Further to my previous post on the Auto Union D-Type, I see that Christie’s are now saying that they expect the D-Type to fetch in the region of $12,000,000. There is an inaccuracy in CNNMoney’s article on the car that I ought to correct, however.

It is not quite true to say that Auto Union are now known as Audi. Auto Union were exactly what their name states, an amalgamation of several German manufacturers, one of which was known as Audi. In the sixties, Auto Union was absorbed into Volkswagen but was allowed to disappear, apparently forever.

In the seventies, when VW decided that they needed a new marque to make luxury cars and to dissociate it from the company’s “beetle” image, someone obviously remembered that they held the rights to the Audi name and it was duly resurrected. It can hardly be said that Audis are the descendant of the D-Type, therefore - only the Audi name survived.

But I don’t suppose VAG will mind at all if their cars are associated in some way with the D-Type - it was a glorious beast, after all. Just take a look at this…

Fox News has a story about a Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake being sold at auction for $5.5 million. Although not a world record, this is the highest ever paid for an American car.

And when you see the spec for this car, it becomes clear why it sold for so much. Made in 1966, the Super Snake added twin superchargers to the 427 Ford V8 - that gave it a 0-60mph time of around 3 seconds, unimagineable acceleration at the time.

Now that’s what I call hairy…