Speyer and Sinshiem Museum - German & European Cars

Here is a selection of German and European classic cars on display in the Speyer and Sinshiem Technology museums. I've thrown in a few links here and there too.

Porsche 356 roadster

1950s Porsche 356

Volkswagen Karman Ghia https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2015/08/history-of-karmann-ghia.html

1956-59 BMW 503 Coupe

1929 BMW with racing body by Ihle. BMW started life as an aircraft engine manufacturer, but after Germany was blocked from building aircraft under the Versailles Treaty of 1919, the company needed to diversify. This led to its development of motorcycles in the early 1920s and in 1928, they bought out the ailing Dixi company. Dixi built British Austin 7's under license. BMW transformed the Dixi 7 into a sportster. This early model is a Dixi 7 with a racing body by the karosseriewerke, Ihle. It's at this period that the famous kidney radiator grill makes its appearance.

1939 Horch 830 BL cabriolet.

Horch 930. The peak of luxury for the late 1930s.

Wanderer W24, another of the Auto-Union stable. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/06/1937-wanderer-w24.html

1938 Rosengart LR 4N2

Tempo Hanseat 3-wheeled truck http://tempohanseat.blogspot.com/

1937-39 Opel Admiral

A Borgward Isabella (1954-1961). A beautiful car designed and styled by Carl Borgward to compete with the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia.

NSU Prinz 1000 - late 60s

The iconic Mercedes Benz 300SL Gull Wing

1960 Mercedes Benz 190SL

1953 Mercedes Benz type 220 cabriolet A

1934 Mercedes Benz 130. Mercedes-Benz' somewhat unsuccessful experiment with rear engines. The car wasn't terrible, but its handling was initially poor until the bugs of rear end sway could be resolved. The fact that they were poorly regarded cars is one of the reasons so many survived the war years as they were not commandeered for military use. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1934-mercedes-benz-130.html

Mercedes Benz 540 kompressor https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2024/06/mercedes-benz-540k.html

And more...

Mercedes Benz G3 six wheeler. This is one of only two surviving Nazi general staff cars in existence. Three other G3 variants came up for sale in late 2009. Here is a link.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/29/three-mercedes-benz-hitler-cars-on-sale-for-9-million-w-video/

Mercedes Benz G3 side view

A 1930 Maybach Zeppelin. Maybach originally built engines for the Zeppelin company. The Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from building either airships or aircraft so in 1921 Maybach decided to build cars. In an age of big saloon cars, the Maybach Zeppelin with its enormous straight 12 engine was positively huge and you needed a truck license to drive one. Maybach managed to stay in business until the Nazis rearmament program diverted them back into engine production. They ceased manufacturing cars in 1940.

More Maybachs

More Maybachs

Daimler-Chrysler resurrected the Maybach brand in 1997 and in 2009 launched this new Maybach Zeppelin DS8, one of the worlds most expensive modern production cars. If you want more details, check out this link: http://www.gizmag.com/new-maybach-zeppelin/11098/

A royal limousine

Bugatti. The king of automobiles

A magnificent Bugatti roadster

A row of Bugatti racers

Jaguar SS

A Rolls Royce, formerly in the possession of some Indian Rajah

Very customized coachwork on this Rolls Royce. In fact, Rolls Royce never built bodies for their Silver Ghost, only the engine and chassis. The buyer was responsible for their own coachwork.

1923 Bentley "Red Label" and a German Hercules motorcycle

A British Morgan Plus-3 roadster.

An extraordinary 'one track car' - the Mauser Einspurauto

Amphicar - the name says it all - an amphibious car. http://www.amphicars.com/acfaq.htm

Project Brutus. This is not so much a real car as a real monster:

• 1907 American La France chassis
• 1925 BMW pre-WWII seaplane engine Type VI, series 8 (used in the Heinkel He-9 and Dornier Wal flying boat) - 12 cylinders 47 litre
• 3.82 litres per cylinder
• 550 PS at 1,530 rpm
• 750 PS at 1,700 rpm
• red line at 2,000 rpm
• 3-gear manual
• Wheel-spin at 140 km/h in 3rd gear
• Average fuel consumption 100 litres per 100 kilometers

Here is a video:


Here is another link to more photos:
Speyer aircraft and military: https://militarymuseum.blogspot.com/2020/05/speyer-technical-museum-germany.html 
Sinsheim aviation and military: https://militarymuseum.blogspot.com/2020/05/sinsheim-technical-museum-germany.html
Motorcycles: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/08/auto-technik-museums-at-sinshiem-speyer.html
Microcars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/08/sinshiem-micro-car-collection.html
European cars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/speyer-and-sinshiem-auto-collection.html
American cars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/sinshiem-auto-collection-american-cars.html


http://www.bjorns-story.se/private/Sinsheimhtm/Sinsmain_eng_1.htm

Technik Museums of Sinshiem and Speyer

The industrial towns of Sinshiem and Speyer in Germany are home to two extremely impressive auto and technical museums. The collections include numerous cars, motorbikes, scooters, trains, aircraft, ships, submarines, a space shuttle, military hardware and even a chainsaw collection. Housed in vast hangers, with giant aircraft suspended overhead, they are truly amazing. Even though Shelly was initially a little dubious, we spent a several hours at both museums and it was quite overwhelming.

Of the two museums, I felt Sinshiem was the better. The collection was better presented and the auto section was much larger. Both cities are about two hours drive south east of Frankfurt. For more details, check their website: https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/

This set of photographs primarily covers the scooter and microcar collections at both museums in 2008, when we visited. There is simply so much on display that the other collections will be have to be posted separately.

The Scooter Collection

A Heinkel Perle moped

The beautiful Zundapp Bella

Another Bella with a Stieb sidecar

Lambretta TV

NSU Prima V. NSU became the licensed manufacturer of Lambrettas in Germany but found the Lambretta 'insufficiently well engineered' to suit German tastes. Once the license had expired they developed their own series of much more advanced scooters.

The Heinkel collection at Speyer. Having been banned from aircraft manufacturing after the war, Heinkel turned to scooters and microcars. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/01/heinkel-scooter-story.html

More scooters in the microcar display - Zundapp Bellas, Adler Junior, and a Goggomobile

Vespa fender-light https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/10/piaggio-museum-pontedera.html

IWL Berlin and a Vespa 125 https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2019/09/east-german-iwl-scooters.html

Adler Junior

Cheating a bit - this is actually from Brussels Auto Museum - A Goggo

A prototype Piaggio 3-wheeler. The MP3 has come a long way

German microcar royalty - Messerschmitt and Heinkel

NSU-Fiat 600. NSU began building Fiat cars under license again after the Second World War under the name of NSU-Fiat. The NSU-Fiat plant at Neckarsulm was split off from NSU so that the company could focus on motorcycles. However, by the late 1950s, NSU had begun designing their own car, the NSU Prinz. The two companies then became rivals in the small car market. To avoid confusion, NSU-Fiat changed their name to Neckar.
Hanomag were a truck, tractor and steam engine company but in 1924 introduced the Hanomag Kommissbrot budget car. This little two-seat budget car is important for reintroducing rear-engine mounting for cars, inspiring a raft of engineers in the 1930s.

The iconic BMW Isetta. This small, egg-shaped microcar was designed by the Italian refrigerator and scooter company, ISO. BMW was in a desperate financial state in the 1950s and purchased a license to build the Isetta in Germany. It proved to be the salvation of the company. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2023/01/bmw-isetta-saviour-of-company.html

A line up of 1964/65 Goggomobile Coupes

NSU Prinz Spyder

Nothing says "bubble car" like an Isetta

Except maybe a Heinkel...

A 1957 Goggomobile T-250 sedan

1955 Kleinschnittger F-125 https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2024/07/kleinschnittger-f250.html

Zundapp Janus

The ultra cool Messerschmitt https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2023/05/fmr-messerschmitt-mokuli-delivery.html

The Mercedes-Benz 170 H was Mercedes' attempt to develop a "volkswagen" during the late 1930s. The first model with a rear-engine was the 130 of 1934, but the placement of a four-cylinder water-cooled engine the rear gave it poor handling. In 1936 the much improved 170 H was introduced with double acting shock absorbers on the rear. Handling was still tricky for the unwary and the car was never the success they hoped it would be. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1936-mercedes-benz-170-h.html

The east and west German "volkswagens" - Trabant and Beetle.
The Volkswagen Saga: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2012/03/volkswagen-world-beating-peoples-car.html
The Trabant: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/trabant-east-german-peoples-car.html

More photos from our visit to Speyer and Sinsheim
Speyer aircraft and military: https://militarymuseum.blogspot.com/2020/05/speyer-technical-museum-germany.html  
Sinsheim aviation and military: https://militarymuseum.blogspot.com/2020/05/sinsheim-technical-museum-germany.html
Motorcycles: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/08/auto-technik-museums-at-sinshiem-speyer.html
Microcars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/08/sinshiem-micro-car-collection.html
European cars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/speyer-and-sinshiem-auto-collection.html
American cars: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2009/12/sinshiem-auto-collection-american-cars.html