PDA

View Full Version : Maybach streamlined cars in the 30s



TIM
10-16-2004, 09:46 AM
I found this article in the net. What do you thinkk about these early attempts in streamlining? The first car, a prototype from 1932, wasn't offered for sale, but it was built 4 years earlier than the Voisin C28 Aerosport. Very early pontoon-shape, no fenders but still a radiator of the old style.
Sorry the article is in German.
The Jaray-type body was built in a limited number.

http://www.maybach.de/stromlinie.htm

compare the 1932 Maybach-Zeppelin DS 8 Streamlined Car and the 1937 Voisin C28:
http://www.maybach.de/images/194.jpg
http://www.allsportauto.com/photoautre5/voisin/c28/1936_avion_voisin_C28_aerosport_01_m.jpg (front)

http://www.maybach.de/images/193_1.jpg
http://www.allsportauto.com/photoautre5/voisin/c28/1936_avion_voisin_C28_aerosport_07_m.jpg (rear)

sutton4481
10-16-2004, 10:38 AM
Chrysler also made some attempts at making their early cars more streamlined for better economy and top end. The Airflow debuted in 1934 but failed due to unconventional styling and reliability issues.

More info- http://www.autohistories.com/chrysler-airflow/

TIM
10-16-2004, 11:23 AM
Officially the Airflow is always mentionned as the first production car with a streamlined body. Carl Breer worked with airplane designers and even with Paul Jaray to achieve the aerodynamics. I wonder, though why the airflow still had FENDERS (maybe, because then nobody at all would have bought the car in those days, right?)
The overall shape reappeared on the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr, a car I personally like very much with that sharp edge radiator and the teardrop lights, an instant success. It's really art déco at it's best. (OK now everybody will tell me and what about Figoni Falschi, etc.? Well, that's a piece of art. But it is more decorative streamlining.)

I think the Tatra was the second production streamlined car that came out in 1934 also. That's the car with the fin that was produced in several versions until 1950. I like it a lot too.

Before the Airflow and the Tatra there was the Rumpler-Tropfenwagen though that had the shape of a teardrop when you looked at it from the top. Two cars still exist today, one in Munich (Deutsches Museum, Verkehrszentrum) and one in Berlin (Technikmuseum)

Here are two articles with pictures:
http://www.classic-car-revue.de/deutsch/fahrzeuge/rumpler/rumpler_tropfenwagen.htm
in English:
http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/5756/rumpler.html

Esperante
10-16-2004, 05:24 PM
Ha! I remember a few years back I went down to the Third Ward of milwaukee to the Esiner advertising museum-the special exibhit was cars. The airflows original ad campaign featured it rolling off a 100 foot cliff, then someone got in and drove it away. Then i told all my friends and they wer like 'why don't they make ALL cars invincible?' I didn't have time to save their stupid souls.

tallguynate
10-17-2004, 12:25 AM
Very interesting article on the Maybachs. Does anyone know if these cars still exist intact?

drakkie
10-17-2004, 12:57 AM
This thread is VERY interesting.I saw one version of the Tatra at a concours,it absolutely looks fabulous!!!

Click here (http://www.team.net/www/ktud/Tatra_history_auto3.html)
or here (http://www.team.net/www/ktud/Tatra_photos.html) for pictures
even more pics here (http://www.tatraklub.sk/t87.htm)
Some info and pics of a T87 prototype here (http://www.tatraclub.at/HL_87proto.htm)
this is a good link (http://www.die-neue-sammlung.de/muenchen/sam/fahrzeug/b0001_5e.htm) too

i'd say enjoy the links!!!i also added a pic of the car i saw at the concours.sorry for the quality of the pic, but its a scanned "normal "pic

TIM
10-17-2004, 08:40 AM
Very interesting article on the Maybachs. Does anyone know if these cars still exist intact?

I have to go to the library this week anyway so I'll look it up for you. As far as I remember, most of these cars got lost lost during WWII. Either they got destroyed by bombing or got lost after the war. Sometimes soldiers brought them home as war trophies. Some showed up, others never reappeared. These are the two best books on streamlining I found in the library:

R. J. F. Kieselbach, Stromlinienautos in Deutschland. Aerodynamik im PKW-Bau 1900-1945, Stuttgart 1982

R. J. F. Kieselbach, Stromlinienautos in Europa und den USA. Aerodynamik im PKW-Bau 1900-1945, Stuttgart 1982

Both books are in German AND English. The Photo-material if fabulous, mostly historic photos, black and white.

The Rumpler Tropfen-Wagen at the Berlin Technik-Museum is an example for a streamlined car from 1921 that was brought to the US by American military personell. It was in the US for a long time and returned to Germany in 1988, which I think was a very nice gesture. Here in the Deutsches Museum in Munich we have the second still-existing Rumpler-Wagen from 1921. This car even has flat covers on the wheels to improve streamlining.
Here's the Rumpler in the Deutsches Museum

http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstell/meister/tropf.htm

TIM
10-17-2004, 09:02 AM
[QUOTE=drakkie]This thread is VERY interesting.I saw one version of the Tatra at a concours,it absolutely looks fabulous!!!


this is a good link (http://www.die-neue-sammlung.de/muenchen/sam/fahrzeug/b0001_5e.htm) too

The link you are quoting hereis from the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. They have this fabulous silver Tatra 87 from 1937 in the center of their showroom about streamlined cars. It's worth seeing. Maybe you can stop by on your way to Italy. On Sundays it's free. They also have a streamlined Adler, an early 50s Beetle, an early Porsche 911 (plus other cars of that period) and they often have special exhibitions. The last one was on Lambo. They had about a dozen Lambos on display, quite unusual!!! There was even a designer at work you could ask questions about his work.

henk4
10-17-2004, 10:06 AM
from the same occasion as Drakkie's picture, some more of the Tatra

TIM
10-17-2004, 03:15 PM
I am impressed with all your nice photos! Thanks!

tallguynate
10-17-2004, 05:28 PM
Thank you for all of the information TIM. I look forward to seeing what you can find at the library. I will go there myself as well and check.

TIM
10-19-2004, 03:22 PM
Here' another Tatra pic:

http://199.239.248.45//images/full/1999/s99080805/ta42t801.jpg

TIM
10-21-2004, 10:34 AM
I just found out that this Maybach with Jaray-style body was meant to become a police car for the German Autobahn-Polizei. What a nice police car this would have made:

BZ-Archiv - BZ-Ferientipp: „Pioniere des industriellen Designs am Bodensee“ im Zeppelin Museum

http://www.bz-lindau.de/bz_kw31-03/maybach_typ-sw35.jpg

(Foto: Gestaltung „Made am Bodensee“ – der Maybach Typ SW 35, Stromlinienkarosserie nach Ideen von Paul Jaray, 1935, vorgesehen als Dienstwagen für die Autobahnpolizei - Bild: MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH)

Zeitloses Design auch ohne Designer

Was heute ganz selbstver-ständlich ist, war noch vor 100 Jahren etwas ausge-sprochen Exotisches: Den Beruf des Industrie-Desig-ners gab es schlichtwegs nicht – Design vom Zeppelin bis zum Auto dagegen schon. Unter dem Titel „Pioniere des industriellen Designs am Bodensee“ gibt es im Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen eine sehenswerte Ausstellung.

Natürlich haben sich Konstrukteure, Ingenieure, Architekten und Menschen vieler anderer Berufsstände schon vor Generationen Gedanken darüber gemacht, wie Autos, Flugzeuge und Gegenstände des täglichen Gebrauchs nicht nur einfach zu handhaben, sondern auch schön anzusehen sind. Doch der Beruf des Gestalters konnte erst nach dem 2. Weltkrieg an der Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm erlernt werden. Den „Pionieren des industriellen Designs am Bodensee“ ist jetzt eine Ausstellung im Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen gewidmet.

Nach Angaben von Museumsdirektor Dr. Wolfgang Meighörner sind von der Idee bis zur Realisierung der Ausstellung fast sechs Jahre vergangen. „Wir haben schnell gemerkt, dass das Thema Industriedesign in den bisherigen Forschungsarbeiten kaum eine Rolle gespielt hatte“. Klar war auch, dass man am Bodensee und besonders in Friedrichshafen die Themen Industrie und Design mit weltbekannten Erfindungen wie dem Zeppelin, dem Maybach-Automobilbau und den Dornier-Flugzeugen in Verbindung bringen würde. So widmet sich die Ausstellung auch den Erfindungen des 19. Jahr-hunderts beginnend vom Schiffbau über den Zeppelin, den berühmten Wasserflug-zeugen, Automobilen und den Getrieben und Motoren von ZF aus der Sicht der damaligen Gestalter.

Zu sehen gibt es neben zahlreichen Entwürfen, Skizzen und Modellen auch Original-steuerräder aus dem Zeppelin Nr. 1 und dem letzten mit der Seriennummer 130, einen traumhaften Maybach und vieles mehr. Die mit viel Liebe für’s Detail gestaltete Aus-stellung ist sicherlich nicht nur für Technikbegeisterte ein Muss, sondern auch für all jene Besucher interessant, die sich davon überzeugen wollen, dass es bereits vor mehr als 100 Jahren herausragende Designer gegeben hat, auch wenn es für sie damals noch gar keine Berufsbezeichnung gab.

SH

TIM
02-08-2005, 11:19 AM
Sorry guys to have you left waiting so long for this information.
I promised someone on the thread to look up if any of the cars were built; none came into serial production (unfortunately :( )

BUT: One car was sold to the boxer legend MAX SCHMELING who died a few days ago aged 99. It was then that I remembered my promise here on this forum. Schmeling owned this car of which I believe 3 were exhibited. He bought the prototype right from the exhibit:

http://www.lindau-portal.de/bz_kw31-03/maybach_typ-sw35.jpg

None of the cars survived WWII.
I took all information from this book which is written both in German and English:

R. J. F. Kieselbach, Stromlinienautos in Deutschland. Aerodynamik im PKW-Bau 1900-1945, Stuttgart 1982

Manik
02-09-2005, 07:33 PM
Wow is that ever a classic car, i think it's amazing.

tallguynate
03-04-2005, 04:39 PM
Thanks for that update Tim.

TIM
03-07-2005, 03:42 PM
You are welcome! :)