's public witnessed that day.

These machines slithered
out of the back

of their transporters.

I'd love to have seen that.

It was just incredible, exciting
stuff and great expectations.

You have to consider that German
radio was covering

the training sessions.

They had supercharged engines,
which wasn't new, but the kind

of superchargers Mercedes used made
a very high,

piercing wail of a sound
that was terrifying.

It was so important for the
listeners and for the politicians

of the Third Reich to promote
this race at the AVUS.

It would've been like seeing
a time machine.

And yet it had a German in the seat.

And what an inspiration.

What have we done?

Look at what we've done.

Great expectations, but horrible
performance.

Well, it didn't go as planned
by any means for the German teams.

The whole thing backfired.

Mercedes Benz quit before the race.

We've got problems.
We cannot solve them.

Mercedes took part in practice
and then decided their performance

wasn't going to be good enough.

So rather than risk humiliation,
they pulled out and didn't take part

in the race.

Auto Union, despite having these -
in today's terms - multi,

multi-million dollar machines
at their disposal got it all wrong.

The cars broke down and the race
was won by an Mia Romeo

entered by Scuderia Ferrari and
driven by Guy Moll,

a very brilliant young driver who
came from an Algerian Jewish family.

And this in front of all
these great leaders

of German Reich. Complete disaster.

Which is
probably not what Hitler had in mind

when he put up the money
for his two Grand Prix teams.

That's not good for the Nazi press.

And so keep it low down
in the papers.

That was the message by Goebbels.

For their first excursion on foreign
territory, they went to France,

to Montlhery, near Paris.

It was the first appearance
of both German racing cars

outside their country.

Very important.

It's time to stamp your dominance,
show the world what these things

can actually do. What better place
to go?

Montlhery was a combined track.

Part of it was a banked oval,
which would suit the high speed

nature of the cars that Mercedes
and Auto Union were producing.

What better place to go and show
'em this new rule coming your way?

Which is us, the Germans.

What they showed in practice
for the race was that they were

vastly superior to everything else.

The demonstration on foreign
soil of their capabilities

was unmistakable.

The night that the Silver Arrows
dominated qualifying at Montlhery...

...was also the
Night Of The Long Knives.

I mean, you couldn't make it up.

It's like, you know, if it was
in a Hollywood movie script,

you wouldn't believe it
because the overmighty,

increasingly overmighty SA, the
Sturmabteilung, which has been

instrumental in seeing the rise
of the Nazis headed by Ernst Rohm

is just getting a bit above itself,
it's starting to become a threat

rather than a colleague.

So Hitler orders this sort
of cancelling out of the SA.

This night of terror produced
many victims.

The Nazis killed the Nazis,
but they didn't only

kill their former friends, they
did kill the opponents, as well.

Dr Klausener, one of the founders of
the Nurburgring, was murdered

in this night, too.

Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union
didn't win this French Grand Prix.

It was the last time that Alfa Romeo
would be able to keep

up with the German racing cars.

Although none of the German cars
finished the French Grand Prix,

the dominance
before their retirements

was a very obvious sign
of things to come.

The German Grand Prix cars of the
'30s were a fantastic spectacle.

Both teams adopted the sort
of plain, silver looks.

It seemed very modern, like rocket
ships.

So when those cars raced somewhere
like AVUS, a real kind

of high speed bowl, it was like
chariot racing in Rome.

Just something to astonish
the populace.

It's a kind of war and the
weapons are the racing cars.

You can promote
how good your technicians work

and you can promote your national
feelings by racing.

It wasn't just the cars.

What completed the story were
the pilots, the drivers, the heroes.

They were the real focus.

They were the people who got
out of the cars.

So in terms of the German propaganda
machine, not only did you have such

a gulf of dominance, but then
you had the beginning, the culture

of the celebrity superstar
race car driver.

Well, thanks to Joseph Goebbels,

the German government became
very quickly aware of the propaganda

value of motorsport
and they produced what were,

in effect, propaganda films showing
how the German racing teams

were conquering the world.

So you could tune in on your Joseph
Goebbels-supplied Nazi radio to hear

the cars and to hear the commentary
of the races.

And then on a Saturday night

you'd go down to the cinema
and before watching Clark Gable,

you watched Hans Stuck getting
out of his Silver Arrow.

Well, it was the beginning
of a new world.

The peoples receiver, this is the
Deutscher Kleinempfanger.

This might look quite big
to you or I, but actually

in mid-1930s technology,

this is as revolutionary
as the arrival of the iPod was in.

And everyone can have one, because
it's subsidised by the state.

So they're super cheap.

I mean, you can see it's even got
a little kind of swastika here.

And what that means is, again,
Goebbels' media can dominate

and dominate the message.

What the German propaganda machine
was portraying through the use

of motorsport was irresistible
power.

The idea that they couldn't be
beaten.

They had the best, most
committed drivers.

The attention to detail
in a world of amateurs.

Of course, it went
far beyond motor racing.

You know, what it was saying
was that our forces are stronger

than yours at every level.

In the space of four months,

the Silver Arrows had turned
the international motorsport pecking

order on its head.

They had entered 13 races and won 11
of them, but for Mercedes,

there was still one piece
of unfinished business.

When Auto Union put their cars on
the track at the AVUS ring,

to get that investment from Hitler

and the Nazi Party
to create these rival machines

to Mercedes Benz,

they set in motion a bit
of a chain reaction.

Mercedes Benz got their act
together, caught up and basically

beat Auto Union to the championship.

But there was one thing they didn't
have, and that was the speed record.

Auto Union still held the record.

Now, what's Mercedes Benz
going to do?

They're going to go out
and smash it.

In October 1934, Mercedes set
two new speed world records for one

mile from a standing start,
plus the highest speed ever recorded

on a public road, clocking 197.261
miles per hour, smashing rivals

Auto Union and kicking off a race
for speed, which would push

the boundaries of Nazi technology -
but with devastating consequences.

February 1935. Hitler
reveals his Luftwaffe.

This was part of the Third Reich's
rearmament programme.

This loud, petrol-powered show
of strength was also playing out

on the racetracks of Europe
as Mercedes and Auto Union

continued their winning ways.

Everything changes in 1935,
because this is when the Luftwaffe

was announced to the world in
contravention of everything that's

been agreed in the Versailles treaty
and suddenly its petrol power

in the air and on the ground.

1935 also saw the debut
of a new German driver.

The arrival of Bernd Rosemeyer gave
the German government exactly

what they wanted.

A young, handsome, exciting
Aryan superhero

who was a great driver.
No question about that.

He came into the Auto Union team.

The car was a very difficult
car to drive. Rear-engined.

A lot of people couldn't handle it.

Rosemeyer was a motorcycle racer.

So stick him, with all that bravery,
in a rear engine Auto Union

16-cylinder Grand Prix car.

All the traditional guys
were complaining

about this and complaining
about that.

For Rosemeyer, it was perfect.

There was nothing wrong with it. How
could you possibly complain about this?

It just came very naturally to him,

taming this, what was supposed
to be, a fearsome beast.

And by the end of 1935, it was very
clear that he was as fast

as the fastest.

He managed to win his first
Grand Prix

at the Masaryk ring,
in the Czechoslovakian area.

And then he met his wife.

He met his wonderful aviator,
very exotic, fabulous celebrity,

German wife on the podium
at the Czech Grand Prix,

which he won.

Elly Beinhorn was a female aviator
and very famous in Germany.

Kind of famous as Amelia Earhart
from the United States.

Young woman, very nice-looking, very
vivacious, good hero material.

And she'd become the second
woman to fly solo

from Europe to Australia.

She'd crash landed in the Sahara
and been rescued by Tuaregs.

You know, she was the stuff
of legend already.

And when these two met and fell
in love immediately, that gave

the German government the dream
couple, basically.

It was beyond Posh and Becks of the
1930s.

And of course, this is just gold
dust for Goebbels.

They are the embodiment
of this new rise of the Aryans,

which is all part of the kind
of National Socialist shtick.

So you had Rosemeyer, the golden
boy

against Caracciola, the older
man, the establishment man...

...who happened to drive
the Mercedes Benz.

And it was the old guard that won
in 1935 with Caracciola's Mercedes

winning the Grand Prix Championship.
1936 would be a different story.

1936 is this golden year
for the Nazis in terms of sport,

because they've got the Olympics.

And although it is true that Jesse
Owens wins the sprints,

you know, the Germans do
really, really well.

It is an incredible advert
for the emergence and the dominance

of Nazi Germany on the world scene.

They built the Olympic stadium,
which was spectacular

and has that kind of Albert Speer,
National Socialist, look about it.

It was a breathtaking place
before anybody even stepped into it.

What weren't they achieving?

Rosemeyer wins the Grand Prix
championship.

We have boxing, Max Schmeling
beating Joe Louis.

A really shock result at Madison
Square Garden in New York.

You can't separate these efforts and
results in sport from the regime.

By winning, they are put together
and you can't separate them.

Another success story of
the Olympics was Germany's emerging

Autobahn Network, which allowed
competitors and spectators to travel

across the country with great ease.

Its true purpose, however,
was very different.

Germany lies in the centre
of Europe, which means it's

vulnerable to attack from multiple
different angles.

The worry is how do you get an army
from the eastern side of Germany

to the western side very quickly?

So you build these huge autobahns,
these multiple lanes

where you can just chuck loads and
loads of traffic down them.

A military road, following in the
tradition of the Romans.

I mean, that is the inspiration.

But suddenly there is this added
benefit.

You can suddenly start using them
for another reason and

obviously some bright spark goes,
"Hey, here's an idea.

"Let's do some world speed tests
on them and see if we can't get

"another record, which we can then
use as propaganda around the world."

And it is genius, really.

The first person to utilise
the autobahn was Hans Stuck,

who broke five world distance
records in his Auto Union, including

covering 100 miles in just 36
minutes.

Mercedes and Rudi Caracciola struck
back with a headline-grabbing,

new flying mile public road world
record of 228mph.

This set up the first Autobahn
head-to-head with Bernd Rosemeyer.

By then, the stage was set.

If they were selling Silver Arrows
football shirts in Berlin

in the 1930s, they'd have all had
Caracciola or Rosemeyer on the back.

It was that defined.

1937 saw the introduction
of the Reich record week,

where Mercedes Benz and Auto Union
ran their latest supercar creations

at the highest speeds ever seen
on public roads.

Really, they've outgrown traditional
motorsport.

We've won every kind of bit
of motor racing we can do.

We've the lap record at every
single track.

'36 Grand Prix at Donnington,

they were booed by the crowd to slow
down, because it was just

becoming a farce.

Now they created their own space
race, which is how fast

could they go and where could they
do it?

And they had the perfect
environment.

It was a rivalry
on two levels.

A rivalry between the teams
Auto Union and Mercedes

who were striving to come
up with the most streamlined car.

You know, these amazing
new machines.

And between the two leading drivers,
Rudi Caracciola

and Bernd Rosemeyer who really were
going head to head all the time

in this record-breaking effort.

The 1937 Mercedes record car
was based on their latest 5.6l

supercharged V12 Grand Prix
car and was first to run.

Despite having an engine with
700bhp, the car created

too much lift at high speeds,
causing the front wheels to come

off the ground.

It just became more life-threatening

and more dangerous every time they
ran.

Caracciola got to 235.5 miles per
hour

before refusing to drive
the car again.

It wasn't like land speed record
setting where you went basically

in a desert.

These were motorways, 25 feet wide.

You know, you went off, you'd
hit something and hurt yourself.

With Caracciola's Mercedes
out of the game, this left the door

open for Auto Union.

400km an hour
on a motorway.

252 miles an hour.

After that, he was extremely
stressed, exhausted

and at the verge of losing
his consciousness.

But it had to end somehow.

This madness had to end somehow.

January 1938, it all starts again.

The space race has reached

a new level of complexity in
engineering.

Zeppelin wind tunnels,
every possible bit of Nazi 1930s

technology available was thrown
at the speed record cars.

Mercedes turned up with a revised
car and with Rudolf Caracciola,

their number one driver. Auto Union
came with Bernd Rosemeyer,

their number one, and also a very
heavily-revised car

which used the kind of ground
effect.

It was trying to use the
way the air flowed under the car,

to hold the air in, to hold the car
down.

And, in fact, it was about 40
years ahead of its time.

This is all about the plaudits
of going to the Berlin Motor Show.

The Fuhrer would be there.

The newest Mercedes would be there.

And it had to be about the prize
giving, the plaudits of the Fuhrer.

You had to go in both directions
and take the average.

So if you were doing the flying
mile, you set off,

you were timed at the beginning
of a mile and at the end.

Then you turned round at the
end,

came back within a certain
time limit,

and your time for both runs
was measured and averaged out.

The stretch of motorway that they
were on

was absolutely flat and
absolutely straight.

But on either side it had woods
and some walls.

But it had breaks in the woods,
breaks in the walls.

And this being winter, you know,
the conditions were not perfect.

But they had to do it just in time
for the opening

of the Berlin Motor Show in order to
present Hitler

a new German record
on the Autobahn.

Caracciola went on first
in the Mercedes

and noticed a crosswind.

Lethal, at 260-plus miles
per hour. For the flying mile,

he managed the speed of 268mph.

An astonishing figure.
And of course, that set

up the challenge for Auto Union
and for Rosemeyer.

Out went Rosemeyer in
this newly-developed, much-improved

C-Type Auto Union, streamliner
speed record car. And he picked

up the same wind.

He was up to the speed that would
have matched or beaten Caracciola,

when he came to the bit
of the mile where Caracciola

had noticed the problem.

It was a break in the trees and the
crosswind of maybe 60 or 70mph.

But when you're doing 270mph, a crosswind
would have a really serious effect.

He tried to correct and probably
overcorrected.

This lightweight aluminium
superstar electron machine went

into the trees and was torn apart.

Rosemeyer was found with
effectively not a mark on him.

But he was dead.

Suddenly, this hero
had been snuffed out.

The death of Rosemeyer can only
really be attributed to one other

motor racing fatality of
the modern era.

And that's Ayrton Senna.

It was a national tragedy.

\ The hero lost. I

By the time Rosemeyer died
in the speed record attempt,

he'd been weaponised as a motor
racing driver for the military

aspirations that Hitler
then was harbouring.

Rosemeyer was the role model.

Be tough, be hard, be strong,
be courageous.

Even if you die, you die
for your country.

And his funeral was a huge national
propaganda event organised

and hosted by the SS.

This was not what his widow wanted,
but Hitler got his way and gave

Rosemeyer a big funeral with full
military honours and swastikas

everywhere, and he sent a personal
message to Rosemeyer's widow.

"May your grief be lessened
by the knowledge that your husband

"died fighting for Germany."

Fighting for Germany? Trying to
break a speed record? Maybe.

Rosemeyer's death unfortunately
overshadowed the absolute

technological feats that Caracciola
in that same event achieved.

On the Autobahn, in his speed record
attempt,

an average speed on the flying mile
of

just under 270mph.

Maxing out at over

270mph in 1938.

This public road world record
would stand for 79 years.

The point of all this record
breaking really was to lead

eventually to setting a new outright
world land speed record for any kind

of wheeled vehicle on any surface.

Obviously something bigger
and better was needed

and Mercedes had a plan.

Under the cloak
of secrecy of Mercedes,

Dr Ferdinand Porsche was working
on a new radical car that was a pet

project of Hitler himself.

An attack on the outright land speed
record codenamed the T80.

A vehicle way beyond the public road
record cars, a six wheeled

projectile powered by a
44,5l V12 engine

originally designed for use
in Nazi fighter planes.

The target, Britain's land speed
record of 369.7mph held

by John Cobb.

It looked like something
from Buck Rogers.

It looked like something
from NASA in the '60s.

It was like no-one had ever seen
anything like the T80.

Everything Hitler does, he wants it
to be the biggest, the best.

And it's the same with motor racing.

You know, it's got to be the biggest
and the best.

And he's got all these land records,
but he hasn't got the big one.

He hasn't got the ultimate.
The fastest land vehicle ever.

And so much money and time
and effort is put into this, even

though, you know, the war clouds
are building and frankly, the cash

that is invested in this would be much
better served going into other areas.

But that's not the Hitlerian way.

The Hitlerian way is, "This is
something I want to do.

"We have to do it."

It would have been the ultimate
end to the dominance

of the Silver Arrow era.

And it's so nearly ready.

But then comes the start of the war.

Germany invades
Poland on September 1st.

But it is not part of the Nazi
plans for it to

turn into a global conflict.

So we've just sort of a staggering
arrogance. They just think,

"You know, we haven't quite got time
to do it in 1939, but don't worry,

"we'll do it in 1940."

You know, little appreciating, you
know, just what is being unleashed.

And ironically during 1940,
the Battle of Britain, the engines

for the T80 had to be recycled back
into the Luftwaffe to be put

into aeroplanes to try and attack
the RAF.

So the few might have known
that they won the Battle of Britain

and saved this country
from invasion.

But maybe they didn't quite know

they also held on to the outright
land speed record for us, as well.

It was the greatest thing
that never happened.

But would it have happened?

Located at the home of British
Motorsport lies a company capable

of unlocking the secrets to whether
the T80 could have been the first

370mph land speed car.

TotalSim is an aerodynamic
consulting company.

We mostly use computers to simulate
aerodynamics and fluid flow.

We've worked in just about every
motorsport series you can think of.

We've diversified into other areas

of sports, such as bobsleigh,

cycling, things where drag is
important,

including downhill skiing and
snowboarding.

We've done a number of speed
record vehicles, motorbikes

in the past and they've only got
a fixed amount of power.

And that power has got to overcome
rolling resistance and drag.

So minimum drag, minimum
rolling resistance.

But the question is often
one of stability.

So getting to the speed
is one thing, but not getting

into a wobble... That's the tricky
bit.

Using historical design drawings
and photos, TotalSim were able

to construct a virtual T80.

After applying the weight
and power outputs that the T80

would have been capable of,
it is then possible to calculate

whether the last of Hitler's
supercars

was able to beat the 369.7mph

needed to take
the outright land speed record.

So the results of the modelling
show several things.

This first animation shows
the energy over the car.

Anything that's not red
is energy lost.

So the car is actually
very efficient.

The drag is low and it cuts
through the air far more efficiently

than a Formula 1 car does.

We've taken the drag numbers
and we've made some pessimistic

assumptions on transmission
efficiency.

Pessimistic assumptions
on rolling resistance.

It's reasonable to assume
that on the Autobahn, the speed

it would have achieved would
have been in excess of 375mph.

So we think it would it would
have broken the record.

By 5mph, the T80
would have been

a world record holder.

But that's not the full story.

The next image we look at here shows
the distribution of downforce,

how hard the car is pushing
into the ground.

And what we can see is the red
at the front is creating lift

and the blues and purples
at the rear are creating downforce.

And what's interesting about
that, although it makes downforce,

it makes that downforce more
towards the rear of the car.

But what's key is that that centre
of pressure, that centre of force

is behind the rear axle,
which is going to lift the nose.

And that means at some speed,
it's going to go...and fly.

T80 was yet again a potentially
deadly, but world leading feat

of engineering, a full stop on seven
years

and over 33 million
Reichsmarks

of Nazi government investment.

But how should the engineers
and drivers

of these machines be judged?

If you're interested to wage war,
you have to have technicians,

engineers and all these guys
who worked

in the automotive industry

would later on construct airplanes,
weapons and improving the techniques

of waging war.

There'll always, in that sense,
be an asterisk

against their achievements that,
you know, they did what they did

because they were given funding
by a government that had a purpose

in mind and was using them
towards that purpose.

You have to accept that motor
racing drivers in the 1930s,

whatever their politics,
were incredibly courageous people.

You have to sort of say, "OK,
what we know now, post-war,

"what people knew, certainly
in the second half of the war

"and what people knew in the 1930s."

And they're all quite different
things.

The right thing, the wrong thing.

Who was involved and who knew
what will never be known.

But what we do know is what
was achieved.

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