The Ardie Ganz
Throughout the decade most mainstream manufacturers were content
to stick to the formula of a combination of the System Panhard and
the evolution of the farm cart, the four cylinder water-cooled
side-valve engine and a transmission comprising stepped gears and
shafts to a live rear axle. Some engineers mostly in
mainland Europe were not content with this and strived to
improve the comfort drivability and safety of the small car.
They saw that an alternative to the formula mentioned above was
the only way forward and devised various different designs to
achieve their aims. An outspoken advocate of change was the German
motor journalist Joseph Ganz who published his ideas for a small
light Volkswagen preferable a streamlined saloon,in the journal
Motor Kritik, this began in the early nineteen twenties. It is
therefore not surprising that the great advances in ultralight
cars should take place in Germany and central Europe. He was
particularly inspired the rear engined Rumbler Troptenwagen, the
Tatra T11 and a very small German car the Hanomag 2/10 PS
Kommissbrot. The Kommissbrot was more of a microcar although it
would have been thought of as a cycle car at that time it was
practical vehicle and over fifteen thousand were produced. It was
a lightweight compact two-seat car with all round independent
suspension. The downside was that had a single cylinder engine and
chain final drive, it was the concept that was of interest. What
was needed were designs that would result in a lighter more
compact platform with an improved form of suspension. Ganz worked
with Ardie a German motorcycle manufacturer in 1930 to produce an
experimental two seat car with a backbone mid engines frame with
independent front suspension by a transverse leaf spring and lower
wishbone, chain final drive and swing axles. Then in1931 Ganz
worked with Adler a German car manufacturer to produce another
similar prototype. Neither car reached production but demonstrated
the concept; but led to other manufacturers. In 1929 Colonel Frank
Searle the managing director of the Rover Co Ltd of England
decided that the company needed a small car to widen its range. He
set Maurice Wilks and Robert Boyle, both to become key figures at
Rover, to design and produce a prototype of a small rear engined
car at his home Braunston Hall near Rugby in a similar way that
Herbert Austin had done with the Austin Seven earlier in the
decade.
Standard Superior
The outcome of their work the Rover 7 HP or Scarab was unlike any
previous Rover design with a Rover Patented
engine, transmission and rear suspension layout. The rear mounted
O.H.V fan-cooled 60 degree "V" twin engine was of 839 cc. The
ladder frame chassis was of advanced design with coil spring
sliding pillar front suspension and coil spring swing axles at the
rear with a pivoting support member giving zero roll stiffness.
The four-seat tourer body was a simple affair of wood framing clad
with steel sheet of compact dimensions, the car being designed
down to a price of £85. Unfortunately the engine proved to
be rough, noisy and prone to overheating. With the departure of
Colonel Frank Searle from Rover in 1931 the Scarab didn't go into
production as it was considered too radical and at the same time
too Spartan by the Rover management. As with the Austin and Morris
£100 cars available a few years later a certain level of
refinement was required to be
successful.
The first prototype of the Tatra Type V570 designed by Erich
Ledwinka, the son of Tatra's chief engineer Hans Ledwinka was
produced in 1931. Although this prototype had a body of
conventional form, the inspiration for the rear engined Tatra came
from the idea of taking full advantage of the streamlined forms
proposed by the aerodynamicist Paul Jarey. By locating the engine
in the long tail, a low hood or bonnet line could be achieved. It
had a platform chassis and the air-cooled flat twin engine of
845cc; gearbox and final drive was located at its rear. Tatra
produced a second Type V570 prototype in 1933, with an
aerodynamic body , the project was not continued as the Tatra
board decided that the streamlined rear engined concept was to be
reserved for limited production high cost cars.
In 1933 In Germany Standard Fahrzeugfabrik began manufacturing the
Standard Superior. The first of cars based on the designs of Josf
Ganz to go in production. It had 396cc horizontal parallel
twin two-stroke water-cooled engine located on the backbone
chassis just ahead of the rear swing axles which it drove. It cost
RM1590, or £78 at the 1935 exchange rate. At the motor show
in 1933 in Berlin Carl F. W. Borgward presented the new car
"Goliath Hansa 400". It was fitted with 2 cylinder ILO engine of
396 cc that produced 12 HP. In the end of 1933 it was joined by
the Hansa 500, which was equipped with a 2 cylinder ILO
engine of 494 cc that produced 14 HP. The maximum speed’s, were 40
and 44 mph respectively. In 1934 a convertible saloon was also
produced.
Volkswagen Prototype
The purchase prices lay according to version between 1650 and 1720
Reichsmark. Towards the end of 1933, Dr. Everhard Bungartz,
director of the newly established company Bungartz & Co.,
contacted Josef Ganz because he wanted to develop and build a
small car according to his patents. Technically the new Bungartz
Butz model was very similar to the Standard Superior, introduced
one year earlier. It featured a tubular chassis, a mid-mounted
engine, and independent wheel suspension with swing-axles at the
rear. The Bungartz Butz was available in two basic versions: the
Butz Cabrio-Limousine and the Butz Touren-Wagen. Both versions
were two-seaters. The Butz had a plywood body covered in
artificial leather and fitted with metal wings. Unfortunately,
only a few copies could be sold from the year 1933 to 1934.
None of the mid or rear engines models mentioned above
achieved more than limited production, the mid engine layout
occupied too much of the space available; but would find favour
with sports and racing cars in the future. There was one under one
litre rear engined cars that was developed and reached production,
the Porsche designed Volkswagen, with an engine of 995cc. Only a
few hundred cars with this engine were produced before the
requirement for military vehicles took precedence. From 1942 a
1131cc engine was substituted it being recognised that the car was
to heavy for the smaller engine, and the larger engine was
retained for car production that recommenced in 1949. It was not
until the next decade that the compact small capacity rear engined
car would come into it own.
An alternative to moving the engine to the rear of the car to
reduce the impact of the transmission was to move the transmission
to the front to join the engine, this was the approach taken
by DKW. The DKW FA was the first in a long line of DKW small cars
that would influence many other makers designs for the next
sixty years. The difference between the P15 mentioned in chapter
three and the FA of 1931 was the drive train, the FA having front
wheel drive. The FA 's transmission layout, was as common practice
at the time on front wheel drive cars, with the with final drive
at the front, with the gearbox behind with the engine located at
the rear.
DKW F5 Meisterklasse
The difference from other designs was the transverse
engine/gearbox installation. The 490cc engine produced a modest 15
bhp giving it a maximum speed of 47mph (75 kph). The suspension
was as innovative as the transmission being independent using twin
transverse leaf springs front and rear of the ladder type chassis.
The DKW front wheel drive series of cars were produced throughout
the nineteen thirties in a range of models with the names
Reichklasse, Meisterklasse and Meisterklasse Luxus in various
combinations. They began producing the F-2 Reichklasse, with
a fabric covered wooden body in 1932 . The engine as fitted to the
FA was now increased to 584 cc, producing 18bhp, and from 1933 the
engine had been redesigned to incorporate the idea's of Adolf
Schnrle to improve the porting. Approximately 17,000 were produced
by 1934. In 1934 They introduced a revised model the F 4.
The engine was now increased to 692cc, the spur gear primary
drive to the gearbox was replaced by a chain. The F 5
Meisterklasse with a 692cc engine and the F 5 Reichklasse with a
584cc engine, now with a dead rear axle, were produced between
1935 and 1936 with 60,000 produced. The F 7 with the same two
models was made from 1937 to 1938, with 80,00 produced. The final
model of the 1930s was the F 8 Reichklasse, with a 589cc engine
was made from 1939 to 1942 with 50,000 produced. In 1934 Jawa was
a Czech motorcycle manufacturer, that began car production
with the Jawa 700. It was similar in design if not bases on the
current DKW and was produced from 1934 to 1936. Jawa also made the
600 Minor , similar in design to the 700. Adler of Frankfurt on
Main, Germany, started by making bicycles in 1880, later
typewriters and commenced car production in 1900. The first of
their front wheel drive cars, the Trumpf, was designed by the
company technical director of the time, Rohr. This was in 1932. As
well as front wheel drive, the car had other advanced features,
The body was electrically welded to the box section chassis,
making it a near monocoque. All independent suspension using
torsion bars and rack and pinion steering. The layout of the power
train was similar to Tracta and Alvis cars, with the final drive
at the front, with the four-speed gearbox next and then the
engine. This resulted in a long bonnet, which fortunately was
still fashionable at the time. Tracta joints were used in the
outboard end of the transmission. The Trumpf-Junior, a smaller
version of the Trumpf, also designed by Rohr, with a 995 cc
engine,and was produced from 1934 using the same engine,
gearbox, final-drive layout as the Trumpf, in a chassis
independently sprung on all wheels, using torsion bars at the
rear, with rack and pinion steering.
Dixi 3-15ps
The rest of the specification was normal for the time, a
water-cooled inline four, side-valve engine and cable operated
Bendix drum brakes. Although fairly unconventional for its time,
the car was a success. Almost one hundred and three thousand
Trumpt-Juniors had been made by 1941 when all Adler car production
ceased. There was a third way forward to improve comfort and
drivability while retaining the front engine rear wheel drive
configuration. That was instead of having a flexible ladder frame
cart springs and beam axles; use a stiff backbone or unitary
chassis with independent suspension at both front and rear. BMW in
Germany and Steyr in Austria did that for their light
cars. BMW bought the Automobilwerk Eisenach in 1928, they had been
Dixi 3/15ps a licensed copy of the Austin Seven since 1927. In
1930 a version with a controversial form of independent front
suspension retaining the transverse leaf spring, was produced
until 1932.This was superseded by the 3/20 with a backbone chassis
and a 788cc over head valve, pressure lubricated engine that was
otherwise similar to the Austin engine and independent swing axle
rear suspension. A few thousand of these were produced. The
3/20 was a much heavier car than the 3/15ps, the former weighing
660 Kg and the latter 388 kg. From 1934 to 1936 BMW produced
another small engined car the 309, that had a twin tube chassis
frame, independent front suspension by wishbones and an
upper transverse leaf spring and a live rear axle with half
elliptic springs, a configuration that would prove very successful
for their later sports cars. It an 849 cc engine four cylinder
version of BMWs sixes, and six thousand were made. The Steyr 50
was in most respects a very advance design with unitary
chassis/body, all round independent suspension and
moderately streamlined shape; but the 978 cc horizontally opposed
water-cooled four cylinder engine had side-valves limiting the
power output and the performance. At £235 on the British market it
was expensive. With the onset of war in Europe in
1939, as the military had no use for economy cars production came
to a stop as factories all over the world were converted to arms
manufacturing, not to be resumed until well into the next decade.