The first diesel racing car

Within the Thirties diesel engines had been generally used in tractors, vehicles, trains and ships. These people weren’t seen as sporty. Till, that is, German car producer Hanomag set out to create a diesel powered racing car.

Unveiled within 1936, the Hanomag Absolut D combined a lightweight as well as streamlined aluminium body having a 1 . 9-litre diesel motor to stunning effect. Examined on the newly-opened autobahns, the actual Rekord D set a new speed record for a diesel-powered engine of 165kph (102mph) over a three-mile stretch.

Almost all traces of the world’s very first diesel race car has been lost, if not for one eagle-eyed enthusiast.

“When I found this particular blueprint in a skip, ” says Horst-Dieter Görg, the Hildesheim journalist and writer who has been collecting Hanomags since 1981, “I noticed that they belonged to the Hanomag Diesel Rekord D.

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