This is the first installment of a series of posts on attempts at Danish car production after the Second World War. First up is the 1950 Sommer S1.
After the Second World War, a Dane named Erik Sommer, who made and supplied various parts for primarily trucks in Denmark, saw how the car industry was booming in England and France. In both nations nearly all cars on the roads were domestic due to a high import tax on virtually all goods, but a low sales tax. In Denmark there was a high sales tax but a low import tax. Sommer assumed this would be changed to a setup like in the aforementioned nations. That would be an obvious way to get Danish production and economy going again as it would provide Danish manufacturers with an advantage over imported goods.
If that came to fruition, there would be a big market for Danish cars and with his business already prepared to build at least a pre-production series, as well as experience from running Ford dealerships, Sommer felt he would be capable of meeting that demand.
The car he set out to build would have a Jowett-Bradford drivetrain – more specifically a two-cylinder boxer engine of one liter producing 25 horsepower. In addition to the drivetrain, only the wheels would be imported. The rest would be Danish made. The goal was for the car to be a Danish “people’s car” priced just above the VW Type 1. The car’s body was built with wood framing with the body panels attached to it, like in the pre-war days. Particularly the front end design was amended several times. The car was to be presented at the International Motor Show in Copenhagen in 1950, but the night before the doors opened, it dawned on Sommer that the front looked like a carbon copy of an Armstrong-Siddeley. His team of engineers and fabricators worked through the night to try and fix it, but only managed to do so superficially. Afterwards the look was redesigned to the look it has in these photos.
This car is, according to some, the only one ever built, I have read some say a couple more prototypes were built, but I am not sure that is the case. In any event the car in these photos covered more than 100,000 miles in the fifties and did so admirably, but the Danish import tax system was not changed at that time, so the market never materialized.
The S1 is considered the most serious attempt at building a Danish car in the post-war era.
The car in the photos actually belongs to The Technical Museum of Elsinore to which Erik’s son, Ole, donated it before he ever had plans to start his own museum. They have lent it to Ole Sommer indefinitely. The car looks very well made for a first try. The paint is very worn and so is the vinyl top, but it looks solid and in useable condition even after 65 years.
The photos are taken at Erik Sommer’s son, Ole’s, museum north of Copenhagen. It is called Sommer’s Automobile Museum and is well worth a visit. We will hear more of Ole Sommer in the next installment of this series.
First time I’ve noticed, about Danish native motor industries, tusen takk 😉 , Mr Jensen.
It may have had an Armstrong-Siddeley looking face, but the rest of the car strongly resembles a DKW to the point I’m surprised it’s not explicitly a DKW copy.
That’s an interesting car and an interesting “what if.” Government policies always play such a big role in determining whether or not a certain business or type of business ends up being successful. The idea of a Danish automotive industry isn’t all that far fetched. After all, Sweden gave us Volvo and SAAB, and one of those is still in business. I look forward to the next installment!
Fascinating. Never knew it existed.
Bradford ‘power’ that explains the over tall bonnet styling Bradfords still used thermo syphon cooling, that engine harked back to the 1920s and beyond, being almost unaltered since then, when fitted to Jowetts commercial offering which though easy to fix, fairly reliable and economical are painfully slow even unladen, Putting a sedan body around that powertrain wouldnt improve the performance, ok around town I guess but highway, forget it. THat yellow dropside ute could actually be a Bradford or a Ford ten hard to tell from the clues.
The 1486cc flat four from the Jowett Javelin would have been more befitting the car’s size.
Jowett were building Javelins and Jupiters as fast as they could I doubt they had any spare engines and this predates the Javelin 4
I see your point about Jowett not having engines to spare. The Javelin came out in 1947, so whether the Sommer predated it would depend on the Sommer’s lead time. But then Sommer was trying to build an inexpensive car, not a fast one.
Interesting car, a great “what if”. That front clip looks like it was inspired by a Cord 810.Not a bad thing.
Uhm…, I can see, trying really hard, the ‘Cord resemblance’….., and the rear view looks a bit like a 1947 or 48 Jaguar sedan. Both of these comparizons require lots of imagination…..
I was thinking the same thing–those ballooned out front fenders and squared (sort of) front clip and horizontal chrome grille along with those front wheels with the vents and dog dish caps. Even the front-opening doors are similar to the Cord. What wrecks the comparison are the headlights wedged in between the fenders and engine compartment–they look like an afterthought even though it has a very Euro flavor to it. As I was reading through the write-up, I was expecting to see “FWD” for the drivetrain.
Further down, I see we weren’t the only ones thinking “Cord 810/812”
The front end, in fact, strikes me as somewhat similar to the ZIS-150 truck, especially in this color. Which, of course, is in its own turn quite similar to some International truck from the same time frame.
The vinyl top is a nice touch in this case, by the way. A _functional_ vinyl top I mean, without any metal beneath it – just a wooden roof frame sheathed in vinyl, with some padding perhaps. And yes, wooden bodied cars always fascinated me, in just about any form.
Communism comrades had many mutual designs in many fields, and this truck lived on until the ’90s for commercial service.
That would be the International KB Series, Stanislav.
Fascinating. The grille design is a crazy way to look somewhat conventional, somewhat unconventional. It says, “This car was designed for an upright engine, but we changed our minds.”
“… and, we might change them back.”
You could take the badging off the picture with the oblique camera angle of the nose and run it as a Curbside Clue, and I would have guessed 1940 Ford/Mercury.
After reading this, I immediately went looking for my 45 year old copy of Georgano’s encyclopedia of automobile makes, but couldn’t find it. I imagine there’s a fuzzy photo of this car in it and a short entry. It’s great when an obscure one-off gets saved.
Good job, Mads.
Thanks for this. I hope you’re covering that white coupe in the second last pic – looks interesting.
Yes. It’s up next.
Reminds me of the norwegian attempt at making a two stroke glass fiber car, called the Troll. ..
Fascinating stuff, of which I knew absolutive nothing.
There are close between the UK and Denmark at many levels, and this was perhaps one of them. The Armstrong-Siddeley impression is most definitely there – I wondered about I when I saw the first photo.
The Jowett is another fascinating story that still needs to be told the CC way.
That front view looks like a Cord with different headlights or a Hupmobile Skylark.
Very interesting story, thanks Mads. It reminds me of the story of (Sir) Laurence Hartnett, who attempted to build his own car here in Australia at the same time, trouble was there were 5-6 or more other manufacturers/assemblers, local branches UK or US firms, in the country who weren’t setting up things from scratch so he was not successful.
Pretty neat .
-Nate