





After World War II the Auto Union assets in Chemtitz were taken by East Germany. The Auto Union R&D department in Chemnitz was renamed as the facilities Entwicklungswerk Chemnitz and the engineers under the control of Soviet administration were busy with a development of world-class race car. The project was informally supervised and motivated by Vasiliy Stalin, son of Josef Stalin, and big sport enthusiast. The task was to convert the existing 2-liter cars for the small F2 regulations and an engine displacement limit of 1.5-liters. With this purpose, Soviet-German joint-stock company Awtowelo was created. As the result of this efforts, Sokol-650 (“Falcon”) car appeared in 1952. The car corresponds to international Formula 2 regulations, but, in fact, it was just a deep modification of the pre-war Auto-Union. The cars were sent to Soviet Union, but appeared in real races only once – in Championship of Moscow on June 30, 1952. Two Sokol-650 cars driven by Pavel Baranov, ex-motorcycle racer, and Vassily Kuznetsov, experienced professional driver, struggled with fuel and engine problems and retired – the extreme racing cars were too difficult to deal for Vassily Stalin’s technical staff. In September 1952 one of the Sokols, probably modified and now called Sokol-2000, was seen in record runs held at Minskoe Shosse (Minsk Highway) near Moscow. The car driven by Vassily Kuznetsov did not set the record time. Now one of the Solols-650 is exhibited in the Museum of Transpot in Dresden, Germany.
Season | Series | Event |
1952 | F2 | |
Driver | No. | Entrant |
Pavel Baranov / Vassily Kuznetsov | ||
Scale | Manufacturer | Collection |
1:43 | AutoCult | |
Cat. No. | Quality | Rarity |
07014 | ![]() | ![]() |