January 2013 – On the 28th of January in 1938, Bernd Rosemeyer, one of the most famous race drivers in the 1930s, wanted to defend his world record with Auto Union against Mercedes-Benz driver Rudolf Caracciola. It was a cold day with slight wind gusts. Caracciola achieved an average of 432.692 km/h (268.43 mph). He warned Rosemeyer regarding the wind gusts.
But Rosemeyer wanted to beat Caracciola’s record and said that he just wanted to test his own limits. At the test run he achieved 429 km/h (266.57 mph) and wanted to go faster, being not even three km/h apart from his competitor’s new record.
Consequently he started at 11:46 AM, tragically he never came back. It was officially announced that Rosemeyer died at 11:48 AM after being hit by a wind gust.