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Thread: Spatz Victoria

  1. #1
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    Apr 2003
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    Spatz Victoria

    After the second world war many ways were tried in Germany to make people more mobile. Very few could afford the larger cars from Mercedes or even Opel and also the Volkswagen was not yet in the reach of everybody. Several constructors came up with micro cars that served a need, disappeared into oblivion but are now regaining a sort of cult status. Prices paid for a BMW Isetta, a Heinkel or a Messerschmidt are already well over their historic price and in this day and age the sanity of some of the concepts is once more proven.
    One of the lesser known of these cars is the Spatz. Originally designed in 1954 by Egon Bruetsch, from Stuttgart, it appeared as a three wheeler built from fiberglass, a totally new concept at that time. Bruetsch had no means to actually produce the car but his concept draw the attention from Harald Friedrich, who bought the prototype and the rights for 25,000 DM. In 1956 he created a factory in Traunreuth, Bavaria, which was proudly named BAW, or Bayerische Auto Werke.
    Before production could really start, the car needed a ground-over redesign. Nobody less than Hans Ledwinka, of Tatra fame and also involved in the design of the Beetle, provided a totally new chassis, now with four wheels and a mid-engine lay-out. The chassis was constructed as a central tube, to which the rear suspension components were attached, much in the way of the Lotus Elan. The front suspension used a separate subframe. The revised Bruetsch body, a (theoretically) three abreast roadster, could be easily attached. The engine choice was a 200 cc Messerschmidt/Fichtel and Sachs two stroke, which produced just over 10 bhp. This gave the Spatz a topspeed of 75 kph.
    Production started in 1956, but due to its high price and relatively modest performance it was not much of a success. At the time the distribution and sales of the car were handled through the Victoria motorcycle factory in Nuernberg, and in this way Friedrich managed to produce 859 cars. In an effort to revive business, at the end of 1956 Victoria bought the overall rights for the car from Friedrich and made some adaptations, aimed it reviving sales. First a 250cc 14 BHP engine was specially designed for the car, and it was combined with another novelty, a pre-selector electric 5 speed gearbox. It operated via 3 buttons on the dash (reverse/neutral/first) and the remaining forward gears could be selected by a lever at the wheel. The car was now able to achieve 97 kph. It all came too late to really turn the car into a success and after 729 units, production of the 250 came to a standstill in early 1958 after 7 months only. Nevertheless the car stands out as the first German fiberglass production car. Because of this it was sometimes called the “1/8 Corvette”, or a plastic Corvette with 7 cylinders less.

    Shown here is one of the very few surviving Victoria NSR versions, which was for sale at the Essen Motorshow in late 2007.
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  2. #2
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    Apr 2003
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    It's interesting to notice how much technology was sometimes put into this little cars, proving that they should be taken seriously.
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