Classic Cars and Coffee - Sunday 7th May 2023

I took my DKW F94 to the meet and was interviewed by Marc, who is a regular attendee and video blogger. Check out his video below. My interview starts at 4.05.



There actually wasn't any rain to speak of on Sunday morning, most falling overnight and during the early morning. Nevertheless, rain scares away classic car drivers so the turn out was extremely small.

Mini rolling in. 

Renault 10

The dog admires an Audi R8

Reliant Scimitar

Ford trio line-up

Ford Thunderbird, Ford Consul Capri and Ford Cortina

Landrover Mark II

Put a tiger in your tank.

1949 Morgan Coupe

Citroen DS

Lamborghini

Nissan Be-1

The most interesting car of the day in my opinion - Commer van

Volkswagen Oval 

Good to see one that hasn't been messed about with.

Austin Seven - for sale if you're interested.

Renault Dauphine and Renault 10

Mercedes-Benz 190SL - see the video for the details.

Next Classic Car and Coffee is Sunday 4th June 2023

FAMO Sd.Kfz 9 in Post-war service

After Germany began rearming in 1933, the Wehrmacht recognized that it would need heavy haulers to tow large artillery pieces and act as tank recovery vehicles. Many companies built a variety half-tracked vehicles of various sizes, but the Sd.Kfz 9 20 ton heavy hauler built by FAMO (Fahrzeug- und Motorenbau GmbH) of Breslau, a truck and tractor manufacturer, was the largest built in Germany during the war. Although designed at a time when the largest German tank was the Panzer IV, it proved powerful enough to tow the Tiger and Panther heavy tanks. Around 2500 thousand were built during the course of the war, including a number outsourced to the Tatrawerkes in Czechoslovakia. FAMO were considered such an important military facility that entire factory was dismantled and evacuated south as the eastern front collapsed in 1945.

A wartime article from the Ringhoffer-Tatrawerkes on the production of Sd.Kfz 9s.

The dismantled FAMO plant was abandoned in Leipzig at the end of the war, where it was recovered by the Soviet Occupation Forces. Some designs and machinery were shipped to the Soviet Union as reparations, but FAMOs tractor and engine lines were rebuilt in East Germany. The Sd.Kfz 9 did not continue in the post-war period, but those that did survive the war were too useful to simply be abandoned or scrapped and some went on to long service lives as heavy haulers and mobile cranes. Crane and hauler company R & H Heydemann of Duisburg acquired two Sd.Kfz 9s for their fleet, where they gave sterling service well into the 1960s.

Classic Cars and Coffee - Sunday 2nd April 2023

Sunday 2nd April was a perfect day for classic motoring.

Back in December 2021, I loaned my Tatraplan to the Motor Museum of WA for display in their collection. The car was with them for more than a year until I collected it from them at the end of March 2023, just in time for the April Classic Cars and Coffee. 

Arriving early-ish. Despite not having been run in over 12 months, I found that the car needed no special maintenance. The brakes were good, no loss of fluid, the gearbox oil was full, the engine oil was full, the petrol pump worked - it did have a leaky seal, which I fixed before driving her - and the car started up easily. It was nice to take her out on a good drive.

I was lucky enough to get a spot where I could reverse park. The Tatra does NOT have good vision to the rear.

Skoda 100RS

Here's a real interesting car - an Auburn Speedster model 851, no less. Actually it's a replica, but a damned good looking one.

Lancia

The Kubelwagen arrives

A fine pair of Porsche 356s

I am really not sure what this is supposed to be.

Fiat 500

I think a Lincoln?

Buick

Oldsmobile

A nice old BMW

Austin Seven

MG TC

Another fine pair - Holden EKs (or is it FCs?)

Jensen SS

The little Skoda

The iconic Jaguar E-Type

The Jensen heads off

1964 Skoda Octavia

Kubelwagen and Mini Moke photographed by DJ Ferraz

A stunning Jaguar XK120 hard-top

It's not easy being green....

The next Classic Cars and Coffee is on 7 May 2023.

1934 Bungartz Butz

Bungartz and Co of Munich was established on 1 April 1934 to build agricultural machinery. To put the company on the map, they planned to exploit the popular clamour for a 'people's car' or 'volkswagen' by showcasing a small car at the Berlin Motor Show. Not being an actual automobile company, they simply purchased a design license from Josef Ganz, the engineer responsible for the 1933 Standard Superior. The Standard Superior Mark I had not proven to be a success so Standard had redesigned the body to make the tiny vehicle larger and improve some of its technical features. Ganz was engaged to make further improvements to the Bungartz design, adding a fan to the cooling system and calling it 'turbo-ventilation'. In terms of body styling, the Butz was a replica of the original 1932 Standard Superior prototype with slab sides and sharp edges, which made it cheaper to construct. One notable cost saving measure was the decision to ofter the car as a cabriolet, something that 'Das Motorrad' magazine had suggested to Standard in their original review of the Superior in 1933.
https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2022/08/1933-standard-superior-road-test-das.html

In preparation for the 1934 Berlin Motor Show, Motor-Kritik reviewed all the new vehicles that would be showcased, including the Butz.

English translation:

"On the same line, just a shade more robust, is a vehicle that a newly founded company, Bungartz and Co. in Munich, wants to put into production and will be showing at the exhibition for the first time. The chassis comes from Dipl.Ing. Ganz and shows the combination [of features] known to the readers of this magazine from many discussions - central tube frame, independent wheel suspension through transverse spring parallelograms, rack and pinion steering, transverse mounted rear drive engine, with differential-free, narrow-gauge spring-loaded swing axle, transverse swinging axles, hermetically sealed front end and remote-control rear ventilation. The car is fitted with the original Ganz drive block and will be shown at the Berlin Motor Show with a 400cc two-stroke engine, whose water cooling is intensified by turbo ventilation. The three forward gears all have the same degree of efficiency, and all the parallel shafts of the transmission are mounted in an undivided cast block, which makes any adjustment work superfluous.

The multi-disc clutch can be adjusted from the outside and is compressed by just a single coil spring. At the same time, it forms the vibration isolator between the engine and the floor. All of this results in a remarkable threat-free running of the entire drive axle. The Bungartz company, which is backed by well-funded and reputable circles previously unfamiliar with the industry, intends to include this cheap yet high-quality Volkswagen in its program, as well as the high-performance type that is already being shown at the exhibition, which has all the most important characteristics that this type will also have."

Cabriolet or no-cabriolet, the Bungartz Butz did not find a market only a handful of these little cars were ever made. A roadster sports model was proposed, but this was probably just a fantasy of the marketing department. Interestingly, the Motor-Kritik review mentions that Bungartz also presented a full-sized car at the Berlin Motor Show, but I have never seen any details or photos. Bungartz abandoned car manufacture later in 1934, going on to specialise in trailers and walk-behind rotary plows, which they continued to build right into the 1960s.




1957 Bungartz rotary tiller prospect.

Standard Superior: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2015/07/standard-superior.html