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The Typ 650 or 'Sokol': Awtowelo debuts at Goodwood

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Things moved quickly, last July. While we were awaiting development of our photographs, word had it that something interesting was going on at Goodwood.

When Wolfgang Beyer pointed at one of our pictures and exclaimed, “I remember that! I am on that one, actually, and know where that was taken!”, we decided to conclude our visit with a nice dessert. So on we went, driving through the muggy heat that lay over Chemnitz that day. Past Auto Union’s former headquarters, later transformed into a large city hospital. The premises are abandoned nowadays, so we turned right on the Kauffahrtei. This is the street were the Typ 650 made its debut. Not much has changed since then. The building at Kauffahrtei 45, were both cars came into existence, has been restored and is now home to IAV, a company that specialises in automotive R&D.

Goodwood

Sadly, we didn’t have any period cars or dress with us, but our trusty old Praktica reflex camera made up for that. It’s the source of the pictures above, although the Japanese scanner ruined some of its original quality. Ah well. While awaiting development, news came from Britain. Imagine our surprise when the Donington car suddenly appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed! Since we had already decided on the Revival Meeting this year, a personal acquaintance was out of the question. Luckily, several members of the Atlas Nostalgia Forum made up with excellent pictures.

Pictures by Luc Ghys















Pictures by Svend van der Vlugt









Debut

What’s most stunning, though, is the name under which the car ran at Goodwood. Driven by Rick Hall, car number 31 was presented as the 1948 Awtowelo 650 'Auto Union'. Which meant that after more than 50 years this car finally did what it was designed to do: to race on Western soil under the Awtowelo name. Looks like somebody’s been reading 8W…

And finally, here is a short video clip of the 650, shot by Luc Ghys in the Festival of Speed paddock.

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