Tiny Teutonic Tuesday: Pinguin

"Jonee" (Jonee) 02/03/2015 at 14:46 • Filed to: Pinguin, microcars

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That's the Pinguin, a three-wheeled postwar German microcar that was one of several that used the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as inspiration. It was built by an agricultural machinery company and was pretty forward thinking for its day. It was designed by Kurt Volkharth who had worked on the Opel Rocket Car back in the 20's. The aluminum streamlined body was wind tunnel tested and had a drag coefficient of 0.403 which sounds pretty good to me. It also had independent front suspension and many accoutrements other micros lacked like dual, motorized windshield wipers, indicators on the fenders, and an ashtray. But, the chassis was made of matchsticks which called for a complete redesign just as the car was set to debut. Pinguin hired Norbert Stevenson of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fame to pen a new chassis which apparently worked great and the light, little car was said to handle better than anything its size. It was powered by the same Sachs 200cc two-stroke that gave the Messerschmitt its go and it was said it would run at 50 mph all day with little effort. Unfortunately, Pinguin had already sunk an unrecoverable amount of money into the car and only 12 were ever built between 1953 and 54 before they went under. None of them survive today.

MultiplaOrgasms > Jonee 02/03/2015 at 14:48

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Dat ass

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Jonee 02/03/2015 at 15:16

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It's like the 356's deformed little brother that no one wants to talk about.

Klaus Schmoll > Jonee 02/03/2015 at 15:19

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Cool find! Never heard of these.

Jobjoris > Jonee 02/03/2015 at 17:12

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Forget about that Frisky Sprint: I've got a new favorite microcar! Amazing, this one. Sparsam, Schnittig, SCHNELL! No interior-shots somewhere?

Jonee > Jobjoris 02/03/2015 at 17:36

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No, I couldn't find any interior shots, but I'm sure it was pretty basic. Except for the ashtray.

I found this:

Jobjoris > Jonee 02/03/2015 at 17:43

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I especially liked the 2nd shot in your article, the aerodynamic tests. At least: that's what I think they were doing.

Jonee > Jobjoris 02/03/2015 at 18:01

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That is what they were doing. They really put a lot of work into it and spent a ton of money. It's too bad it never really got off the ground. Maybe I'll tell the long version of the story one day. I have a good German article about it that's pretty interesting. They really thought it was going to be bigger than the Beetle.

Jobjoris > Jonee 02/04/2015 at 08:55

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Please do tell/write-up it's long version, it sounds pretty amazing. And it should have seen at least productionnumbers as big as about 10% of the Beetle in those days! But I think I can guess: They probably were not that cheap when comparing it to the Beetle...

Jonee > Jobjoris 02/04/2015 at 15:15

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It cost 3300 DM. What did the Beetle cost in 1954? I think the biggest issue was that they ran out of money and couldn't find any new investors. The fact that they were bankrupt couldn't have been very appealing.

Jobjoris > Jonee 02/04/2015 at 16:35

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It was somewhat, though not shockingly, more expensive, 4150DM. With 25hp!

But god, this was good.

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > Jonee 02/08/2015 at 19:27

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Please do the long story, if you can. This is cool. When I first saw the photo I could see the Porsche influence.

Jonee > Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast 02/08/2015 at 20:14

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I have it in the pipeline. It's pretty interesting how influential that Porsche design was at the time.

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > Jonee 02/08/2015 at 23:18

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Awesome! I'll be waiting at the outlet......of the pipeline.