We’ve had a number of folks send us photos of unidentified mystery cars over the years, and we’ve managed to solve them all. But then my younger brother Franz sent me this photo, which he and his wife found while going through her old family photos on a visit to Berlin. Wow! What a cool car. So low and aerodynamic. And look how the top of the steering wheel almost touches the roof!
But what is it? I sent this to our two resident super-sleuths, Eric703 and George Ferencz, to see if they could find an image match. Nada. But maybe the answer is mostly self-evident?
It was quite obvious to me from the first time I looked at it that this is a one-off car on a modified chassis, and not a production car. This was of course not uncommon back then, as that’s what coach builders did, and there were quite a number of them. They could translate anyone’s dream, sketch or nightmare into the real thing. And in the second half of the 1930s, aerodynamic cars were of course the hot thing.
One can readily imagine a relatively well-heeled man like this one being enthralled by the many new aerodynamic racing and production cars and envisioning his own. This is the result, and a fairly impressive one. Did he sketch it himself? That we’ll likely never know. But it is a one-off, and its license plate is from the Berlin area, in the prewar era.
The only thing we can try to pin down is the chassis it’s sitting on. And I’m going to take a guess:
A Wanderer W25K roadster. It was the hubcaps on the wire wheels that first led me there. But its apparent size and general dimensions seem to make it a likely fit.
Roughly measuring the height of the top of the steering wheel in the Wanderer and comparing it to the height over the tops of the wheels in a very low-slung mystery car, the two seem to correlate. And the wheelbase looks to be about the same too.
Ferdinand Porsche was hired to improve the output of Wanderer’s 2 liter inline six, which he did with supercharging and other modifications, resulting in 70hp. This turned the W25K into a very respectable sporting car. In 1938 Auto Union entered the Liege-Rome-Liege rally with three special aluminum-bodied roadsters, and in 1939 Auto Union succeeded in winning the team prize for factory entries. Sadly the original cars were lost, so Audi Tradition commissioned these replicas built on the original chassis.
There’s one slight hitch to my guess as to the chassis: the mystery car’s front wheel track is decidedly narrower than its rear track, in order to allow for some semblance of turning action within its envelope bodywork. But then it wouldn’t be all that difficult to narrow the track of the independent front suspension as it sat ahead of the engine.
But note how the steering wheel in both of them seems to be in about the same relative position.
Obviously my guess could be wrong, and I’d be very happy to be proven so.
I’ve occasionally wondered why “Audi” was chosen over “Wanderer” for revival on the 1960s 4-stroke rebranding of the postwar DKW. The nearest I can think of is the double -er sounds like onomatopoeia for a worn-out wheel bearing.
‘Audi’ is ‘Horch’ in Latin. Horch was one of the car brands consolidated into Auto Union, renamed Audi. Horch and Audi mean ‘listen’ in their parent languages.
BTW- Audi is not a shortened form of Auto Union.
Auto Union was formed by 4 brands: DKW, Wanderer, Horch and Audi. Both Audi and Horch were originally established by August Horch. Horch means “hear” in German and Audi is “hear in Latin.
“Wanderer” in German is the same as “rover” in English – a person who spends his / her time wandering.
In fact, the company name “Wanderer” was derived from the English “Rover”, which is how the company founders Winklhofer and Jaenicke referred to the bicycle brand of the Englishman John Kemp Starley.
Wanderer was a manufacturer of bicycles at that time. They continued producing bicycles even after having left its car production to “Auto Union”.
Wanderer bicycle production in 1913 (image by Wilhelm Wendlandt, 1859 – 1937):
The Wanderer trademark was still owned by a separate entity, and after the Auto Union was dissolved following the war, they kept that trademark, even though they did not produce any cars or motorcycles. The postwar Auto Union was DKW, Audi, and Horch. Only DKW was active, but after Daimler sold the operation to VW, they kept the Horch trademark. Audi did eventually buy back the Horch name in the 80s or 90s. There is some info on this on the Wanderer wikipedia entry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_(company)
Paul: Here’s a hint/guess: coachbuilt by Rometsch
1. Rometsch coachbuilders was in Berlin
2. Style of the odd hooded shape of fenders reminds me of the rear fenders of the 1940 Mercedes W142 320 cabriolet that was uncovered in Michigan and made driveable (but not restored) by a guy in southern California recently.
The dude leaning on the car looks pretty cool too!
The roadsters have a notch in the rocker panel for something – perhaps a jacking point, possibly a side exhaust (unlikely) – below the A pillar. The mystery car has the same detail, though the bodywork notch is radiused rather than squared off. Good sleuthing, Paul! The car is interesting but the proud owner’s sartorial style really makes the picture.
Another guess is Spohn, who was active in the late ’40s and 50s. Spohn built several horrible replicas of Earl’s kissy-face LeSabre, on various chassis. This car feels LeSabrish enough to fit the Spohn taste.
This is clearly from a decade earlier, both in terms of its style as well as the pre-war license plate. I don’t see anything LeSaberish on this car.
Hope he has AAA to change a flat tire.
If my eyes serve right, this car got an IE-registration. A hint the car was located in the province of Brandenburg (Prussia), which is a territory west of Berlin, outside the city’s precincts.
1936 DKW Meisterklasse GM Spezial
(pretty much stock)
Thanks. That shows very clearly the style that this car was going for. It was a specific style of the main body and rear end that was very Tatra-esque, and also seen on a number of “specials” and such at the time.
I discounted it being on a Audi Front or DKW chassis because it would have been next to impossible to narrow the front track.
Front-wheel covers only George Mason could dream about.
Pretty neat no matter what it is .
I hope eventually someone will know .
-Nate