Motor und Sport Magazine - Germany 1951

By 1950 Germany's economy really began to recover after the devastation wrought by the Second World War. The automobile industry was now in a position to produce quality vehicles, both luxury and budget vehicles. In early 1951 Auto Motor und Sport magazine presented their readers with an overview of new cars to be presented at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt in May.

DKW started production almost immediately after the War building motorcycles from stocks of spares scattered across a number of service stations and repair shops in West Germany. Real production didn't really begin until 1948. In 1949 DKW released the F89L Schnellaster van. The F89 Meisterklasse sedan make its appearance until the following year.

The Parade of New Models

The new BMW 501 'baroque angel.' BMW's first Post-War car was a large, expensive family sedan powered by a V8 engine. The car was debuted at the Frankfurt show.

The Borgward-Hansa 1500 was released in 1949. Released originally under the Hansa brand, it was soon rebadged as a Borgward. Borgward was one of the first car companies to get back into production.

Some of the new small cars on the market.  From the top: the Champion 400, the Lloyd LP300 'leukoplast bomber', and the DKW F89 universal estate.

Truck and tractor manufacturer Hanomag presented their new sedan, powered by a 700cc three cylinder two-stroke engine. The car never made into production.

Mercedes-Benz type 220 and Porsche 356

Foreign Cars at Frankfurt

All across Europe export markets were opening up. The UK, France and the US attempted to break into the German market and displayed new models.

British cars -  Standard-Vanguard; Armstrong-Siddley; Ford Zephyr; and the Hillman Minx.

Continental cars - from top to bottom: France's Volkswagen, the Renault 4CV; Czech Tatraplan T600; Italian Fiat Topolino; French Panhard Dyna X,

American cars - of a whole different class of vehicle. The Buick Super 50 and a Studebaker.

The Czechoslovakian board of trade posted an advert for Skoda, Tatra, Jawa and CZ.

The new DKW F89 Meisterklasse




NSU - the Fastest Motorcycle in the World




A special feature on the NSU world record motorcycle speed attempt.

A Table of German Car Specifications

German Car Day 2014

Saturday 20th September 2014 was a glorious, sunny day but the Bureau of Meteorology forecast 90% chance of thunderstorms and rain for Sunday.  Such a dramatic change in the weather didn't really seem possible.

About 70 cars showed up at the start in East Perth. Most were modern of course as German Car Day is more of a modern car event.  There were a couple of nice old Mercedes-Benz 220s thought including a very nice two door coupe.





The DKW stood out a little amongst the moderns.

NSU's revolutionary (revolutionary! Get it?) rotary engined Ro80.

Setting off time.  At this point the sky was still blue and it seemed like it was going to be a good day for a car show.

But....  as the cars set off the first drizzle of rain began to fall...

The Bureau of Meteorology updated their forecast to 100% chance of thunderstorms and issued a road weather alert.  Things were getting serious.



Halfway to the rendezvous in Rockingham I pulled over at a gas station to check my tyre pressure.  It felt like the left wheel was a little unbalanced.  Three vintage cars and about 30 motorcyclists were sheltering at the station.  It was not turning out to be such a great day.

The SIVA contingent at Rockingham Park.  The weather was truly atrocious by this point but still about 100 cars attended. The rain however never let up and people began to drift away very quickly.  Still, it was great people made the effort to attend as all the money goes to charity.  http://www.motorindustryfoundation.com.au/

Lloyd, DKW and NSU (photographed from the tent)

Time to put the Lloyd away