At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed Audi Tradition presented two cars from different eras that represent the very best of their respective times. On the one hand, the brand’s most powerful production model ever – the Audi RS e-tron GT performance – and on the other, a vehicle that would have represented the pinnacle of design and engineering when it was conceived in the 1930s but never went into series production – the Auto Union Type 52, or Schnellsportwagen.

The origins of the RS e-tron GT performance are well known, taking the already potent RS e-tron GT – the brand’s first all-electric RS model – and giving it even greater performance in the performance model.

The history of the Audi Union Type 52 is certainly not as well known, indeed few would even have been aware of the vehicle’s existence before its debut at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Originally commissioned back in the early 1930s, it was intended as a grand tourer and for competition in events like the Mille Miglia or in sports car competitions such as the endurance races at Spa-Francorchamps or even Le Mans.

The Ferdinand Porsche design office was commissioned to come up with a design, but while the first sketches appeared as early as 1933, no test car was ever built. Until now. Using surviving archive documents, plans and design sketches, Audi commissioned Crosthwaite & Gardner to build the Auto Union Type 52 as a one off, a project that has taken years to complete with custom components to produce the car that was debuted at Goodwood by Audi legends Tom Kristensen (Mr Le Mans), and fellow racing legend, Hans-Joachim Stuck.

This one-of-a-kind vehicle follows the original plans as closely as possible, although its massive supercharged six-litre, 16-cylinder mid-mounted engine has a greater displacement than was originally planned and its output of 382kW is more than double the planned 147kW. But this is more than enough to make up for the slight weight gain to 1450kg – a shade over the planned 1300kg original.

Even 90 years after it was conceived and now a living breathing vehicle, its aerodynamic design is striking and harks back to a golden age of Grand Prix racing, while its many innovations and performance would have been well ahead of their time had the car become a reality in the 1930s.

Two very different cars from different eras that both perfectly embody the idea of Vorsprung durch Technik.