Delahaye 135 MS Coupe specs

@ Fangio Man: I heard of Auto Union's attempt at a speed record, the Type R, if I'm correct, Bernd Rosemeyer got the Type R to 270 MPH before crashing it.

Edit:
As far as I know the Auto Union Type R had "only" 580 PS.

After the death of Bernd Rosemeyer Auto Union never tried to break a speed record again.

The Mercedes W125 was fast, very fast.
But what about the AutoUnion Type R?

It reached a topspeed of 436 km/h on a german Autobahn in 1938!
Average speed after two runs:
432,692 km/h (driven by Bernd Rosemeyer)
It is still the speed record on a road.

That were gruesome machines...

If that Benz had a propeller, it would fly. :D

Unbelievable.. simply Unbelievable!

BTW, that had to be a very long autobahn strip, as aircrafts accelerate slowly at the beginning of run.

@ Super8: I just read it, good source.

The record for Mercedes W125:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/5-fastest-speeds-on-autobahn.htm#page=10

@ Super8: 1300 horsepower for Duesenberg and 1500 for Mercedes Benz?! No wonder they reached such speeds, those were amazing aircraft engines for their day, I'll bet the test drivers felt the same way Chuck Yager did when he broke the sound barrier for the first time. !8O

Those power numbers seem pretty high for pre WWII.

Cars back then were a lot smaller and could reach higher speed with less power. Auto Union managed to go as fast as the Veyron on 500 hp I think.

@mental
and after the war in 1947 railton mobile special did 634kph, not even the dagger GT (still not produced yet) of today gets close to that, it used two aircraft engines powering each set of wheels

if i had to pick one speedrecord car to drive it would have to be that one, tho bluebird (all versions) do get close

Amazing for 30-ties.

@Super8
1300 horses and 1500? Aircraft engines? Unbelievable... But they must be not legal for street use... People were shocked, guaranteed. Just recently from that point, only planes could achieve such speeds, and only several models!

@ Ferrari Driver and Shaggy: It has around 1300 Hp for Duesenberg and around 1500 Hp for Mercedes W125. You might can imagine what happen if you put 1000 Hp on light Mercedes W125. On Duesenberg first try, they blow up all 4 tyres. But they keep try it until reach 254 mph. I don't too much know about mercedes but i'll try to look for

@ Super8: Those cars must have been highly modified, and 268 MPH?!, that must have been the land speed record back in those days.

@Super8
268 mph in 1937!?
Is that true?!
How much power had the SJ which reached 250 mph?
That is really amazing!

@Shaggy : Duesenberg also a speed record car. SJ Mormon Meteor clocked over 250 mph on Bonneville Utah. The record later broke by Mercedes Benz in 1937 268 mph on Autobahn.

@ Super8: The Duesenberg Walker Coupe and SJ Mormon Meteor were phenominal for their day, they were capable of top speeds close to 150 MPH, which is fast even by today's standards.

@ Super8: And the 4 door convertible could do 117 MPH. I'm a fan of the Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs from the '30s, they were awesome cars, all were fast for their day.

But still, this one rival is 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Sportsman. The coupe version can reach 118 mph

The fastest car on that day was Duesenberg Walker Coupe and Duesenberg SJ Mormon Meteor. They were like Bugatti Veyron today.

114 MPH was fast for those days.