AVUS

The AVUS — Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße — functions today as the northern section of Autobahn A115 in southwestern Berlin, but its origins are far more unusual: opened in 1921 as one of the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuits, it hosted competitive events including Formula 1 races in the 1950s until motorsport use ceased in 1998. Its iconic steeply banked north curve, once a defining feat of engineering, was demolished in 1967 and survives only in photographs. Drivers on the A115 today travel an unremarkable urban motorway whose unusually straight alignment is the sole physical trace of its racing past.