The road race was going to speed along Germany’s new Autobahn, into the Austrian Alps and on to Rome, through the new heart of fascist Europe.

To maximize the propaganda value of the affair — in part marking the Nazis’ 1938 alliance with Italy and the absorption of Austria — the German entry in the 1,500-kilometer race would be based on the KdF-Wagen, Hitler’s new people’s car.

With its Nazi origins largely forgotten, that car became famous after the war as the cuddly Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle and the Berlin-to-Rome racer — known as the Type 64 — shared the same prolific designer, Ferdinand Porsche.

The 1939 race that the car was designed for was never held. The start of World War II got in the way.