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Having started by racing motorbikes, the blond young man became a member of theAuto Union racing team with hardly any experience in normal race cars, which might have been a benefit at that time. The rear engined Silver Arrows of Auto Union were hard to drive, and only he and Italian Legend Tazio Nuvolari truly mastered these 500hp beasts.
Several sensational Grand Prix victories in 1936 and 1937 (also in the Vanderbilt race in the USA) made him popular not only in Germany. His marriage to young flying ace Elly Beinhorn added even more celebrity hype.
Sadly, in an attempt to beat the previously set speed record of over 430 km/h, he died on the Autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, in early 1938. Nowadays, there is a monument near a rest area, roughly were his car left the road due to wind gusts.