Hans Stuck first met Adolf Hitler in 1925, when a mutual friend brought the budding Führer to the racing driver’s farm near Freiburg, Germany, for a day’s hunting. Hitler never forgot his day out and, after taking power on January 30, 1933, telephoned Stuck, who had been bemoaning the lack of a German car to race since both Austro-Daimler and Mercedes-Benz had dropped out of the sport. The Reichskanzler said Stuck, then 32 years old, would get his car and…

Stuck was sufficiently masterful at the wheel of Dr. Porsche’s V-16 Auto Union Type A, that Adolf Hitler reversed his firing by the team for being “uncompetitive.”
Photo: Audi