Auto Union

Auto Union was the 1932 amalgamation whose four-ring badge survives on every modern Audi — but for collectors the name means one thing above all: the mid-engined Silver Arrows. Designed initially by Ferdinand Porsche, the supercharged V16 and V12 Grand Prix cars of 1934–39 traded records and race wins with Mercedes-Benz in the most technologically ferocious era motor racing has known, and the handful of survivors rank among the most significant competition cars in existence. The road-going marques of the combine — DKW, Wanderer, Horch — carry their own followings, but it is the Silver Arrows that place Auto Union in the pantheon.